Sara Justice, head bartender at The Franklin Bar in Philadelphia, recently introduced a five-course cocktail tasting menu. Justice, 26, a native of Lancaster, PA, was recently named one of Food & Wine magazine’s Best New Mixologists.
Designed like a chef’s tasting menu, the cocktail offering builds in complexity as it progresses. The first installment of the program, “Dutch County Memories,” draws on Justice’s Pennsylvania Dutch heritage.
The menu, which also includes two supplemental libations, kicks off with a starter called the Schnitz & Sherry, made with apple schnitz and sherry. The first cocktail course is the Birch Beer, made with navy strength gin, birch, licorice and fresh lime served with club soda.
Next up is the Plum Pudding, made with rum, toasted milk, plum butter and allspice and served up, followed by the Night Sledding, made with rye whiskey, pine and menthol, served up. The fourth course is called …Roasting on an Open Fire, made with smoked bourbon and chestnut praline and served on the rocks.
After a refresher called Buttermints & Soda (made with buttermints candy), the final course is the Shoo Fly Pie, a cocktail made with molasses, port, cognac and whipped oat milk, served up.
The Franklin Bar’s cocktail tasting experience is priced at $65 per person, excluding tax and gratuity. Justice will feature a new tasting menu every few months that will be inspired seasonally, centering on a familiar cuisine, place or culture.