Flavor - Savory Cocktails

SAVORY SIPS

At last summer’s Tales of the Cocktail industry event, an egg-white-topped Lavender and Cucumber Sour took center stage.

TALES OF THE COCKTAIL

Mixologists use fresh veggies, herbs and spicy touches from the kitchen to put a culinary spin on drinks

BEVERAGE TRENDS

BY JACK ROBERTIELLO

yogurt-based drink he called the t the recently opened Russian Tea Room. Another Copa d’Oro bar in savory concoction he created was Santa Monica, Calif., a gimlet with salsify puree. customers find one of the latest JoeDoe, a restaurant in New twists in the evolution of drink York City’s East Village, got some making: the market menu. recent press for a sweet-savory Arrayed before them and listed in cocktail recipe called The great detail on the menu are all Maryland Crab Boil, a blend of the fresh ingredients bar owner Old Bay Seasoning, lime, honey Vincenzo Marianella gathered and Siembra Azul tequila. that morning at a local farmers’ Mixologist Gina Chersevani’s market, much as chefs have been spring menu at PS 7 in doing for years. Washington, D.C., included Conspicuous among the usual Thai’s the Limit, essentially a fruits — strawberries, grapes, potable rendition of a spicy, Thai oranges and such — is a rainbow coconut curry with gin and ginger of herbs and vegetables: basil, liqueur. Recipes like these walk a thyme, rosemary, sage, parsley, fine line between food and drink, habenero peppers, wasabi, ginger, but mainly they sharpen the bell peppers, cucumbers, carrots. appetite, which cocktails are What happens with these farmmeant to do. fresh ingredients is quite culinary Copa d’Oro’s beverage menu lets diners choose from Santa Monica’s best farm-market “It’s important to create a taste in style. Customers pick a spirit goods to create savory, herb-laced cocktails. matrix on your drink menu, with by price, select a few fresh somewhere for everyone to go,” ingredients and watch as Copa says Chersevani. “Not everybody likes the same thing, so d’Oro’s bartenders custom-make their drink. why not create a menu that appeals to everyone? Spicy, “It’s the most popular part of our menu,” says Marianella, fruit, sweet, bitter — you can have all these flavors.” adding that many of the drinks are made with the most savory of available ingredients. HISTORICALLY SAVORY A SAVORY SPECTRUM There’s no lack of precedence for savory cocktails: Gin’s COPA D’ORO

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At many other bars and restaurants across the country, the cocktail renaissance is taking a distinctly savory turn, with mixologists employing ingredients and culinary techniques that expand the flavor options of mainstream drinking. “Working with savory ingredients treats people to an entirely different flavor spectrum they may not be used to,” says Jamie Boudreau, bar director for Seattle’s Tini Bigs and a spirit and cocktail consultant. “When I first started making cocktails, my inspiration was pastry books, but then I started looking at chefs and what flavors they make work together.” Bartenders who feature culinary cocktails return often to savory touches. Last winter, at Eastern Standard Kitchen & Drinks in Boston, Bar Manager Jackson Cannon created a roasted-beet, tarragon and Greek-

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botanical mix of juniper, citrus peel, cardamom and other aromatics makes it the savory go-to spirit in both traditional and modern mixology. The same sorts of flavorful components found their way into herb- and spice-infused vermouth. The two together gave us the sublime martini, and even if the 20th-century version differs from the original recipe, the drink’s crisp, herbaceous pungency is the pure definition of savory. Other drinks, such as the Bloody Mary and its relatives — the Bloody Caesar, made with clam broth, and the Bloody Bull, made with beef broth — have long maintained brunch-time appeal. In fact, as brunch becomes an affordable way to continue dining out while disposable income dwindles, signature Bloody Marys are coming on strong, with regional flavors, herb-infused

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BEVERAGE TRENDS

MARY GETS AROUND Signature versions (or entire menus) of Bloody Marys are a great starting point for savory cocktails, and regional variations abound. Plenty of places mix up the vodka flavors and spices, but why not use other vegetable juices, like carrot, cucumber or mixed greens, or try shifting the flavors seasonally?

> Star of the Sea Bloody Mary With cucumber-and-dill-infused vodka and a freshly shucked East Coast oyster — Buttermilk Channel, Brooklyn, N.Y.

> Wobble Stopper Bloody Mary A hint of porter fortifies this homemade Bloody Mary, made with a tomato-, corn- and black-bean-infused Svedka vodka, garnished with our house-smoked bacon and a salty black-bean-and-corn rim — The Fifty/50, Chicago

> Bayside Bloody Maria With Sauza Hornitos tequila, Major Peter’s Hot & Spicy Bloody Mary Mix, garnished with lime, celery and jalapeño-stuffed olive — Bayside, Newport Beach, Calif.

> The Bloody Gia House-infused hot-pepper vodka, spiked with a shot of Guinness, garnished with hot, pickled okra, sweet banana pepper, pepperoncini, stuffed Spanish olive, cipollini onion and a caperberry, rimmed with celery salt — Café Lily, Decatur, Ga.

> Hari Kari A Far East version with sake instead of vodka, plus wasabi and pickled ginger — The Heights, Washington D.C.

> Danish Bloody Mary Aquavit, fresh fennel and a marinated white anchovy — Prune, New York City

> Schnockered Bloody Mary With Plymouth gin and house-made pickled vegetables — The Hungry Cat, Hollywood and Santa Barbara, Calif.

vodkas and house-blended spice rubs for rimming (see sidebar, above). In the past few years, as bartenders have focused on reviving classic recipes, recreating bitters and exploring fresh ingredients, fruits and sweeter herbs like mint took center stage. Old savory drinks like the Negroni, made with gin, bitter Campari and sweet vermouth, reawakened the need for bracing flavors, and gradually, the occasional rosemary sprig and pickled-caperberry garnish gave way to sage or

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parsley muddles, vegetable purees and other kitchen inspirations. Chersevani, Marianella and others cite the kitchen as a prime mover in this trend, as bars in fine-dining restaurants have greater access to back-of-house ingredients and techniques; for Chersevani’s Thai-inspired drink, a food processor and chinoise are essential. Marianella learned his skills, among other places, at The Palace restaurant in Los Angeles, where he’d visit the kitchen for inspiration. One of those kitchen rambles, on behalf of a customer seeking something really different, yielded his mostintriguing cocktail: the citrusy, gin-based Sour Kraut, made with Dijon mustard and marmalade, which just happened to be shelved together. SAVORIES CATCH ON Marianella likes savory for the variety of flavors available, from parsley’s earthiness to cucumber’s fresh sweetness, but he warns against misuse. “You need to balance the flavors, whatever you use; that’s the most important thing,” he says. “You can’t just put a cucumber in a cocktail.” In the past two years, even chain-restaurant beverage execs have acknowledged the attraction of the garden flavors of cucumber, now a standard cocktail ingredient in many operations. “Working with cucumbers is fairly easy, and a pretty good selling point for those wary of vegetables in their drinks,” says Borys Saciuk, head bartender at restaurant Michael Mina in San Francisco. “Female customers seem to like the idea of cucumber in drinks, and its mild, slightly sweet and refreshing flavors are fun to work with.” In addition to using earthy herbs and vegetables, bartenders are incorporating such ingredients as vinegars, fruit-and-vinegar gastriques and fruit-vinegar shrubs to get a tangy flavor without the usual citrus. The latter two are especially popular with bartenders who prefer to use local produce throughout the year. Saciuk says that because in-season fruits can vary so dramatically in ripeness and flavor, he sometimes poaches a batch and reduces the remaining liquid with salt and spices to dash

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BEVERAGE TRENDS

into the glass with the fruit when muddling a drink — instant savory. More savory spirits, such as allspice dram (pepper-and-spice-infused rum) and malty Genever gin, have made something of a comeback as bartenders look for old ingredients to provide a modern punch. Even a bit of fire has worked its way into drinks; one of Boudreau’s more popular cocktails is the Rubicon, which calls for rosemary flamed with Chartreuse. SUBTLY SAVORY Savory touches need not be as dramatic as Marianella’s Sour Kraut. Saciuk finds subtle influences help nudge already-interesting recipes closer to the savory line in drinks such as the A-Pear-Tif, in which he spikes pear liqueur and Champagne with ginger and green Szechuan peppercorns and sometimes uses pickled ramps as a garnish. Working in the San Francisco cocktail scene, which already is associated closely with culinary trends, allows Saciuk greater latitude in creating savory options. Even the judicious use of salt can add a certain savory quality; a little salt “lifts and balances” the ginger syrup he makes, rounding out its flavor profile. At New York City’s Tabla, the Masala Mary, created by Executive Chef Floyd Cardoz, was designed to match the Indian-inspired cuisine with different levels of acidity, flavor and spice. The drink calls for a paste made from vegetables, coriander, red mustard seed, pepper and other spices; it’s combined with tomato juice and vodka and garnished with housepickled onions. Tabla’s Kachumber Kooler — a nod to kachumba chopped salads — combines muddled green chile, cucumber and cilantro with gin, lime juice and a dash of simple syrup. In this and in the Masala Mary, limited sweetness allows for greater depth of flavor. “We didn’t want these to be like those candied cocktails you often see; we wanted a savory feel and balance,” says Kevin Richer, service and beverage director at Tabla. The Cooler, a combination of tangy fresh cilantro, fiery chiles and cooling cucumbers, along with the bright acidity of lime, is a drink with layers of flavor.

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BUZZ-FREE FLAVOR Virgin Marys and sugary soft drinks are passé choices for today’s teetotalers. Bar menus now feature a range of savory flavors among their non-alcoholic selections, which include grown-up soda pops bubbling with juniper-berry, lemon-grass or gingerroot essence and herbal lemonades with muddles and garnishes of fresh basil, sage, rosemary or mint. Whether purchased from outside purveyors like GuS (Grown-up Soda) and the Dry Soda Co. or concocted in-house as signature soft drinks, buzz-free beverages are capturing the attention of mixologists and consumers alike. Carbonation, water and ready-made syrups are an easy recipe for creating beverages onsite for customers who eschew alcohol. But many bar chefs prefer to create their own nonalcoholic drinks with fresh herbs and vegetables. Such savories are a great way to keep the drink menu fresh with seasonal ingredients. Mocktails at Eastern Standard Kitchen & Bar in Boston include the Sophisticated Lady, with cranberry and cucumber; Stormy Monday, combining lime and bitters in ginger beer; and Alexander’s Delight, featuring textured cayenne and mocha. Pranna Restaurant in New York City offers a signature lemonade made with Calamansi honey, kaffir lime leaves, fresh-squeezed lemon juice and water as well as house-made Lemon-grass Thai Basil Soda. In Miami, Michael Schwartz at Michael’s Genuine Food & Drink menus homemade Cherry Rosemary Soda and a Ginger-Lemon-grass Ale. On the West Coast, specialty drinks at Seattle’s Café Flora include Rosemary Lemonade and Cringer (cranberry-ginger cider). Adult versions of the Shirley Temple just won’t cut it on the bar menu these days. If there’s no mixologist on premises, start with ready-made beverages or simple solutions like flavored seltzer with a splash of bitters and citrus or a glass of icy, gin-free tonic sporting a cucumber spear or spring of mint. Look to the season and the kitchen for other easy inspirations. — Linda Skinner

“Whenever we develop new drinks, we try to match our cuisine, with a balance and depth of flavors,” says Richer. DRINKING THE FAT For every gentle, savory touch in modern cocktailing, there’s an equally daring step into culinary, or even scientific, technique. Take “fat-washing,” which entails infusing the liquid fat from flavorful ingredients like bacon or foie gras into a spirit. You can’t get much more

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KATHY CASEY

BEVERAGE TRENDS

Mixologist Kathy Casey flavors simple syrup with coconut, mint, red pepper flakes and cilantro for a mojito that matches the tang of Thai foods.

savory than that, and the technique has caught fire in the past few years. For instance, in the Hudson, created for the biennial 2007 Sherry Cocktail Competition, Don Lee of New York City’s PDT infused bourbon with seared foie gras and mixed it with East India Solera Sherry and cherry syrup. In another meatmeets-drink example, Adam Seger of Chicago’s Nacional 27 infuses Spanish ham with cognac and adds fresh lemon juice and cinnamon-spiked honey to create the salty, smoky Ham and Cheese. Tini Bigs’ Boudreau has served drinks made with bacon-washed bourbon and amaro, but he’s taken fat washing beyond meat. His Carnival Car starts with buttered popcorn, infused into cognac. The rest of the drink is a twist on the classic sidecar, but instead of using a standard sweetener, he adds cotton candy to the glass, creating drinkable carnival fare. KITCHEN INTERACTION In drinks-only establishments, where these experiments tend to blossom, bartenders aren’t required to match what comes from the

TAK E -AWAY

T I P S

TAKE IT EASY: No need to be heavy-handed with

flavor; a splash of fruity vinegar, a dash of salt or a cucumber muddle is all it takes to up the savory quotient for basic drinks

kitchen. But at full-service restaurants, cocktail development makes the most sense when the kitchen is integrated. “For me, it’s always been about complementing the kitchen,” says Chersevani. Indeed, she looks to chefs like PS 7’s Peter Smith for help as well as inspiration. She recently pickled baby mangoes without any predetermined drink in mind, but Smith’s notion of serving them with vanilla sauce made her think of a sidecar tweaked with the pickled fruit and vanilla. “I wouldn’t have thought of it without working with him.” Because savory cocktailing expands the number of fresh ingredients a bartender needs to control, Chersevani recommends that those who want to expand their drink-making skills complete a stint in the kitchen. She also suggests that more thought be given to the bar’s mise en place. Advanced skills and careful planning were certainly in play when she froze lettuce-andtomato infusions into cubes to be served with gin in a bacon-rimmed glass for a drinkable BLT. Others suggest spending more time poring over cookbooks for inspiration. And, of course, tinkering with techniques like fatwashing call for more than a brief introduction to HACCP (hazard analysis of critical control points) standards. Boudreau warns that overly ambitious mixologists easily can take the wrong step when turning to the savory side. “When you’re working with savory herbs, you have to put a little more thought into your cocktail, or you can go awfully wrong awfully fast.” But, he points out, as long as there’s mounting competition to make one’s name in the increasingly star-driven bartending business, the drive to create something new and different means no ingredient is off-limits. Take the experts’ advice: Make friends with the kitchen, and mix with care.

HAIL MARY: The Bloody Mary is eminently adaptable

to many liquors and flavor additions; create a signature version to match your cuisine, switching out the usual vodka for sake, tequila, gin or another spirit that works with your menu GO HOME GROWN: Look to local farmers’ markets for savory fresh herbs and vegetables to inspire regional bar beverages; be sure to tout the producers on the drink menu

JACK ROBERTIELLO writes about spirits, cocktails, wine, beer and food from Brooklyn, N.Y.; he can be e-mailed at [email protected]. PLYMOUTH GIN

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