According to Nation’s Restaurant News, restaurant owners and bar specialists are coming up with new ways to integrate holiday cocktails into their drink menus this holiday season. Some drinks are going for easily recognizable holiday flavors, whereas others are taking the traditional and giving them some new flare.
Hot chocolate can easily be transformed from a cold weather drink for the whole family to an adult beverage, with the addition of liquor. Eggnog is also being amped up at restaurants and bars. While most would make it ahead of time in large batches, Bratislava Glisic, one of the principal bartenders at Employees Only in New York, makes single-serve eggnog.
Many restaurants and bars are featuring season or artisanal cocktails with other holiday-friendly flavors besides eggnog, peppermint and the like. Fleming’s prime Steakhouse and Wine Bar offers a twist on the traditional with its holiday cocktail the Merry Maker’s, which has bourbon in it.
“At Fleming’s, we decided to create a contemporary whiskey cocktail for the holidays. Something that is as cozy as a hot toddy, but drinks like a cool and sophisticated martini,” said Marian Jansen op de Haar, director of wine for Fleming’s.
At The Bar Downstairs in New York, the Velvet Spice is a regular drink on the menu which was not specifically designed for the holidays, but certainly fits in easily because of its flavor profile and the name itself.
“We’ve been selling more and more,” said bartender Fernando Sousa. “and maybe that’s a tribute to us being busier. But I definitely think the weather has something to do with those cocktails selling more. You can almost picture yourself enjoying a Velvet Spice by a fire.”
