The holiday season is around the corner, and restaurants around the country are working hard to craft unique and elevated cocktails and mocktails for the season.
What should be on beverage menus this holiday season? Bar & Restaurant News spoke with Cole Johnson, beverage manager at Disney Springs’ The Edison, Enzo’s Hideaway, Maria & Enzos, and Pizza Ponte, owned and operated by Patina Restaurant Group, to find out what's trending in flavors and presentation.
Bar & Restaurant News: How can bars/restaurants best prepare their menus for the upcoming holiday season?
Cole Johnson: Begin early, as consumers expect specialty offerings to hit menus right after Halloween. Our holiday cocktails at Enzo’s Hideaway, Morimoto Asia, and The Edison are all debuting Nov. 1.
As you plan, try to remember who your clientele is and the theme of the restaurant. You want to feature holiday flavors but still have it be cohesive to the overall restaurant and story you are telling. Our cocktails at Morimoto Asia, for example, always have some Pan-Asian influence.
What trends are you noticing this year in holiday cocktails and mocktails?
Zero-proof drinks are actually a huge trend themselves. More and more restaurants are recognizing people are staying dry for a variety of reasons and want to cater to that. Another trend is gaining a depth of flavor without overly complicating a cocktail recipe. At our restaurants, we frequently use infused-alcohols in recipes for example, to help achieve this.
What is your approach to crafting seasonal cocktails and mocktails for the holiday season? Can you share some key elements or flavors that define holiday drinks?
Classic holiday flavors include anything you would connect to enjoying around the winter holiday season. This can include gingerbread, cinnamon, peppermint, cherry, salted caramel, apples, spiced pear, and more. It’s great to start with a staple classic, like an espresso martini, and then add in something that works to integrate that holiday flavor profile, like using peppermint-infused vodka.
For mocktails, what are some ways to achieve the complexity and depth of flavor typically found in cocktails?
While simple zero-proof recipes certainly have their place, there are so many diverse and unique non-alcoholic ingredients out there. Don’t approach a non-alcoholic drink much different than you would a cocktail – focus on flavor and presentation.
Morimoto Asia’s holiday ‘Pearadise Tea,’ for example, includes Monin pear, Monin desert pear, green tea, lime juice, and simple syrup, and it has a brilliant red to yellow color gradient. Our goal with zero-proof is to put as much time and care into crafting them as their alcoholic counterparts. You never want them to feel like an afterthought.
What roles do presentation and garnishes play in the overall experience of a holiday cocktail or mocktail?
Presentation and garnishes are such an important element. We live in a social media world, and people enjoy a drink first with their eyes (and cameras!).
Sometimes, a garnish or presentation can be the most important element of the theming. For Halloween at The Edison for example, our ‘Blood Donor’ cocktail is served in a blood bag, which makes it so much fun for the guests.
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