Meticulous Mixology

In the last few years, cocktails have gained a place for themselves as a serious artform. No longer is it enough to mix orange juice into vodka, especially not with the vast spectrum of spirits, cordials, liqueurs, bitters and modifiers available to amplify a drink’s complexity, flavor, nose and appearance. Atlanta’s cocktail culture is exceptionally strong, and Staplehouse and 1Kept are two restaurants that take meticulous mixology to the next level.

Take the Umami Mia, for instance. Staplehouse bartender Shyretha Bolton created this concoction as a riff on the classic English milk punch. “I am big on texture, so I wanted the cocktail to still feature the viscosity from milk but not feel heavy on the palate,” said Bolton. To create the Umami Mia, Bolton steeps seaweed in whole milk for 12 hours, a step inspired by Staplehouse executive chef Ryan Smith’s techniques in the kitchen.

After half a day of steeping the seaweed, Bolton strains and simmers the milk, adding lime juice for coagulation and applejack brandy for flavor. The curdled milk is then set aside to cool and refrigerated overnight. Several steps later, Bolton has created the base of the cocktail, which is then mixed in a shaker with pineapple juice and yellow chartreuse. The creamy cocktail is then served over ice in a rocks glass.

With a similar attention to detail and quality, 1Kept creates The Evening Star cocktail with vodka that’s infused in-house. Using a cold-brew system, the vodka takes over eight hours to filter through fresh herbs and botanicals at a rate of about one drop per second. The result is a refreshing ginger-lime vodka that’s mixed with Van Gogh gin, lemon, house-made saffron syrup, Boston Bittahs, extra virgin olive oil, basil and a top of prosecco.