Garden to Glass

Leading with fresh herbs and produce, farm-to-table cocktails are taking root in the local bar scene

The Rhupari and Sweet Beets
Photography by Ashley Meyer

The Rhupari and Sweet Beets cocktails, The Parched Pig

When The Parched Pig bar manager Katy Ziegler Galluccio wields a cocktail shaker, her creativity knows no bounds. A firm command over garden ingredients allows her to reinvent classics, like the Rhupari, a palatable play on a Negroni with strawberry-infused Waterloo Antique gin, rhubarb-infused Campari, Carpano Antica vermouth, and a trio of sassafras, orange, and aromatic bitters.  Her Sweet Beets—composed of Singani 63 brandy, beet and hibiscus tea syrup, lemon juice, orange blossom water, and egg white—will instantly convert brandy skeptics. “It’s similar to a pisco sour, but this brandy is from Bolivia instead of Peru, so it’s fruitier and more floral,” she explains. 

Lavender Martini
Lavender Martini, Sourbon Kitchen & Bar

Lavender Martini, Sourbon Kitchen & Bar

Scents hold the power to evoke vivid memories. For Vincent Toscano, the mixologist behind Sourbon Kitchen & Bar and its upstairs neighbor 215 Speakeasy, the smell of lavender brings him back to his mother’s garden in his native Toulouse, France. She mails him the herb from her garden, which Toscano then infuses in syrup for his popular lavender martini, made with vodka, dry vermouth, and lime-blueberry juice. Before the drink arrives at the bar, he torches a sprig and clips it to the rim to deliver a lingering scent with every sip.

Marigold and Rose
Marigold and Rose cocktails, Florie’s

Marigold and Rose cocktails, Florie’s

Lead mixologist Matt Dress at Florie’s inside the Four Seasons Resort Palm Beach concocts libations that explore botanicals. He expresses the nuances of Marigold by steeping the flower with Monkey 47 gin, Domaine de Canton ginger liqueur, cardamom, basil, and saffron tableside in a vacuum pot, a device typically used to brew coffee. “With ingredients from all over the world, it’s complex and exotic,” he says. His Rose cocktail joins charred shishito pepper–infused Casamigos mezcal with a grapefruit, Fresno pepper, and Champagne vinegar shrub and a rim dusted with dehydrated Fresno, serrano, and jalapeño peppers in an unexpected symmetry of citrus, spicy, and smoky notes. 

La Pomba
La Pomba, Driftwood

La Pomba, Driftwood

Driftwood aims to showcase hyperlocal ingredients on its food and drink menus. In La Pomba, lead bartender Olivia Graham riffs on a Paloma by mixing El Jimador tequila with white marsh grapefruit juice, lime, and a syrup made with pink Brazilian peppercorns, and garnishing with a peppercorn and black salt rim. “The grapefruit comes from a naturally occurring citrus farm near Sarasota, and it’s a little sweeter and milder than traditional grapefruit,” says Graham. “The peppercorns were harvested from the restaurant’s property. They’re an invasive species, and they give a little kick to this cocktail.” 

Roseberry
Roseberry, Farmer’s Table

Roseberry, Farmer’s Table

Imbibing comes with benefits at Farmer’s Table. Each cocktail features herbs from its on-site gardens and incorporates fruit and vegetable elixirs blended with health in mind, explains director of operations Sam Bonasso. His Roseberry tipple employs the antioxidant effects of the Essential elixir, with blackberries, raspberries, rosemary, aloe vera, beets, and more. The components commingle with Misunderstood ginger whiskey, elderflower liqueur, agave, lemon, and Champagne to strike a balance between sweet and subtly smoky.

Hibiscus Spiced Margarita, Elisabetta’s Ristorante

Hibiscus Spiced Margarita
Hibiscus Spiced Margarita, Elisabetta’s Ristorante

Hibiscus Spiced Margarita, Elisabetta’s Ristorante

Growing up in Portugal, Elisabetta’s beverage director Ervin Machado remembers drinking his mom’s homemade hibiscus tea. “It was a quick way to make kids happy without giving them soda,” he says. “I rediscovered hibiscus on a trip to Costa Rica where they infused it in a sparkling sangria. Since then, I’ve been putting it in everything.” For this icy, refreshing margarita, Machado makes a tea with two types of hibiscus leaves, that he then steeps in a syrup, and utilizes a Cryovac to infuse agave with Fresno chilis before adding in lime juice and tequila. 

The Cornelia and Rocket Lunch cocktails, Jules Aron

The Cornelia and Rocket Lunch
The Cornelia and Rocket Lunch cocktails, Jules Aron

For local wellness guru and mixologist Jules Aron, crafting cocktails with garden-plucked ingredients is second nature. Two of her vegetable-forward libations, the Cornelia, a daquiri with rum, lime, simple syrup, and blended corn, and Rocket Lunch, with tequila, simple syrup, and arugula and cucumber juice, illustrate how savory elements can create  harmonious flavors. “The blended corn adds a creamy texture in the Cornelia,” says Aron. “[In Rocket Lunch], the peppery arugula plays up tequila’s own vegetal qualities, making this a lovely pairing, especially when softened by the cucumber juice.” 

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