Watershed Menus: Blast From the Past Series
Watershed Memories Menu
BY: JOSHUA GANDEE
Beverage Director, Watershed Kitchen & Bar
When we were in the opening stages for Watershed Kitchen & Bar, finalizing recipes, choosing glassware and paint swatches, one thing that was certain: our cocktail menus would have a theme. The reasoning behind themed cocktail menus was twofold. One: we wanted an entertaining conversation piece available at the bar or table as soon as guests were seated. Two: we wanted to break down some of the barriers that other cocktail bars put up by offering a list of printed ingredients that guests either can’t pronounce or are intimidated by.
We’ve featured a number of inviting menu themes in our three years as a restaurant, but we wanted to come out of the gate on Day 1 with a cocktail menu that hit close to home. The theme was ...and I hope you’re ready for this... Watershed! The pages were arranged like a book of portraits with recipes that shared a page with some of our more fond memories as a team. This menu lived as an educational piece for both the ingredients within, as well as the places and people that helped make Watershed Kitchen & Bar a possibility. Inside were photographs from the early days and stories that highlighted our wins and some of our more embarrassing moments like, maybe, spilling a bunch of bitters... Tyler.
For those looking for a vodka cocktail, our first menu featured the ‘Bon Apple Tea,’ (named for the malapropism of the french ‘bon appetit’) was a crisp, refreshing sipper served up in full tea time elegance. The drink featured fresh apple juice - a nod to Watershed vodka being made with corn and apple - dry curacao for a light note of orange, and a spot of honey to sweeten it up. We were excited to open with this cocktail as it was a lighter option, reminiscent of tea, that offered a welcome introduction to our vodka made on site. We sourced the mismatched teacups from different secondhand stores, and none were served in true sets. Behind the bar, we had our favorite cups and we’d hope someone would order the drink so we could serve it in our chosen vessel. This was a fun cocktail to put together because the flavor elements are on par with a hot cup of tea, but the drink was shaken and served chilled over ice. The garnish on the Bon Apple Tea cocktail was a touch ornate but went with the overall over-the-top aesthetic the cocktail brought to the table. In a mortar and pestle, we combined black and pink peppercorns, cinnamon, and clove to create a house potpourri mix that we would then sprinkle on top of a fresh lemon wheel that sat above the ice to produce a lovely aroma as you brought the teacup to your nose.
BON APPLE TEA
1.5oz Watershed Vodka
.5oz Dry Curacao
1oz Apple Juice
.75oz Lemon Juice
.75oz Honey Syrup
Shake, strain into a teacup. Garnish with a lemon wheel and spice potpourri*.
*for spice potpourri use a mortar and pestle to mix together 1T pink and black peppercorns, 1 cinnamon stick, and three pieces clove.
At the time of opening, we had Janessa Flowers on staff who came to us by way of Austin, TX. Janessa was one of the fastest bartenders we’d ever had on staff and had an expressive palate that led to some of our more worldly cocktails. Featured in her repertoire is the Whiskey Lullaby, a boozy, spirit-forward cocktail that still gets ordered with some frequency to this day. We reached out and asked where her inspiration came from.
“I wanted to create a soul-soothing, warming nightcap. Hence the name. My personal nightcap choices are whiskey-based slow sipping classics. So in that spirit forward vain, I chose whiskey as the base, Averna providing secondary body and richness, benedictine for mouthfeel and finally Watersheds Nocino for nuttiness and the surprise element. Alex suggested apple bitters which were great as it makes it even more cohesive. Stirred and strained over a large cube, the dilution is intentional as it’s meant to have sipping longevity. The final lemon oil expression brightens and balances the sweetness.”
WHISKEY LULLABY
1.5oz Watershed Bourbon
.25oz Watershed Barrel-Aged Nocino
.5os Averna
6 dashes Apple Bitters
Barspoon Benedictine
Stir, strain over ice in Old Fashioned glass. Garnish with orange peel.
Another noteworthy element of our cocktail menus is that each contains a charity cocktail, meaning that a portion of proceeds from one cocktail per menu goes toward the charity of our team’s choosing. We’re fortunate to have such great leaders in our community, and we’re pleased as punch to be able to contribute in any way possible. The first Charity Cocktail to be featured was one from our friend Ben Griest, who was working at Curio at the time, and donated his recipe to be featured for The James Cancer Center. This crisp refresher become a top seller, one that we’re still known to whip up when someone needs a mood lightener. But we’ll let Ben tell you more. “When coming up with the White Rabbit, I felt really honored to be a part of the first menu as an outsider. The fact that it was tied to a charity was even more amazing because I was able to help create something that aided in cancer research. I wanted a cocktail that complimented the Bourbon Barrel Gin with a refreshing spring vibe.”
WHITE RABBIT
2oz Bourbon Barrel Gin
.75oz Pamplemousse Liqueur
.5oz Lemon
6 dashes Hopped Grapefruit Bitters
Shake, strain over new ice in collins glass. Top with soda, garnish with grapefruit crescent.
Click through to view the Watershed Memories Menu in it’s entirety here:
