A SPIRITED SOLUTION

HOW GIN & TONIC HELPED SHAPE DISCUSSIONS FOR A NEW HOME ON MISSION BAY IN SAN DIEGO.

- BY J. MICHAEL WELTON

Developer Chris Loughridge built his new house on a small lot. It takes advantage of its site by opening up to boardwalk and beach.

Sure, the Gin & Tonic may have saved "more Englishmen's lives and minds than all the doctors in the Empire," as Winston Churchill once said.

But more recently, it played a key role in negotiating a San Diego property for real estate developer Chris Loughridge. Despite its zesty bite.

Above: Architect Taal Safdie created places where people can hang out and enjoy themselves on the water. Below: The house faces left with a large overhang hovering inside and out.

Its tonic may taste bitter, but that's from the quinine contained in the 18th-century, antimalarial cocktail. And with a simple twist of lemon or lime, the G & T packs a double whammy: Its tangy dose of Vitamin C staves off scurvy too.

A few years back, though, when Loughridge was working on that 21st-century real estate deal in San Diego, the G & T had been elevated well beyond the realm of medicine.

It had made its great leap onto the social stage. Once it was established as an effective tool in British medical kits, it debuted as a star on the highball circuit. It made its way west to the U.S. in the 20th century-and still holds its own as the go-to drink for warmer months. When seersuckers and summer shoes splash coast to coast across the nation after Memorial Day, the ubiquitous G & T fizzes from Maine to Miami.

No surprise, then, that when Loughridge began courting the owner of a pie-shaped piece of property facing unobstructed, 180-degree views of San Diego's Mission Bay, the drink was part of their ritual.