BELOVED BAY AREA BARTENDER STEVEN LILES, AN ANCHOR OF SMUGGLER’S COVE, DIES AT 65

Steven Liles Simmons, a bartender with more than 30 years in the bar and cocktail industry including 13 years behind the stick at Hayes Valley’s legendary tiki bar Smuggler’s Cove, died at the end of April 2024 of natural causes. He was 65.

Born in Compton, California, Liles began his mixology career at 30 when he shifted from the coffee scene in Santa Rosa to bartending. Known for his long career in the tiki world, Liles was a dry martini man, according to Imbibe Magazine’s Paul Clarke. He was also a history buff, getting into the world of cocktails thanks to a deep dive into California’s Prohibition years. After trying out his bartending skills with friends at his Sonoma County home, he decided to give it a go for real.

He started in the San Francisco bar world at Fisherman’s Grotto on Fisherman’s Wharf. But his career spanned the whole city: He worked at Crustacean from 1999 to 2004, then Boulevard, Presidio Social Club, Orbit Room, and the now-closed Carta. He took up residence at Smuggler’s Cove six months after the bar opened in 2010. In an Instagram post, representatives for Smuggler’s Cove recall Liles saying: “I’m just a worker, and happily so.”

Smuggler’s Cove owner Martin Cate says Liles became well-recognized for his jaunty hat, which Liles told Imbibe became a habit as a teen and followed him all his life. Cate met Liles in the early 2000s through the then-new United States Bartenders Guild (BTG). The early days of that organization were perfect for Liles, Cate says. It was about unpacking recipes and geeking out on cocktail books. “He exuded the notion of a great classic bartender’” Cate says. “Steve was all about service. He was warm, he would remember you, remember your drink.”

Throughout his career, he became known for his style and sense of humor, as well as for being “an anchor in the space”; he lived just three blocks away from Smuggler’s Cove. Liles was an international representative for the bar, too, popping up on behalf of the business in Barbados. “He was the guy,” Cate says. “He was the guy I could always count on. And you can’t stress enough how much he loved San Francisco.”

Alexis Doctolero, a founding member at Liquor.com, became fast friends with Liles when they were both working at Cask. A deep friendship evolved, and Liles became more like family to Doctolero and her partner Jacques Bezuidenhout — another prominent bartender in the city — the three of them crisscrossing the city drinking gin martinis at Gold Coast, Zam Zam, and Tadich Grill. The three went on to spend the last 12 Christmases together. “Eventually Liles would just be over,” Doctolero says. “He was an incredibly deep and empathetic person. He was interested and interesting at the same time.”

Liles was as heavily involved in all his hobbies as he was in drinks. A member of SF Jazz, he was also known to spend his time exploring SF MoMA and staring lovingly at The Butler’s in Love hanging at Bix. Moreover, Doctolero points out that many young drinkers encountered him as a tiki wiz thanks to his time at Smuggler’s Cove, but that was just one facet of his many-faced love of cocktails.

Lou Bustamante, a longtime Bay Area bartender and cocktail writer, met Liles while he was working at Boulevard in the late aughts. They were both members of the San Francisco chapter of the BTG, and Bustamante says Liles’s humility and skill were remarkable. “He was so welcoming, so talented,” Bustamante says. “There was an era when people were trying to find fame and become brand ambassadors. He was so much about the craft, the people, and never, ever gave a shit about fame.”

The first time he saw Liles at Smuggler’s Cove he remembers the bartender turned him on to a Port Au Prince cocktail, which, at the time, incorporated a number of Haitian ingredients to support the country’s ongoing political turmoil. Bustamante remembers that kind of ethic as a hallmark of Liles’s personality. He once hosted a slapdash birthday party at the now-closed Jasper’s, and Liles was one of three people who showed up. “That was the kind of person Steve was,” Bustamante says. “‘Hey Lou’s in town, I’ll meet up and get a drink.’ He was always there. He’ll leave a big hole in San Francisco.”

Kevin Diedrich, owner of Pacific Cocktail Haven and Kona’s Street Market, says he, too, met Liles while the legend was bartending at Boulevard. Diedrich would come in each Thursday with his friends so they could study how Liles ran the bar, seamlessly mixing drinks while making each guest feel like they were the only person in the room. They further got to know each other while Diedrich was the president of the local BTG chapter and Liles the vice president. “I was just trying to get into the scene,” Diedrich says of that time. “If there’s anything I’ll remember about him, it’s that he was a bartender’s bartender. He just wanted to do the work.”

Liles was a fan of walking, and the two would go out for martinis and stroll through the city by night. He loved the city, Diedrich says, even while other people found it stylish to knock on the scene or the Bay. Liles did things his own way, never showing up for praise but instead to work a bar as well as he could. He unapologetically loved Calvados and sherry, but the way he lived is what Diedrich says is the biggest part of his legacy. “He knew the true art of bartending,” Diedrich says. “He always supported bartenders in this city. I love Steven for that.”

An invite-only celebration of life for Liles will take place on June 5.

2024-05-09T18:01:05Z dg43tfdfdgfd