The cocktail landscape is on fire. While the speakeasy resurgence continues to send booze connoisseurs into dark, moody spaces to brood over Prohibition Era sidecars and gin rickeys, other post-Covid drinking destinations are looking decidedly lighter, brighter and more like a party—even for teetotalers.
Bartenders are bringing seasonal herbs and produce to their creations, making syrups and cold-pressing juices as part of service, and they’re having fun with the names of the concoctions they dream up. (Case in point: There’s Always Money in the Banana Stand, a tiki-style quaff at the recently opened Makers Union pub in National Landing that references the sitcom Arrested Development, as well as Amazon’s much-ballyhooed free banana stand in Metropolitan Park.)
Brown liquors arguably remain king of the glass, but these days the whiskeys on offer may have roots in Japan, India or Virginia, and not just Kentucky. Tequila and its smoky sibling, mezcal, are finding their way into creative quenchers with nary a lime or salt rim in sight. And some of the most popular drinks served in highball glasses contain no alcohol at all. Pull up a barstool and explore the latest trends in liquid cuisine.
Chef-y Recipes
Today’s cocktails are a marriage of bar and kitchen. At Surreal in National Landing, beverage director Carlos Boada has created signature libations with complex flavors designed to complement chef Enrique Limardo’s globally influenced food menu. Some drinks involve up to a dozen ingredients, including mixers and seasonings prepared daily—like lemons fermented with spices, which are then dehydrated and grated to top off drinks such as Cherry Whispers in Time, Boada’s variation of a Negroni sour.
For the Time-Traveler’s Tipple, Surreal’s take on the old-fashioned, Boada embraces his favorite childhood cereal, steeping Legent bourbon in cornflakes and house-made granola for about 30 hours before it is strained and poured over ice with aromatic bitters.
Anthony Sankar, general manager and co-owner of Spice Kraft Indian Bistro in Clarendon and Del Ray, is a bartender by training. But like a good chef, he is hardwired to avoid food waste in the same way that a resourceful toque will parlay butchered bones into stock, and stale bread into croutons. Rather than dumping the blueberry puree that is a byproduct of the house-made blueberry syrup in Spice Kraft’s gin-based Chutney Berry-Licious martini, he repurposes it into a fruit leather for a snazzy garnish on other drinks.
At Salt, a Best of Arlington-winning cocktail bar in Rosslyn, the beverage staff have commandeered the sous-vide machine—a culinary tool once known only to high-end chefs—to create infusions such as the Del Maguey mezcal infused with charred pineapple that serves as the backbone for the bar’s signature Mo Fi-Ya cocktail.
Bartending as Theater
Speaking of Salt’s Mo Fi-Ya cocktail—its creation is a spectacle. To assemble the sultry drink, the bartender lights green Chartreuse on fire, shakes cinnamon on top of the flame and then extinguishes the blaze by dousing it with Cointreau, spiced honey and fresh lime. The mixology itself is performance art.
“We focus so much on the guest experience that the drinks have to deliver,” says Paul Williams, beverage program director for Salt’s parent company, Metropolitan Hospitality Group, whose restaurant concepts also include Circa, Open Road and Trio Grill.
Gone are the days when garnishes were limited to sliced lemons, limes, olives and jarred maraschino cherries. Now the accoutrements include everything from dehydrated citrus wheels to edible flowers, and blowtorches and smoking cloches are popular tools.
At SER in Ballston, colorful trays of fresh fruit are frozen into pretty ice cubes that turn the Spanish restaurant’s popular sangria—made with proprietor Javier Candon’s house-infused brandy—into works of art. The ice cube is presented in an empty glass, and the server pours the sangria over it with finesse (applause welcome).
Specialty Spirits
“When [people] go out they want something they can’t get at home,” says Nick Farrell, spirits manager for Neighborhood Restaurant Group, whose properties include B Side in the Mosaic District, Evening Star in Alexandria and Iron Gate in D.C., among others. The expectation is something more elevated than the standard G&T or bourbon and ginger they can easily make on their own.
Though restaurants in the commonwealth can only buy hard liquor from the Virginia Alcoholic Beverage Control Authority (ABC), which limits the availability of certain spirits, beverage directors are hustling to distinguish their offerings within that framework.
Greg DeFlorio, who oversees the bar program at Ballston Local, regularly submits lottery entries for rare whiskeys—a habit that has made his bar a destination for enthusiasts seeking the newest small batch release of, say, Basil Hayden Dark Rye or Blanton’s single barrel bourbon.
Spice Kraft goes the extra mile to stock three special-ordered Indian spirits, including Indri Whisky, which has garnered global awards.
The oval bar at Wren, an upscale izakaya tucked inside the 11th-floor lobby of the Watermark Hotel in Tysons, boasts dozens of American and Japanese whiskeys, courtesy of cultivated relationships with Suntory, maker of Hibiki and Yamazaki whisky, as well as the cult Legent’s collaboration with Jim Beam. (Discerning aficionados should take time to peruse the restaurant’s leather-bound bottle guide and ask the bar staff about their selection of “off book” spirits.) Watch for a classic martini cart to roll into Wren’s dining room later in 2024.
Agave Rising
Tequila—smoky mezcal in particular—is having a moment, finding its way into quaffs that extend far beyond the standard-bearing margaritas at Mexican cantinas. At Nue, an elegant destination for Viet cuisine in Falls Church’s Founders Row, the two agave spirits join forces in one of the Elemental Dragon cocktails designed in celebration of this year’s zodiac sign. The Fire Dragon, made with mezcal, silver tequila, pomegranate and prickly pear juice, comes adorned with a miniature red envelope, evoking the Vietnamese “Li xi” tradition of giving money to children for luck in the new year. The envelope is set aflame upon being served. (Pyromania is clearly a bar trend, so watch your hair.)
Wren blends its house-infused strawberry mezcal with Cynar, an Italian amaro whose bitterness comes from artichokes, plus herbaceous St-Germain elderflower liqueur and coffee bitters for a bracing elixir called Arsenic and Old Lace.
At Ellie Bird, Yuan and Carey Tang’s acclaimed newcomer to the City of Falls Church (the couple also owns Michelin-starred Rooster & Owl in D.C.), Del Maguey mezcal gets an Asian twist, joining gochujang, grapefruit and rice wine vinegar in a heady potion called Spice Up Your Life.
Hold the Alcohol
Most restaurants and bars now offer low- or zero-proof cocktails, but they’re more than dressed-up Shirley Temples. These drinkable and drivable beverages are often priced on par with alcoholic drinks, and for good reason. The ingredients—including zero-proof spirits that omit the booze but maintain their flavor profile with higher concentrations of botanicals—are artisanal. And bartenders aren’t skimping on quality or time to make these drinks just as pleasing as their fully leaded brethren.
The sweetness of the mango puree in Spice Kraft’s Zero Proof Mango Mule is a nice counterbalance to some of the menu’s more fiery dishes. SER’s nonalcoholic but no less chichi Major Negroni is composed of Ritual zero-proof whiskey, turmeric and orange, and finished with cinnamon smoke.
At Yayla Bistro, a Turkish Mediterranean restaurant in Arlington’s East Falls Church neighborhood, the introduction of mocktails such as a passion fruit mule, a virgin raspberry mojito and a signature sweet tea with muddled mint helped boost beverage sales to record levels post-pandemic, according to co-owner Mutlu Kaya.
Behold the Zeitgeist
Love it or hate it, social media is fueling cocktail trends in the same way that the hit TV show Sex and the City made cosmopolitans all the rage in the late ’90s. The espresso martini has roared back as a popular order of late, thanks to Instagram and TikTok influencers touting its sweet and buzzy blend of caffeine, sugar and booze.
Ballston Local uses Philadelphia-based La Colombe brewed espresso to make a syrup with a touch of cinnamon for its rendition of this intoxicating dessert in a glass. At Nue, the cold brew-based Cà Phê (Vietnamese coffee) martini gets honey, vanilla and anise notes from Galliano liqueur.
Though some barkeeps privately cringe at whatever the fad du jour may be, they still keep tabs on trending hashtags (and stock their bars accordingly) so as not to be thrown off when a crowd comes in and everyone requests a round of Negroni Sbagliatos (a summery quencher made with Campari, sweet vermouth and sparkling wine).
“We were ready with sweet vermouth and Aperol” when [that trend] went viral in 2023, says Neighborhood Restaurant Group spirits manager Farrell. “We didn’t put it on the menu, but we were ready to be a part of it.”
Some upscale watering holes workshop ideas for new cocktails as a team. The bartenders at Salt submit menu ideas to management and everyone discusses what will be added next. Salt’s mixologists also keep things fresh and experimental with a weekly creation called I’m the Captain Now (“Captain” for short) that is essentially the bar equivalent of a chef’s special—a great way to test-market a new recipe.
The cocktail menu is also a fun way for a restaurant to build rapport with its regulars. SER’s Conference Room 1, a pisco-based libation made with muddled raspberries, is a nod to its corporate neighbors who occupy the upper floors of the same building. The name of the drink is code for the restaurant itself, a term coined by workers who need a stiff one after a long day at the office.
Drink Local
Some bars, in an effort to differentiate themselves, tout rare spirits and exotic ingredients from around the globe. Others are embracing the locavore movement and appealing to imbibers to support local and regional producers. Last year, Metropolitan Hospitality Group opened its own distillery in Reston, where it makes the Open Road gin, rye, bourbon and vodka served in its restaurants. (When you control your sourcing, you also control the flavor profile from the start.)
One of B Side’s more popular cocktails, the Corduroy Spritz, combines Troddenvale Forager Cider from Warm Springs, Virginia, with Aperol, cherry cordial and red vermouth.
Surreal stocks Catoctin Creek Watershed gin, made in Purcellville, and uses a Virginia maple syrup in Maple Dreams, a house take on the espresso martini.
Want a nightcap? You can order the drink to go and take a walk around National Landing’s Water Park—one of the many designated “sip and stroll” zones throughout Northern Virginia that now allow drinkers of legal age to roam shopping and entertainment districts with alcoholic beverages in tow.
Jessica Strelitz is a Falls Church-based writer focused on food, drinks and travel. Find her at @jstrelitz on Instagram and jessicastrelitz.com.