Blast From the Past Series - Baseball Menu

Watershed Cougars Baseball Menu

BY: JOSHUA GANDEE
Beverage Director, Watershed Kitchen & Bar

Three years ago this week, a video emerged that showcased the greatest fake baseball team that ever existed. Within its roster, we met the likes of Andrew ‘Smiley’ Schmitt, Alex ‘Chin Music’ Chien, Josh ‘Pine Tar’ Gandee, Grant ‘Wombat’ Bain, and the rest of the Watershed Cougars. Each member of the team donned the uniform of well-worn jeans, shoes that could outrun a giant baseball-hoarding dog, and a raglan henley adorned with the logo of a cougar breaking a bat between its teeth. Meant to be just a little menacing, this was the theme for the second Watershed Kitchen and Bar cocktail menu.

Today, I’m going to tell the stories behind some of the cocktails that lined the pages of this mid-sixties baseball program, and share a couple recipes to boot. But first, if you don’t mind, I’d like to take a moment to revisit a day in April that changed the lives of Smiley, Chin Music, and Pine Tar (that’s me, Josh.) 

It all started with a phone call from our manager, (Owner and CEO of Watershed, Greg Lehman) letting us know that, because of our recent partnership with the Columbus Clippers, we’d be allowed to shoot part of our promo video at Huntington Park. Needless to say, we accepted.

When we arrived to explore, it was a crisp spring morning but the clouds in the sky still wore winter’s gray. A swift chill breezed by each of us as we emerged from the cars and grabbed our gloves, one ball, and one wooden bat from the trunk. We were met in a back lobby by a man named Joe (‘Hype Man’ Joe if you are collecting all of our cards.) Joe treated us to a behind-the-scenes tour filled with jokes about players, stories about walk-on songs, and a peek into the control room. Then something amazing happened. We walked the stairs of section 19 at Huntington Park, ready to shoot part of our cocktail menu promotion video in the dugout – our  first ever menu promo video – when we received word that we were allowed on the warning track around the outskirts, but not the field. 

We quickly wrapped the dugout portion so we could begin faking our ‘on deck’ shots, when word came down from Joe that we could head onto the outfield so long as we did not touch the infield sand. Never in my life have I seen such youthful glee in three grown men in their late twenties than I did on that day. We looked over at Greg. He gave us that head nod you usually only get on Christmas as a child when your parents okay opening the first present. We then sprinted out into the field and threw a baseball for what felt like an entire season as Chris, our photographer, ran around us to get the shots he needed. Even to this day, I blame bartending for a shoulder injury I have, but it's probably just because I’m unwilling to admit that I threw my arm out shooting a 2-minute promo video for a cocktail menu. The result was pure joy on film that, watching back now, still makes me smile. Thanks for that, Hype Man Joe, wherever you are.

The enthusiasm for our first cocktail menu (you can learn more about that one here) led us into what felt like a million different directions when it came to create new cocktails. Our research and development took us to Asian islands, the Caribbean, and even in our own backyards. Flavors of tomato, strawberry, and pomelo were met with strong aromatics of fresh mint, burning cinnamon, and coffee beans where we landed on some tremendous flavor combinations. Please excuse the horrific pun, but we knocked this menu out of the park. One of our top sellers, ironically named ‘The Money Pitch,’ included our Watershed Vodka, Falernum, Creole Bitters, and a delicious Strawberry & Tomato shrub that just carried the essence of late spring and early summer. This cocktail was created by the inimitable Janessa Flowers, then bartender at Watershed Kitchen & Bar. She managed to create one of the crispest and freshest cocktails we’d ever tasted.

MONEY PITCH

1.5oz Watershed Vodka

1oz Tomato and Strawberry Shrub

.5oz Lime Juice

.25oz Falernum

Shake ingredients with one or two cubes to add aeration and to not over dilute. Garnish with a split strawberry and basil leaves.

This baseball

This baseball menu also housed one of our more popular gin cocktails of all time, created by first bar manager Alex Chien. Alex is one of the most creative, thought-provoking, incomparable bartenders I’ve ever met in my life. When he was in the helm he challenged all of our palates in such a way that just when we thought we’d hit the nail on the head, he would ask us a question that led us to think deeper into flavor, nuance, and reasoning for why a drink should be served the way it was, and what would dress it as a garnish. We were lucky to have him through two more menus before he eventually sprouted wings and continued making his name in New York City (and around the world), so you’ll hear more about him and his creations in more of these menu recaps. 

The Chin Music was a delicate and light gin concoction that featured a white miso syrup, a thyme infusion, and an orange marmalade. Mixed with a touch of aquafaba as a substitute for egg white, the cocktail was a fluffy and airy sipper that begged you to order another one. For how expressive the offerings were on the Cougar menu, we often saw repeat orders of the drinks as they quickly became guests’ new favorites.

There are few drinks from this menu that we can recreate behind the bar in its current form due to infusions, tinctures, and syrups, but the Splendid Splinter is as simple as it gets while packing a punch of complex flavors. This equal parts cocktail can easily be scaled up for porch sessions with friends, or pre-bottled and stored in the fridge for easy access. The vanilla and caramel from the bourbon pair nicely with the warm cherry of the Heering, while the grapefruit of the Aperol creates a nice citrusy finish alongside lemon.

SPLENDID SPLINTER

.75oz Bourbon

.75oz Cherry Heering

.75oz Aperol

.75oz Lemon

*optional* 6 dash Cherry Vanilla Bark Bitters

Shake, strain into Nick and Nora. Garnish with a lemon wheel.

It was exciting to see our guests get behind this menu, which contained such a wide variety of sipping options. There was a cocktail inspired by peanuts and cracker jacks that came with a temporary tattoo, meant to mimic the treat inside the Cracker Jack box. Even the uniforms that our baseball team wore were for sale with stadium cups emblazoned with the team’s logo.

View the Cougars menu in it’s entirely below, from the opening 1938 vaudeville act, “Who’s on First?” to a layout of a field where drinks were positioned based on flavor profile and composition. We designed the entire menu to look like a program but what drives that home are the ”ads” for businesses we had partnerships with in the back, and a couple of silly ones to round things out.

When it comes to creating these creative cocktail menus, it’s all about the details. There are little things meticulously placed in our menus that most people won’t notice, but that they are thrilled to learn about if we point them out, or they stumble upon them. It’s a bit of artistic integrity, knowing you put all that you could into a project. That way there’s something there to appreciate at every pass. 

Check out our other cocktail menus here

Menu launch weeks are among my favorite in the restaurant. As a bar team, we get to build the bar we need from scratch as we find homes for all the new bottles in the wells. We figure out our mise en place based on the new garnishes. I get to lead staff training and explain every intricate detail to the team as they taste through the menu. We get to release a promo video that I watch the whole night before in anticipation. I get to watch as our regulars sit at the bar and pore over our new offerings, and try not to spout every new fact in one run-on sentence about the theme, or names of the drinks, or process of ingredients. This week we would have launched our 8th menu and my fourth as Bar Manager. It breaks my heart to not be behind the bar talking about it at this moment, but I’m smart enough to know that the creativity has to go somewhere, and I can’t wait until we can unleash some of it into the world.