Theme Perks
“California produce is so widely available all the time that peaches and maybe berries and passionfruit are about the only things hard to get ahold of—we don’t really have a problem sourcing different fruits and vegetables,” says Peter Lloyd-Jones, who heads the bar team at The Raymond 1886 in Los Angeles.
The bar’s spring/summer menu offers a dozen drinks under the rubric “Tropical Tinctures and Botanical beverages,” with a lot of savory elements and Tiki influences combined.
“Tiki cocktails are big, and bartenders like them as well,” says Lloyd-Jones. “Tiki works really well in summer because of the spicy, sweet-and-sour flavor profiles in them are very refreshing—more so than the strong, stirred, Old-fashioned variations. In summer, the more shaken tropical style is what everyone wants.”
Some menus change based entirely on a theme. In San Diego, “chef de bar” Cory Alberto launched spring’s seasonal cocktail menu with a nautical theme at the U.S. Grant Hotel. Drinks included the East Indie Fizz (Carta Blanca rum, coconut, micro cilantro, pistachio and lime); Green-Go de Escondido (mezcal, maraschino, tajin, fresh cucumber, serrano juice and lemon); and the S.S. Monte Carlo (local Henebery whiskey, port, dry vermouth, Crème Yvette, coriander blossom, mascarpone cheese and blueberry).
Collaborative Efforts
The menu at The Raymond used to change with every season, but Lloyd-Jones found that four times a year was too onerous for the staff. “It became tough to curate so many cocktails in such a brief period of time; it was a constant R and D process,” he notes.
“We had some great cocktails, but those three years people were working on new menus all the time,” he adds. Now the fall/winter menu lasts five months, while the spring/summer goes seven.
When they do change, the staffers have developed a collaborative method to create the dozen or so all-new drinks. “We come together as a group and decide on a theme, sometimes based on ingredients, sometimes on a subject, and basing it around that,” Lloyd-Jones says.
“Then we go through screening process of all the drinks: They are all tasted by at least five of us and need approval by them before it can come forward,” he says.
Collaborative organization is fairly standard when making these sorts of changes. At the Blue Duck, planning for summer changes started in late May.
“We look at what’s selling, we revisit the drink and maybe rework it,” Alberto says.
The bartenders will suggest flavors they want to work with, then the team will start looking at spirits best to pair with them and with the season. “For example, we might have one strong rye cocktail in spring but not six,” says Bryan.
“Our clientele is business-heavy, and they enjoy traditional drinks like Manhattans and Martinis,” he adds. “So we always design a couple drinks around those to play to those drinking habits.”
At Sable, the summer switchover is not dramatic; working within the concept set in spring, the shift to summer ingredients and style drinks starts about six weeks out. The staff meets to discuss what they are seeing in other bars, possible new ideas, directions and ingredients.
“There are constantly new products being generated,” says Stanton says. “And whenever we see something like that—a base spirit or modifier we’re itching to use,” it may be incorporated into Sable’s drink program regardless of the season.
5 Tips for Seasonal Menus
The Hawthorne in Boston changes its drink menu even more often than with the four seasons. Bar manager Jared Sadoian shares a few tips on his inspiration for and execution of seasonal cocktails.
1) Listen to your chefs. They have a finger on the pulse of fresh fruits, vegetables and the like, and they’ll know what’s good and when. You’ll also have a better idea of what they’re planning to use in the kitchen.
2) Tap into vendors. Your gourmet and specialized food suppliers can also provide insight on culinary seasonality and give you some ideas for drinks. For example, one of our vendors, Specialty Foods Boston, will often send a newsletter attached to our invoices that lists out “fresh” or “new” items. These can be a good starting point when I’m creating a seasonally focused cocktail menu.
3) Try a gradual shift into seasons. All of the great fruits and vegetables that come onto the market don’t follow our traditional four seasons to a T. We are lucky at The Hawthorne to be able to change our menu more than four times a year, which allows a little bit more of an “ebb-and-flow” to the cocktails changing over time.
So instead of having to create seven new cocktails for one major “summer menu,” and potentially missing some key flavors of the summer just a few more weeks out, we can do one or two cocktails at a time. This gives our guests a reason to come back to sample new surprises throughout the season.
4) Extend seasonal flavors with shrubs. Drinking vinegars or shrubs are one of my favorite ways to preserve flavors and transport our guests to a different place.
Imagine fresh peaches—picked at the peak of ripeness in the summertime—packed with sugar and apple cider vinegar and turned into a beautiful, acidic and flavorful shrub. These shrubs can be used in the dead of winter, when the only “seasonality” we have in the northeast are root vegetables.
5) Balance your menu. Make sure your seasonal offering includes different styles of drinks. For instance, summer often brings to mind cold, shaken and citrus-driven refreshments, but an entire menu of these cocktails can become monotonous.
You might try adding in a stirred, flavorful yet low-ABV offering. Sherry is the best at this game: a crisp manzanilla or fino works great, and keeps the proof down so guests can have several.
Jack Robertiello is a spirits writer based in Brooklyn, NY.