THE NEXT time you visit your local farmers market or produce section, don't just think about salads. Think about cocktails.
The farm-to-bar movement, fostered at creative spots like Cyrus in Healdsburg, Calif., Restaurant Eve in Alexandria, Va., and the Clover Club in Brooklyn, N.Y., is taking hold in Philly. While classic cocktails will never die, more and more bars are serving up drinks powered by seasonal fruits, herbs and specialty elixirs.
And while it's fun to sample a bartender's best, you can save money by doing (almost) the same thing at home.
When he's chilling with friends on a summer evening, Rum Bar owner and chief mixologist Adam Kanter might mix up a batch of his signature daiquiris, the ultimate warm-weather refresher. Two of his favorites are the French daiquiri, featuring muddled strawberries and pineapple juice, and the fuzzy, which mixes mango and peach nectar, rum and fresh lime juice.
At last count, Kanter offered 142 different rums at his bar. Always tinkering with new flavor profiles, Kanter's been crazy about rum since he first visited the Caribbean. And whether he's mixing with Cruzan, a St. Croix rum that offers surprising smoothness for the price, or a top-shelf brand like EL Dorado, aged for 15 years in oak casks, Kanter uses whatever fresh, seasonal ingredients produce the best flavor.
Bistro St. Tropez chef/owner Patrice Rames is crazy about peaches right now. The way he sees it, he gets double the traction from the South Carolina peaches (Jersey fruit isn't quite ripe yet) he buys for the restaurant.
After blanching the fruit for two minutes to remove the skin, Rames dips it in ice water to stop the cooking process. Then he roasts the fruit, sprinkled with raw sugar, lemon thyme or mint and a little butter, in a 350-degree oven for 10 minutes.
"I use the peach for a dessert with caramel or vanilla ice cream, but I also puree it for cocktails," he said.
His current favorite libation is the Martinique, a shake of dark rum, fresh peach puree and simple syrup (a sweet syrup made by cooking 2 parts water and 1 part sugar until sugar is dissolved). Topped with champagne or sparkling wine, this drink tastes like summer.
Strawberries and rhubarb are heaven in a pie, but Tom Pittakas, beverage manager at Alison two in Fort Washington, also likes the combo in a fruity punch. Add fresh citrus juices and dark rum, and you have a real crowd-pleaser (leave out the rum for a nonalcoholic treat).
Pittakas works with a local farmer for seasonal cocktail ingredients that include herbs like lemon verbena and hyssop, both of which pair well with his favorite spirit, locally made Bluecoat gin.
"Think about the flavors you like in your food, and experiment with herbs like cilantro, mint and basil in your drinks," said Pittakas, who grew up in his family's diner business in North Wildwood, N.J.
Though he has worked in every aspect of restaurants, Pittakas really likes testing recipes and concocting drinks at the bar. At Alison two, he makes his own ginger beer, grenadine and bitters and infuses spirits with all kinds of aromatics.
Chances are, you won't be doing that at home, but keeping simple syrup in the fridge (it lasts forever) and thinking about fresh ingredients for making cocktails can set the stage for serious refreshment.
Sweet-tea vodka, a huge hit in the South but just catching on around here, is Alfa bartender George Donahue's current favorite ingredient. He uses it to make an amped-up version of traditional sweet iced tea, using 1 ounces of sweet-tea vodka, juice from half a lemon, a splash of simple syrup and a -ounce of St. Germain, an elderflower liqueur. Shake and pour in a tall glass over ice.
A shot of sweet-tea vodka also turns an unassuming Arnold Palmer — half iced tea, half lemonade — into a perfect and easy-to-make sundowner.
"Use citron vodka for an added taste of lemon," Donahue said.
Root, a new liqueur on the market that tastes like a high-test root beer, can be the ingredient for a grown-up version of the root beer float. At Rum Bar, Kanter shakes it with Cruzan rum crème and cola and pours it into a martini glass.
Pittakas goes a step further, mixing it with Stoli vanilla and adding three small scoops of ice cream to create a float you just can't get at A&W.
At Noble, the new restaurant on Sansom Street from Todd Rodgers and Bruno Pouget, the focus is on seasonality, both in the kitchen and at the bar. Rodgers, who manages the beverage program, creates a long list of cocktails using fresh ingredients, house-brewed ginger beer and cider and even homemade tonic.
His two best sellers are the French 75, a mix of gin, citrus and champagne, and the Ti Jean, made with ginger beer, rye, lemon juice and mint.
"The secret to getting added oomph from your mint is to smack it in the palm of your hand before you put it in the drink. That releases its natural oils," he said
There's a lot of variety if blender drinks are your preference.
"You can puree just about any fruit for a frozen drink," Pittakas said. "Just don't put too much ice in — a little bit goes a long way."
He likes to build an individual drink in the glass first, ingredients and ice, and then blend. "That way the proportions are perfect and you don't water down your drink." *