{"id":837,"date":"2017-09-01T15:14:55","date_gmt":"2017-09-01T21:14:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.steamboatsir.com\/blog\/?p=837"},"modified":"2017-09-01T15:14:55","modified_gmt":"2017-09-01T21:14:55","slug":"masters-of-the-craft-taking-farm-to-table-behind-the-bar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sothebysrealty.com\/steamboatsir\/blog\/2017\/09\/01\/masters-of-the-craft-taking-farm-to-table-behind-the-bar\/","title":{"rendered":"MASTERS OF THE CRAFT – TAKING “FARM TO TABLE” BEHIND THE BAR"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bolstered by the farm-to-table movement, craft cocktails give mixed drinks a major upgrade.<\/em><\/p>\n

Bourbon and duck fat? Egg whites and edible flowers?<\/p>\n

Believe it or not, these are the ingredients featured in some of Steamboat\u2019s finest craft cocktails, as bar menus around town are seeing the same farm-to-table concept that has been influencing chef\u2019s menus, only applied behind the bar.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s almost like you\u2019re a chef, but for drinks,\u2019 says Rena Day, Cocktail Curator at Low Country Kitchen in downtown Steamboat. \u201cEach drink should hit on bitter, sweet, salty, and sour, just like a well-balanced dish.\u201d<\/p>\n

Today, bartenders (also known as \u201cmixologists\u201d) have elevated the art of creating new cocktails from tossing a couple olives into a basic martini into a culinary art form that puts a flavor profile into a glass, like an amuse bouche<\/em> in every sip. And while most of these drinks are at least a nod to a classic cocktail, the goal is to use the freshest and best quality ingredients available as inspiration, the same as a local chef would do in the kitchen. \u201cI\u2019ve worked at places where they put all these exotic ingredients in their drinks but no one knows what they are or what they taste like,\u201d says Day. \u201cI like to make our drinks approachable, so they might be exotic but at least the guest knows what all the ingredients are.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Patrick Ayres, owner of the recently-opened Cloverdale Restaurant, craft cocktails are a natural extension for what he\u2019s doing at his farm-to-table restaurant. \u201cIn the kitchen we\u2019re using all these ingredients from our local Cloverdale Farm, so it\u2019s the same concept with what we\u2019re doing behind the bar,\u201d says Ayres. \u201cThe whole purpose is to have the freshest ingredients possible because that\u2019s what speaks to the quality.\u201d The bar menu is created with the same principle and approach as the restaurant menu. \u201cWe take the seasonal products that we grow and combine them with the best products available from around the world. It\u2019s very seasonal and changes every two weeks.\u201d<\/p>\n

Want to take a sip? Here are a few examples of the \u201ccraft\u201d:<\/p>\n

\"The
The “Bees Knees” at Cloverdale Restaurant<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

At Cloverdale Restaurant, The Bees Knees<\/em> is their most popular drink but it\u2019s also the manifestation of the restaurant\u2019s fresh-and-local philosophy. \u201cAt our farm we raise bees, so the honey comes directly from our them. Our honey has a very distinct flavor you\u2019re not going to find anywhere else,\u201d Ayres says. The drink is made from Mahon Gin, and then shaken with lemon and honey so there\u2019s a fine froth on top.<\/p>\n

\""The
“The Hudson” at Cloverdale Restaurant<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

For the more adventurous, The Hudson<\/em> features duck fat washed with bourbon. \u201cWe soak the bourbon with duck fat and it sits for three days,\u201d Ayres says. \u201cThen we freeze it and strain off the bourbon. Finally, it\u2019s combined with Maraschino liquor, which is a classic cherry liquor, dry vermouth and a bitter orange liquor called Amerpicon that comes from a boutique distillery in Golden, CO called Golden Moon. They don\u2019t even have distribution so we have to drive down there and pick up the bottles ourselves.\u201d Ayres says. The finished product \u201cdoes have duck flavor which is strange, but cool, and a little thickness that gives it more of a mouth feel.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"The
The “Devil Went Down to Georgia” at Low Country Kitchen<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

Low Country Kitchen is so passionate about their cocktail program that they produce a weekly 2-minute video segment for their Facebook page called \u201cMastering the Classics.\u201d Day has a passion for resurrecting classic cocktails, which often serves as inspiration for some of her more creative concoctions.\u00a0 One of the most popular is The Devil Went Down to Georgia<\/em>, which is, as Day describes, \u201cbasically a margarita, but with red bell pepper juice and pineapple instead of citrus.\u201d Bell pepper juice? Yup. \u201cI had a dream about it one night, so the very next day I tried to make it,\u201d Day recalls. There\u2019s also a little jalapeno and it is served with smoked pepper salt around the rim. Day is also proud of The Southern Belle<\/em>. \u201cIt\u2019s a really light, fluffy, egg white strawberry lime cranberry cocktail made with gin, strawberry, orange flower water, cranberry, egg white and lime. It is floral and sweet, and the gin brings in a nice piney flavor,\u201d says Day. \u201cTopped with orange flower water spray and an edible flower, she literally has a flower in her hair.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"The
The “Southern Belle” at Low Country Kitchen<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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Bolstered by the farm-to-table movement, craft cocktails give mixed drinks a major upgrade. Bourbon and duck fat? Egg whites and edible flowers? Believe it or not, these are the ingredients featured in some of Steamboat\u2019s finest craft cocktails, as bar menus around town are seeing the same farm-to-table concept that has been influencing chef\u2019s menus, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":64295786,"featured_media":857,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_wpcom_ai_launchpad_first_post":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"{title}\n\n{excerpt}\n\n{url}","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1379,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-837","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-cuisine","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pfNAsR-dv","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.sothebysrealty.com\/steamboatsir\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/CRW_0194.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sothebysrealty.com\/steamboatsir\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/837","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sothebysrealty.com\/steamboatsir\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sothebysrealty.com\/steamboatsir\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sothebysrealty.com\/steamboatsir\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/64295786"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sothebysrealty.com\/steamboatsir\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=837"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.sothebysrealty.com\/steamboatsir\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/837\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sothebysrealty.com\/steamboatsir\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/857"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sothebysrealty.com\/steamboatsir\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=837"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sothebysrealty.com\/steamboatsir\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=837"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sothebysrealty.com\/steamboatsir\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=837"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}