Bartender, There’s Food in My Drink! A Look at the Trend Toward Savory Cocktails

From chicken fat to okra, bartenders are taking pages from recipe books of the chefs they work with

James Bolt, owner of The Gin Joint in Charleston, S.C., based the King Coco cocktail on a dish he’d tried of curry-dusted, charred okra with a yogurt dipping sauce. Courtesy of The Gin Joint

The traditional formula for achieving balance in a cocktail involves four elements: strong, sweet, sour, and bitter (or weak, in the case of punch). As well as it works, it has its obvious limitations for bartenders bent on advancing their craft. What about salt, or spice, or umami components? If they matter on the plate, why not in the glass?   

In recent years, beverage pros have begun to take more and more pages from the recipe books of the chefs they work with, in search of answers to those questions.

Flavors From the Kitchen

According to Danny Villa, head bartender of contemporary Asian hot spot KYU in Miami, sourcing from the kitchen makes all kinds of sense. Not only is it more efficient, allowing the culinary and bar teams to “cross-utilize some ingredients, coordinate on orders together, and reduce waste,” but it also makes pairing easier: “We don’t have to worry about a drink burying the flavors of a dish,” he explains, when each complements the other.