South Korean consulate debunks rumors that a Korean Airlines flight attendant infected with coronavirus visited Koreatown restaurants
https://la.eater.com/2020/2/28/21158056/coronavirus-koreatown-los-angeles-flight-attendant-health-department
Elizabeth Warren, surrounded by reporters, holds an uneaten corn dog. | Gary He
On Eater’s Digest, photojournalist Gary He discusses his life as a food reporter on the political beat
Since the Iowa State Fair in August 2019, photojournalist Gary He and special correspondent Meghan McCarron have been criss-crossing the country covering food on the presidential campaign trail. From a day in the life of eating with Pete Buttigieg or Andrew Yang to examinations of the lavish food spreads offered by billionaire candidates Tom Steyer and Mike Bloomberg, to a look at the power of the culinary union in Nevada, following the food (and the money) can reveal quite a bit about the candidates and the state of the race.
This week on Eater’s Digest, He discusses what it’s like behind the scenes, what’s real and what’s staged, and how he’s carved out a niche within the press pool.
After our chat, we get into the biggest food stories of the week.
Listen and subscribe to Eater’s Digest on Apple Podcasts:
Government legislation and policy reform can be slow and full of red tape. Employees must band together and do the work on the ground to see real change.
https://pdx.eater.com/2020/2/28/21146404/restaurant-industry-workers-unions-fight-for-change
Eater critic Robert Sietsema and Ryan Sutton chat about their first impressions of Salt Bae’s new Union Square burger restaurant
https://ny.eater.com/2020/2/28/21156754/salt-bae-burger-restaurant-first-look-review
The maker of Corona Beer is in the midst of a $40 million marketing push for a Corona hard seltzer, unfortunately coinciding with a worldwide panic over the novel coronavirus COVID-19. | Photo: Goran Jakus/Shutterstock
There is no link between COVID-19 and Corona beer, plus more news to start your day
Constellation Brands, the maker of Corona beer, has received backlash for a marketing push for its new Corona hard seltzer as the widespread effects of COVID-19, more commonly known as the novel coronavirus, sweep the globe and are likely to result in an outbreak in the U.S.
Social media users particularly took issue with a tweet from the brand, sent on February 24, that promises “one splashy entrance” for Corona hard seltzer, as well as a sponsored tweet that uses the phrase “coming ashore soon,” CNN reports. Critics of the marketing chastised Corona for “poor taste” and bad timing.
Introducing Corona Hard Seltzer. Four delicious flavors. One splashy entrance. pic.twitter.com/XrPPr6nWrB
— Corona USA (@coronaextrausa) February 24, 2020
Corona’s brand seems to have suffered from the name’s likeness to “coronavirus.” Searches for “corona beer virus” spiked in January and are currently on the uptick again, as seen on Google Trends. A recent phone survey of 737 Americans (note: a fairly small sample size), conducted by 5W Public Relations, found that 38 percent of respondents said that “would not buy Corona under any circumstances now”; 4 percent of respondents who usually drink Corona said they would stop drinking; 16 percent of respondents “were confused about whether Corona beer is related to the coronavirus.” And according to market research and data analytics company YouGov, buzz surrounding Corona beer has trended negative since COVID-19 started dominating the news cycle.
CNBC reports that Constellation Brands will continue with its Corona marketing campaign as planned. “Our advertising with Corona is consistent with the campaign we have been running for the last 30 years and is based off strong consumer sentiment,” said a spokesperson. “While we empathize with those who have been impacted by this virus and continue to monitor the situation, our consumers, by and large, understand there’s no linkage between the virus and our business.”
• All AM Intel Coverage [E]
From capped working hours to peer-to-peer counseling, restaurant owners and managers are working hard to help their staff feel safe and stable
Twenty years ago, a restaurant owner at highly acclaimed Charleston, South Carolina, restaurant Peninsula Grill gave his manager, Steven Palmer, two options: go to rehab or quit. Palmer — a promising young restaurant professional — was struggling with an all-consuming addiction to cocaine and alcohol. After going out seven days a week until 4 or 5 a.m. for 10 years, Palmer started what he called a difficult journey through Alcoholic Anonymous’s 12-Step program. What he faced when he returned to restaurants was also daunting. “The general stigma at that time was that you absolutely cannot be sober in the hospitality industry,” Palmer says. “The sober life in a kitchen was very lonely back then.”
Palmer started Ben’s Friends, a support group for restaurant industry professionals who struggle with substance abuse, in 2016 to break that stigma. Today, there are chapters in 12 cities; the newest chapters in Louisville, Kentucky; Kansas City; and Washington, D.C. each had over 30 people show up to their first meetings.
“A line cook feels safe walking into a room where there is a bartender, another line cook, and a chef,” Palmer says. “They all know what 8 p.m on a Saturday feels like.”
Ben’s Friends is just one of many organizations that’s sprung up over the past three years in an attempt to save a workforce that is collectively hanging by a thread. According to research conducted by Unilever Food Solutions, the global supplier to the food and beverage industry that has taken an active interest in mental health in the industry, 74 percent of chefs are sleep deprived to the point of exhaustion, 63 percent of chefs feel depressed, and more than half feel pushed to the breaking point. A 2015 study by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Service Administration (MHA) ranks the restaurant industry highest among 19 industries for illicit drug use and third highest for heavy alcohol consumption. MHA vice president of policy and programs Theresa Nguyen tells the Outline that organization’s unreleased 2019 research shows that the food and beverage industry hasn’t improved since its previous study was published.
“If you look at the hospitality industry in general, it’s looking back to the Marco Pierre White, Gordon Ramsay model of churn and burn,” Tim Etherington-Judge, founder of Healthy Hospo, said in an interview in 2018. His organization comprises industry workers devoted to mental wellness, and was created in response to the prevailing industry mentality to “Just abuse the fuck out of staff until they leave, get some more in, and then abuse the fuck out of them too, then get some more in.”
In this pressure-cooker atmosphere, most kitchen and dining room workers feel like they shouldn’t expect praise or concern for their needs. Instead, they should remain calm and carry on. “Sadly, addiction is still winning,” says Palmer. “Alcoholism is the only disease that tells you you don’t have a disease. Alcoholics and addicts are walking around saying they are fine all day long. The denial is so deep. I always say I got the gift of desperation. I was willing to do anything to get better.”
But now, restaurant owners and managers are seeking out seminars, trainings, and consultants to help their workers feel safe and stable at work. In addition to Ben’s Friends, chef Patrick Mulvaney’s I Got Your Back program out of Sacramento, California, offers employees peer-to-peer counseling; some restaurant groups are experimenting with capped working hours, wellness initiatives, and a more open kitchen culture where talking about mental health is the norm. Although restaurants’ individual policies differ, all of them align on one crucial step: It’s essential to make the effort to talk with every single employee on a regular basis to check in and see how they’re doing. In the restaurant industry, this basic human gesture is a radical act.
Patrick Mulvaney’s I Got Your Back program seems simple: It was designed with the help of the Innovation Learning Network, and participating restaurants designate one person on staff, the “purple hand,” to be trained as a peer counselor. When employees clock into work, everyone is asked to drop a card into a box in the kitchen that anonymously shares how they’re feeling: happy, neutral, angry, or “in the weeds.” During the team’s daily “line up” meeting, either the purple hand or a manager shares how many happy, angry, or troubled folks clocked in. Then the team discusses how they’ll treat each other during the shift, knowing some of their team members might have reported not feeling great. Angry employees can also speak up about what will help them and share how they’ll act next time they’re at work in order to support everyone on the team. Managers keep tallies of each day and post it in a prominent place as a reminder — and so staff can compare days and weeks.
“We’ve seen a stabilization that it’s okay for people to talk about things that aren’t okay,” Mulvaney says. He goes on to recount an incident in which he and the COO of his company “uncharacteristically” sat down with an employee who was mouthing off and acting combative. The behavior was disruptive enough, he says, that the expected response would be for management to discipline or fire the employee on the spot. But after spending three to four days sorting out what a positive outcome would look like, in Mulvaney’s words, they had a breakthrough: The employee’s attitude transformed from “this is bullshit, motherfucker,” to “yes, I want to get better.” Mulvaney says that the employee, who was having personal issues, now knows that leadership is there for guidance, resources, and support.
Mulvaney — who runs Mulvaney B&L restaurant in Sacramento and admits to being “a guy who lost his temper a lot in the past” — says 12 restaurants in Sacramento completed the pilot of the program since it began in April 2019. In its pilot phase, I Got Your Back has been successful enough to get the attention of the James Beard Foundation, along with medical companies like Kaiser and Sutter Health, which will bolster the effort with professional psychotherapists and other experts as Mulvaney makes the program scalable for national adoption this year.
Whether or not there’s an official mental health program in place or a staff member who is trained to deal with crisis, allowing staff members to voice their problems seems to be a crucial step in improving the industry. At Lighthouse restaurant in Brooklyn, owner Naama Tamir encourages a culture where employees can speak up and say how they’re doing any time of day.
“If you’re having a rough day and woke up anxious, I tell my staff to express the fact that you are having a rough day instead of lashing out,” says Tamir. “But first of all, we lead by example. So I will share my challenges, or if I am not feeling great physically or mentally. My staff knows that if something is happening at home, they can share. I’m always saying it takes a lot of strength to admit your weaknesses.”
Michael Gulotta, chef-owner of several highly regarded restaurants in New Orleans, including Maypop, says a more respectful work environment is increasingly necessary. “We can’t match the payment at hotels, so we have to make our environment better. We tell people not to stand for anything less than total respect. I’ve had to pull multiple cooks aside and tell them you can’t talk about the girl you took home.”
Gulotta says he grew up in traditional kitchens characterized by “line dogging” — or trying to beat other chefs for the top station in the kitchen — and bosses that were on a hair trigger. Today he insists on running his restaurants with “please and thank you kitchens.” Gulotta also consistently shows appreciation for his staff on social media, insists on work weeks that are capped at 50 hours, and clearly defines expectations along the lines of requiring staff to arrive for work well-rested and fully present mentally, physically, and emotionally.
In Portland, Oregon, the nationally known Olympia Provisions restaurant group and charcuterie maker also adopted a check-in and review process that’s very much like those at nearby Nike and Intel. Chef Eric Joppie explains that they’ve always had “nice managers and set schedules.” But in July of 2018, Olympia Provisions managers joined several other Portland chefs for a meetup with outspoken chef advocate Kat Kinsman to determine what more they could do. Today, in addition to regular conversations and goal-setting with a manager, Olympia Provisions also started a program that allows workers to trade in their shift drink for a token that can be used toward yoga, rock climbing, spin classes, and other physical activities that provide an outlet from work. Employees can even trade in 20 tokens for a spa treatment.
“Traditionally you get out of work and you go get wasted with staff to blow off steam,” says Joppie. “We want to give a direct avenue to promote healthier options. It’s not about policing.”
Today, over half of Olympia Provisions’ staff participates in the program, opting to not have a shift drink once or twice a week in exchange for a token. This means that each month, employees are redeeming gift certificates for a range of activities.
Ultimately, it comes down to caring for your staff in the way you would treat your family or friends. “New York can be cold and lonely,” Tamir says, noting the instinct should be to “do something that makes us feel warm.” For her, this has translated into helping workers move into apartments and providing extra financial help to immigrant workers. She credits this approach for her high staff retention, and for a better industry as a whole. “We have three people that have been with us for eight years,” she says. “We have two that have gone back to Mexico and they came back. We gladly reaccepted them. That’s the testament. People leave and come back.”
The industry is at a reckoning point. As rising rents put additional pressure on operators, close to 80 percent of employees leave the industry after two years. Tipped servers are at greater risk for sleep problems, stress, and depression, and are “more than twice as likely to live in poverty relative to untipped workers,” according to Sarah Andrea, M.P.H., a Ph.D. candidate in epidemiology at the OHSU-PSU School of Public Health. An overwhelming majority of restaurant workers don’t receive the health insurance they need to deal with these issues. Anxiety and a lack of a sense of fulfillment are hallmarks of the industry. Its prevalence of sexual harassment has been likened to an epidemic. The next generation demands more.
Last January, Unilever Food Solutions, a global supplier for the food and beverage industry, stepped up to address this by beginning ongoing work with a consultancy group of over 400 chefs across the world. Its program FairKitchens aims to codify fair treatment of restaurant industry employees — providing parameters around what a fair amount of work, pay, recognition, and more should look like — and offering the trainings and resources necessary to achieve the standards.
FairKitchens currently has 75 partner organizations across the U.S. and Canada. Interested hospitality organizations can “pledge” to join the FairKitchens movement and opt into webinars, in-person training events, and organizational support. Programs encompass English language learning geared toward kitchen workers via ESL Works, and a partnership with professional coaching program Hundred Life Design that helps managers implement the FairKitchens code of ethics. They’ve also recently joined with Sysco, the American Culinary Federation, and the National Restaurant Association to help expand their reach.
In a similar vein, Etherington-Judge’s Healthy Hospo works with nutritionists, sleep experts, and even elite athletic trainers to come up with bespoke programs — including seminars, trainings, and health and creativity retreats — to support restaurant and bar businesses. “We try to help outlets change systems and operations to positively influence their staff,” says Etherington-Judge. “Last year, we worked with Martini to get bartenders on a trip, cycling across Italy for a week. It was amazing. We never served any alcohol and the employees were more engaged with the brand than ever before.”
Etherington-Judge says Healthy Hospo will launch a digital training platform later this year, which he hopes will increase its reach and touch the industry more broadly.
Overwhelmed, stressed restaurant owners or managers may feel that adopting new policies seems too cost- and time-prohibitive. For them, Tamir has a reminder that it’s more about attitude than anything else.
“If it’s a little thing here or there, we can just forgive. That should be the attitude: Let’s think about what needs to happen to fix a situation instead of placing blame,” Tamir says. “I remind everyone that we’re human and we all had a starting point. I’m a facilitator for patience and kindness, and it pays off.”
Maria Nguyen is a Vietnamese-Canadian illustrator.
Kate Green didn’t know who chef Nancy Silverton was when she started answering phones for Mozza Restaurant Group. Now she’s the group’s communications director.
In How I Got My Job, folks from across the food and restaurant industry answer Eater’s questions about, well, how they got their job. Today’s installment: Kate Green.
Kate Green is an expert in restaurant marketing and communications representing the Mozza Restaurant Group in Los Angeles and, in her spare time, she has a side gig co-hosting the culinary podcast-turned-talk show Table Setting. So it’s hard to believe that 13 years ago, Green knew very little about the food industry — and virtually nothing about Mozza’s legendary founder and chef Nancy Silverton.
In 2006, fresh out of San Diego Mesa College with a degree in communications, Green felt directionless. After moving to Los Angeles to model, she was convinced by a friend to take a part-time job at Mozza. Though she didn’t know it at the time, she was embarking on an exciting career with the mother of artisan bread making.
She felt intimidated at first, but gradually Green found her footing at the restaurant group. Along the way, she forged a deep professional relationship with Silverton as her assistant and right-hand woman, while also making a name for herself in the LA dining scene. Today, Green is Mozza’s communications director, touching just about every department. In the following interview, Green talks about the value of growing with a company in the restaurant industry and what it takes to assist a world-renowned chef.
What did you originally want to do when you started your career?
Kate Green: I went to school for communications and public relations. I had wanted to go into the music industry and do public relations for a record label or artist, but at the end of school I got confused about what I wanted to do. So when I graduated college and moved to LA, I started modeling and didn’t have a traditional job. That’s where I was when I started to work for Nancy.
How did you get into the restaurant industry?
My best friend from college was the opening hostess at Mozza. She didn’t think my modeling situation was the healthiest environment for me and she threatened to tell my parents about it if I didn’t take a job answering the phones two days per week [at the restaurant].
Everybody who knows me, knows that I have a really good relationship with my parents and my dad specifically. I grew up in a really strict military household. So him getting a call that I was not doing what I was supposed to be doing was not really an option for me — so I listened.
What was the biggest challenge you faced when you were starting out in the industry?
When I first started at Mozza, I was working with people who had been in the industry for years and who were a lot older than me. I didn’t really know anything about restaurants, so I had to start from scratch.
Thankfully, I did have mentors to guide me through, but the biggest challenge was feeling insecure about my ability to fit in that world. I didn’t know who Nancy or any big chefs were when I started working there. It wasn’t intimidating because she was a famous chef; it was intimidating because I had never done anything like that before and I had no idea what I was doing. When you’re answering the phone, you’re the first line of defense for the restaurant. It’s really important how you interact with guests.
When was the first time you felt successful?
I started to feel more comfortable and realized that the role was a good fit for me when I developed a connection with Nancy. She began to acknowledge my job and recognize I was good at it. There’s no higher praise than getting it from Nancy. I got promoted from reservationist to office manager to running events to working with her directly as her assistant.
Did you have any setbacks, and, if so, what were they?
I wouldn’t call them setbacks because it’s all a learning experience. Things at the time that you think might be setbacks — like if you get something wrong or are having a hard time learning to do something — actually end up being important.
If you don’t have any adversity or issues while you’re doing your job, you don’t really have a point of perspective and you don’t really learn how to handle things when they do go wrong. A lot of what we do in hospitality is learning from mistakes, so yes, of course, I had issues, but I wouldn’t call them setbacks because they made me stronger in what I do.
What was the turning point that led to where you are now in your career?
My trajectory is a little bit different than that of most people. Most people who work in restaurants spend four or five years in one place at the most. I started in a very entry-level position and gradually moved up as the years went on, which gave me the ability to have longevity and work at Mozza for as long as I have. It’s very rare.
What were the most important skills that got you there?
I think my strengths are, first and foremost, communication and people. I’m a people person and I always have been. I’m a connector, a mover, and a shaker in that sense. I think it’s a strength in my position to have a finger on the pulse of where things are in the restaurant industry and keep pushing forward on that note.
I’m pretty self-aware. If I don’t know how to do something or I’m not good at something, I’ll delegate or work with others to get it done. I’m not afraid to ask for help. I think people make the mistake of trying to do everything themselves and keep a tight grip on their departments, but I think in restaurants it always works better to collaborate with the team.
Do you have, or did you ever have, a mentor in your field?
My mentor was David Rosoff. He was our managing partner for eight years and now works at Hippo and Triple Beam Pizza. People make fun of me and call me a baby Rosoff, because I have some of his qualities. ‘Particular’ is a nice way to put it. It wasn’t always easy in the sense that he really pushed me to do what I was supposed to be doing. He believes that when you open a circle, you close a circle. If you walk into a room, you look around for what’s out of place and fix it. Every single day, he would tell us to reach for the top, knowing you’re going to fall down a little bit. He pushed us all to be as good as we could be. I would not be where I am today without him. I lend a lot of my sensibilities and the way that I do things to him. Even now, 13 years later, he’s still in the back of my mind — for better or for worse.
What does your job involve and what’s your favorite part about it?
I am still working with Nancy always. That’s one of my favorite parts of my job. I wear a lot of different hats, but technically the title is director of communications. We do all of our public relations, marketing, and digital in-house.
My day always starts with a call from Nancy. Even though we both know we’re going to be at the restaurant, we connect in the morning and lay out the day with what she needs me to do. I really like having a list, because it’s the only way I stay organized. When you wear a lot of hats, you have to manage your time. I run all the social media for the restaurants, so there are Instagram stories and those things, as well as marketing events like guest chef dinners and cooking classes that we’re doing on site. I’m also in charge of all of the newsletters. I need to keep all the digital and marketing machines pushing forward, trying to brainstorm what we’re going to do next, while also organizing Nancy’s travels.
I think I’m one of the only people in the group who’s dealing with every single department of every single restaurant on the corner, because there are so many moving parts. It can be challenging at times to try to keep up, but that’s the fun part. There’s never a dull moment on the corner of Melrose and Highland. Plus, I get to be around fantastic food and wine all the time. That will always be one of the biggest perks.
You do a podcast on top of that?
In terms of Table Setting, the podcast is a full-on talk show now. Originally, Tastemade came to me saying they were interested in creating a culinary podcast, because they didn’t have one and obviously podcasts are super exciting and interesting. When we started doing it, they had just come out with Tastemade TV and wanted content for that vertical, so they filmed the podcast in addition to recording the audio. It turns out that 98 percent of [the audience] was watching it, rather than listening. We just got picked up for season 3, so we ditched the big podcast microphones, and now are hosting a talk show in our little living room with our guests.
As far as schedule goes, it’s interesting. People think that we film once per week, but we actually shoot all of the episodes four days in a row and shoot three episodes per day. Max [Block, my co-host] and my schedules’ are so busy that there’s no other way that we could do it, so we get them done in a chunk. It also helps keep me focused, because I’m in that mindset of being on-air talent, which is not that easy to turn on and off.
I love getting to flex that creative muscle that I don’t necessarily get to use on a daily basis. A lot of what I do in my job is very much behind the scenes and focused on other people. My job is to support Nancy in whatever she is doing. It takes time to switch my brain to being in front of the camera, instead of behind it. I think my favorite part is getting to have that creativity and speak to people in the industry who I’ve known for a long time or have been admiring and getting a chance to tell their stories.
What would surprise people about your job?
People would be surprised to hear that it really is a 24-hour job. Whether I’m in the office or not, I’m working. Especially when you’re someone’s assistant, you don’t really have days off. They’re called “out of office” days. It’s more hands-on than people think. It’s not a cookie cutter job. Every single day is different and you really have to adapt and be on your toes.
What’s the best piece of career advice you’ve been given?
If you’re writing an email, write a draft and then go back and take all the emotions out of it before you press send. I think we’re all guilty of the 45 exclamation marks and it’s really important to remember that when you’re writing professional things, you don’t want to be emotional or reactionary. You need to keep your side of the street clean.
What advice would you give someone who wants your job?
Make sure you find the boss who you actually get along with and work well with. When you have to be around somebody that much, you have to make sure it’s a good fit on both sides and you believe in what they’re doing.
Having longevity in restaurants is really difficult. Sticking with it and staying in one place for so long might seem like a downside for a lot of people, but I think there are a lot of upsides and it says a lot about the brand that we have so many people who have been around for so long. It’s valuable to dig in, take ownership, and be part of something bigger. My advice to the new guard is, in this age of instant gratification and social media, you should get out of that mindset. You should try to get as much out of what you’re doing as you can, rather than looking around for the next best thing.
Morgan Goldberg is a freelance writer based in Los Angeles, California.
Photo courtesy of Kate Green.
Illustrations from the Noun Project: camera by Dhika Hernandita; covered dish by Made by Made; wine by Made by Made; lightbulb by Maxim Kulikov; hand writing by Pongsakorn.
Policies will be created following a March 12 meeting at City Hall
https://sf.eater.com/2020/2/27/21156525/ghost-kitchens-board-of-supervisors-delivery-apps-laws
Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge Park at Disneyland | Photo by Amy Sussman/Getty Images
Get your blue milk spiked with rum and your Ronto wrap with Impossible sausage, plus other tips for navigating Disney’s interstellar treats
If you’ve dreamt of sucking down space milk and piloting the Millennium Falcon in a galaxy far, far away, you can make those dreams come true a lot closer to home. Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, the theme park land at both Walt Disney World and Disneyland Resorts, brings rides, a lightsaber-building workshop, a droid studio, a restaurant, and a cantina to Disney’s theme parks, fulfilling every fan’s longtime ambition to eat and drink like Han, Leia, and Kylo Ren.
Since they opened in 2019, the parks in Florida and California have diverged from each other in food offerings, making it even more important to put some time into deciding where to spend your space credits. Oga’s Cantina introduces Disneyland’s first and only public bar in its 64-year history, and unlike the Mos Eisley cantina, which refuses to serve droids, the cantina serves guests of all ages on both coasts. (Note that more often than not your group will be standing around a high top. Seating is a premium and often limited to larger parties or those who require it.) Each person can order a maximum of two drinks total, so choose carefully. And don’t forget to book a reservation either — 60 days in advance for Disneyland and six months early at Walt Disney World — as you’ll struggle to get inside the intergalactic watering hole without one.
True space cuisine is no longer a pipe dream, but you’ll want something tastier than Luke Skywalker’s Resistance MRE (which, of course, they also sell). Even without a single waiter-service restaurant on this far-flung trading post, there’s plenty to try. Here’s what’s worth seeking out and what you should definitely avoid at Disney’s Star Wars-themed lands.
Ronto Roasters’ raspberry limeade is the best of the nonalcoholic, juice-based drinks sold throughout the land, with a sweet-and-spicy mango component that provides a special kick. (The version at Walt Disney World was recently converted to the Surly Sarlacc, a Ketel One-spiked boozy beverage.) If you’re going to sip something that’s not a Diet Coke in a thermal detonator, make it this.
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Though pricier than other park locations, nearly every dish at Galaxy’s Edge’s counter-service eatery is a standout. Highlights include the tender Batuuan beef pot roast — so popular that the onetime-dinner-only entree is now available for lunch too — and the sauce-slathered smoked kaadu pork ribs, which are somewhat outshined by the blueberry cornbread that comes on the side. The Felucian kefta and hummus garden spread, which reads more like an herbaceous baked falafel, is also a solid choice. In search of lighter fare? Don’t skip the roasted Endorian chicken salad, a curry ranch-tossed sleeper hit topped with chicken shawarma that would play well at Sweetgreen, or the Endorian fried tip-yip from the kid’s menu, which comes with macaroni and cheese and is superior to the Tip Yip entree on the adult menu.
This sweet-and-crunchy mixture is instantly snackable, and the chocolate glaze holds up for days, making the popcorn an unexpectedly perfect edible souvenir. It could use a bigger helping of the salty topper — meant to resemble the bold red surface from planet Crait, as seen in The Last Jedi — but regardless is a must-try on par with the famed popcorn flavors of Tokyo Disney Resort.
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This futurist pub mix is a great complement to drinks at Oga’s Cantina when you’re feeling snacky, as the bar doesn’t sell too much food. Intriguingly, it differs from coast to coast. Batuu Bits in California are served as a semi-standard Japanese snack mix with wasabi peas, seaweed chips, and an array of rice crackers, while the version in Florida consists of veggie chips served with a killer chermoula dip. Both locations toss in some crunchy chocolate meringue pieces, a mismatched flavor pairing that somehow just… works.
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Hold off on the hotel coffee to save room for this coffee-based beverage. The Oga’s Cantina concoction is a lifesaver for jet-lagged visitors, providing enough fuel to power through an early Disney morning while taking the edge off. It mixes cold brew with passionfruit, citrus, honey, and falernum, masking the much-needed caffeine with some traditional tiki flavors.
This new meatless option is only available at Disneyland’s Ronto Roasters, but may eclipse its pork-packed predecessor. The plant-based Impossible sausage, which tastes similar to merguez, comes topped with slaw, sliced jalapenos, and a Gochujang-based sauce, creating the ideal pita filling whether or not you partake in the good stuff. It’s sturdier than the Ronto wrap, too, relying on a stronger flavor profile rather than pork sausage. All in all, it’s worth your coin.
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These are the three best alcoholic drinks on the Oga’s Cantina menu. Everything is pre-mixed and errs on the sweet side, but the Outer Rim — a fruit-forward Patrón margarita served with a black salt rim — is always reliably well-balanced. The shot glass-sized, bourbon-based Jet Juice is an equally smooth sipper, with hints from fruity and spicy liqueurs. The Fuzzy Tauntaun, a take on a Fuzzy Navel, is topped with foam made from buzz buttons, an herb that will tingle your lips like Sichuan peppercorns, making for a brilliant out-of-this-world gag.
Ronto Roasters’ Portuguese sausage sandwich has amassed a cult following, but the consistency has waned since the park’s opening. The Sichuan peppercorn sauce in particular has lost its much-needed zing. It’s still palatable, no doubt, but with wet slaw slipping out of the cushiony pita, a $13 soggy sandwich just isn’t worth it.
While the duo of almond milk-based tropical slushies aren’t bad, they’re not resoundingly great either. Since they first appeared, fans and guests have debated which one is better, though no clear answer has emerged. One route is to mix them together before slurping ‘em down half-and-half, or (only if you’re in Florida) have your blue milk spiked with rum.
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It’s hard to splurge on a Bloody Mary with so many other space-age cocktails on offer at Oga’s Cantina, but the meringue garnish shaped like a Rancor bone tips the Bloody Rancor ever so slightly into the “worth trying” category.
The T-16 is delicious, but be warned, it’s basically a cup of cream and vodka. Only opt for this heavy indulgence if you don’t fear a full-on sugar crash in the middle of your theme-park binge.
Served atop the $13 chilled blue milk at both Oga’s Cantina locations or a la carte at Disney World, this vanilla sugar cookie is undoubtedly designed for kids but joyous for all ages. It’s topped with a layer of marshmallow krispies and Bantha horn-shaped fondant.
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Batuu’s detonator-themed soda bottles are all interchangeably fine, but that money is better spent on a bottle of Dasani that spells out the brand name in Aurebesh. For under $5, you get a bottle that looks cool as hell once you leave the parks.
This sweet-and-spicy Kat Saka’s kettle mix, which tastes something like Froot Loops, is not worth the hefty $7, especially since Disney Parks offer some of the best popcorn around.
This side dish, sold sweet or spicy at Ronto Roasters, is simply too tough to chew, making it impossible to consume.
Disney gets an A for effort for this spin on its famed churros at Ronto Roasters, but the hog snacks should be saltier to cut the fat, not sweet like this cinnamon-sugar variety. Same for the new Galma garlic puffed cheese chips, which go way too heavy on the garlic.
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Sadly, this chocolate-filled breakfast pastry topped with Oreo crumbles better resembles a mediocre hotel buffet offering than a snack consumed on the outer rim of the galaxy.
Not quite as fun or delicious as boba, this petri dish packed with “popping pearls” is really just a handful of fruit-flavored liquid sugar balls. It could be fun for kids but is pretty worthless as an indulgence for adults.
Carlye Wisel is a theme park journalist who lives on a steady diet of popcorn and cotton candy.
Hemings & Hercules explores American history through dishes like black-eyed pea pancakes inspired by Hercules Caesar, George Washington’s chef | Gari Askew/Hatchet Hall
A Black History Month dinner series celebrates Hercules Posey and James Hemings, who cooked for two of the country’s earliest presidents and made valuable contributions to American cuisine
As a young black girl growing up in the melting pot of Brooklyn, New York, my classmates often teased that I had “no real culture.” I couldn’t point directly to a country of origin the way they seemed to. I had no connection to extravagant carnivals and colorful flags. And the divide widened when it came to food; next to the bangin’ beef patties, jollof, and rotis of my Caribbean and African classmates, my grandmother’s mac and cheese and collards felt standard and unspecial. To my peers, I was “just American,” with nothing to distinctively mark as my own. Dinner last Thursday night at Los Angeles’s Hatchet Hall showed me the lie.
Seated at Hatchet Hall’s family-style table, my hands criss-crossed with other diners’ as we passed around deep dishes of smoked pork crown roast, mashed rutabaga in cultured butter, creamy mac and cheese, and beef-fat potatoes. “Can you put a little mac on my plate?” we asked. And “are you finished with the rutabaga?” The meal was reminiscent of dinners at my grandmother’s house, brimming with the kind of comfort foods that make you fantasize about going home and hitting your pillow. And over three hours and eight courses, every inspiration was entirely American, and specifically contributed to our country’s culinary history by black folks. The dinner was one of a series Hatchet Hall started in 2019, called Hemings & Hercules in honor of Hercules Posey (whom the supper club refers to as Hercules Ceaser) and James Hemings, America’s first celebrity chefs and the enslaved property of two of our earliest presidents.
Hemings & Hercules is the brainchild of Martin Draluck, Hatchet Hall’s young, black chef de cuisine. Draluck was introduced to Hemings and Hercules while doing research for the restaurant’s supper club, Fuss & Feathers, and was moved to create a series around the chefs. “I thought their stories were hidden gems, and a part of history more people needed to know,” he says.
Hatchet Hall, a 128-seat restaurant in the Culver City section of LA, has been telling stories through its wood-fired “Heritage American” food since it opened in 2015. In 2018, chef-owner Brian Dunsmoor created the supper club to explore the recipes and techniques of America’s earlier days. The name Fuss & Feathers is inspired by General Winfield Scott, a known food enthusiast nicknamed “Old Fuss and Feathers,” for his insistence on military formality. Scott’s legacy is complicated by his military tactics, including his role in President Andrew Jackson’s “Indian Removal” policy, and his leadership in the Mexican-American war.
“When we kicked off Fuss & Feathers we really wanted to pull the blinders back on American cuisine, even if some of our history included negative connotations,” Dunsmoor says. “We did a lot of research when looking into a name for Fuss & Feathers — George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, even Abraham Lincoln all had controversial associations tied back to history. The goal of the series has always been to try to give credit to the people who influenced our foodways including Natives, Africans, Caribbean and Europeans who all contributed to American cuisine.”
Hercules worked for George Washington for 30 years, between the president’s home and Philadelphia and his plantation in Mount Vernon, before he escaped in 1797 during the chaos of Washington’s birthday celebration. Hemings, meanwhile, the brother of Sally Hemings, cooked for the third president of the United States for 24 years. Hemings & Hercules is shining a necessary light on these chefs’ creations, and those from countless, nameless black cooks putting it down in the White House kitchen and America at large. The contributions those chefs made to our culinary tradition are essential to American culture, but their stories are often obfuscated by history.
“The bottom line is these chefs and cooks are responsible for food we still eat today in American culture, not just black culture,” Draluck says. “Everyone wanted to know what the president was eating. What was on his table? Hemings was sent to Europe for culinary training, and he brought back knowledge of how to use the sous stove, which was the precursor to the stovetop. He brought back recipes for mac and cheese, ice cream, waffles, and so much more. If you pick these dishes apart, you see all these influences.”
When Jefferson was appointed minister to France in 1784, he took Hemings with him. Only 19 years old at the time, Hemings’s task was to master the French style of cooking. While in France, Hemings apprenticed with well-known French caterers and pastry chefs and became the chef de cuisine at Hôtel de Langeac, America’s first royal embassy. He was paid a wage of 24 pounds a week, comparable to free white servants at the time, and yet he was still considered property. Under French law, Hemings could have claimed his freedom at any point, but he didn’t. Hemings ultimately negotiated his freedom on the terms that he taught others at Monticello how to cook in his French-Virginian, or Lowcountry, style, often associated with seafood-rich dishes of Southern coasts. After Hemings left Jefferson, Edith Fossett, an enslaved cook on Jefferson’s plantation Monticello, traveled to the White House to teach Jefferson’s new white chef Hemings’s Virginian-French fusion, and from there it spread worldwide. “Our dinner series allows us to give credit where it’s due,” says Draluck.
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Gari Askew/Hatchet Hall
With few remaining menus or written recipes from Hercules or Hemings still around, the Hemings & Hercules dinners are mostly “inspired” by these chefs’ cooking. Draluck spent the better part of a year researching to develop the menu. “Just like so many inventions by black people in America, the history has either been washed away or wasn’t recorded,” he laments.
The dinner itself is a means of documentation and preservation, and it unfolds like a carefully told story. At $100 a seat, the meal is served in the restaurant’s “Family Room,” a private space tucked behind a barn door near the entrance. There’s a spirit of calm and warmth in the room. It feels familiar. The tablescape features dripping candles and dried flowers, and at each place setting sits a detailed timeline of Hemings’s and Hercules’s lives in relation to major historical events. In the background, Donny Hathaway croons. “Music-wise, we try to keep it as black as possible,” Draluck says.
Draluck greets the room at the start and end of the dinner, but much of the night is moderated by a Hatchet Hall team member named Andre, who guides us through the meal employing oral storytelling with historical anecdotes along the way. As Andre tells the stories behind each dish, I feel a sense of pride, especially when he emphasizes words like “us” and “we,” as in “We brought this food here.”
Dinner opens with silver-dollar-sized black-eyed pea pancakes, served alongside a pepper jam and a small side of vinegary fermented greens. This particular dish is a nod to the black-eyed pea fritters enslaved Africans would eat in the fields and an ode to Hercules, who Draluck says would’ve cooked more “rustically” than Hemings. After the black-eyed pea pancakes comes cured salmon on a small, charred plank of wood. Fishing was a lucrative practice on George Washington’s Mount Vernon plantation, and it required massive amounts of slave labor to clean, preserve, and pack the fish into salt barrels. Fish was also a significant part of the enslaved workers’ diet.
Then there’s the pepper pot, most traditionally known as a thick stew of beef tripe, vegetables, and pepper. The one served at Hemings & Hercules is a juicy beef and vegetable broth made with fresh vegetables, and is a reference to the influence of French and Caribbean culture in Philadelphia following the Haitian slave rebellion and the French Revolution. As the story goes, Hercules was a flashy guy who could often be spotted in Philadelphia’s market — one of the largest in the world at the time — dressed in fly threads, walking with a gold-handled cane. Hercules purchased his looks with money earned from selling leftovers and kitchen waste, which was a privilege sometimes given to those in his position. As we sipped the soup directly from small wooden bowls, we were encouraged to imagine the aroma of the pepper pot sold in the market Hercules perused for produce.
The chicken roulade that makes up another course is based on a dish Hemings cooked for Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and Alexander Hamilton as they came to the Compromise of 1790. As Charles A. Cerami writes in Dinner at Mr. Jefferson’s: Three Men, Five Great Wines, and the Evening That Changed America, Hemings served “Capon stuffed with Virginia ham and chestnut puree, artichoke bottoms and truffles with a bit of cream, white wine, and chicken stock,” along with “a calvados sauce made with the great apple brandy of Normandy.” Hatchet Hall’s recipe is rendered nearly identically to Hemings’ dish.
As we dine on roulade, Andre underscores that this food shouldn’t be discounted or overlooked as “slave food.” The dishes and preparations by these chefs were sophisticated and complex, and required real culinary prowess. Food historian Adrian Miller, author of the The President’s Kitchen Cabinet, confirms the influence of black cooks at the highest levels of American culinary tradition. Even after slavery, however, many of the cooks in the White House continued to be hidden, as European chefs were hired to cook for high-end affairs and the inaugural banquets reported on in the press.
Hemings and Hercules were the beginning of a long history of black chefs in the White House, and soul food dishes typically associated with black culture were a favorite. Says Miller: “There’s a very strong undercurrent [of Soul Food] throughout the White House history. If you had Southern-born presidents, the Southern soul food influence was strong to the extent that those foods overlap. Greens and things like possum and pig’s feet were served.” However, Miller notes that first lady Jacqueline Kennedy’s preference for European food shifted the direction of White House cooking. “1960 is where you start to see the break, and African-American White House chefs move into the rear view.”
We cap off the dinner with Hemings’s Snow Eggs. One of only two surviving recipes attributed to the chef, the dessert is an English custard with poached egg whites made to look like little eggs. It’s served with a small leaflet containing Hemings’s recipe and directions on one side and Draluck’s reinterpretation on the other.
Seeing Draluck’s version of Hemings’s dish made me regret never learning my grandma’s recipes. Because like those of Hemings, Hercules, and now Draluck, her recipes held stories — stories of my people, our history, American history. Those cooking techniques have deep roots that, although entwined with the thorns of slavery and injustice, are no less worthy of being claimed with pride by black Americans. The taunts the kids on the playground tried to throw at me were baseless. I think of the toast one of my fellow diners made at the start of our meal, just before we each packed a black-eyed pea pancake with jam and greens. “Happy Black History Month, ya’ll,” he said. “This is America, not the one they propagate.”
Glynn Pogue is a travel writer and essayist from Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn.
Stephen Colbert and Elizabeth Warren | CBS
The “Late Show” host introduced the presidential candidate to the cuisine of his hometown, Charleston
From Donald Trump’s love of fast food to Pete Buttigieg’s day at the Iowa State Fair, it’s established that the way a presidential candidate relates to food bears at least some importance to the American voter. Senator Elizabeth Warren clearly took this to heart when sitting down to a feast of of South Carolina delights on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.
Colbert, a Charleston native, took Warren to Husk to sample oysters, boiled peanuts, and hush puppies — all chased down with bourbon on the rocks. (Warren sees your “someone I can imagine having a beer with” and raises you one.) They also spoke about the upcoming South Carolina primary and used a plate of ribs to explain Warren’s plan to tax billionaires in order to pay for things like universal child care and public college. Boldest of all, however, was the senator’s willingness to throw back raw oysters on camera, one of the least flattering things a person can do (other than eating a corn dog). And the sound! Get that boom away from their mouths, CBS!
Not only does the segment dispel the apparent rumor that Warren doesn’t eat a lot (something the senator brought up in the debate), but it also ends with Colbert telling Warren a risqué joke about Michelob Ultra. For more information on Husk and the Colbert/Warren menu, head on over to Eater Carolinas.
There are people who can remember a world without Starbucks, but I am not one of them.
https://www.vox.com/the-goods/2020/2/27/21145969/starbucks-coffee-drinks-stores
A Starbucks cafe in Chicago’s O’Hare airport. | Photo: Sorbis/Shutterstock
Plus, third time’s the charm for Chipotle queso, and more news to start your day
Black baristas earn a median wage of $11.15 an hour at airport Starbucks, while Latinx baristas earn $12.67, and white baristas earn $13, according to a pay study conducted across 142 stores in 27 airports by hospitality workers’ union Unite Here, the Boston Globe reports.
This assertion of a pay gap, based on data collected between February and October 2019, has been published in a new report by Unite Here alongside other findings about working conditions in airport Starbucks. According to the report, those stores did not close for the day of racial bias training that affected 8,000 company-owned stores across the U.S. The report also alleges that LGBTQ workers have been misgendered, and that some immigrant workers have been told by managers to stop speaking their preferred language at work.
Starbucks touts progressive employment policies like trans health benefits and 100 percent pay equity across all genders and races in its stores, but airport Starbucks are operated separately, typically by highway and airport food-service company HMSHost, which had an exclusive partnership with Starbucks until earlier this year.
HMSHost has called the racial pay disparities allegation “completely untrue” and part of a union effort to “[exert] pressure and [gain] leverage.” In the Unite Here report, HMSHost attributed pay disparities within airport stores in part to to the average length of tenure of different racial groups. But, as Unite Here notes, the food-service company doesn’t explain why some racial groups last longer in their HMSHost jobs than others.
Starbucks, on its part, has declined or not responded to requests for comment from multiple news outlets.
More photos of this monstrosity. I ordered extra cream cheese as they usually just apply it like butter, but this is clearly just an exercise in passive-aggressiveness. How do I possibly eat this? pic.twitter.com/XM70yMrnqp
— (@BryanPassifiume) February 25, 2020
• All AM Intel Coverage [E]
Bottles of Coors Light at a plant in Colorado. | Denver Post via Getty Images
The incident occurred at the Milwaukee headquarters of the brewing giant
Six people, including a suspect, are dead after a shooting at the headquarters for MolsonCoors Brewing Company in Milwaukee this afternoon. According to local news reports, MolsonCoors CEO Gavin Hattersley emailed employees on Wednesday evening confirming the shooter was an “active employee” at the brewery and that five fellow employees were killed. As of press time at 7:52 p.m. EST, multiple buildings on the MolsonCoors campus have not yet been cleared and some employees have yet to be evacuated, but the Milwaukee Police Department stated that there was no longer an “active threat” at the scene.
“It is a horrible, horrible day for the employees here,” Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett told press shortly after the situation unfolded around 2p.m. local time at the facility, which is located on the MillerCoors campus. “It’s a very rough day for anyone who is close to this situation.” During a later press conference with local and federal officials, Barrett affirmed that the attack was “unspeakable tragedy for our city.”
According to Milwaukee police chief Alfonso Morales, more than 1,000 people worked at the location, and that a “roll call” would be conducted to determine who is missing. Hattersley’s email announced that the company plans on shutting down the Milwaukee headquarters and the brewery for the rest of the week.
MolsonCoors is a major international beverage company that formed through the merger of Canadian brewer, Molson, and U.S. brand, Coors, in 2005. The Milwaukee campus houses both corporate offices and a brewing facility for MolsonCoors, in addition to “a 160-year-old brewery, underground caves, a Bavarian-style inn, and a seasonal outdoor beer garden” that are open to public tours, according to USA Today. Prior to that, the site was home to the Miller Brewing Company.
This is a developing story and will be updated as more information becomes available.
• ‘Multiple People’ Dead in Shooting at Molson Coors Campus in Milwaukee [NBC]
• Six Dead in Shooting Rampage at Molson Coors in Milwaukee; Gunman Also Dead [USA Today]
D.C.’s tiny, big box-heavy Chinatown pales in comparison to the bustling districts in cities like New York, San Francisco, Seattle, or Boston, and suburbs such as Rockville and Fairfax have become hubs for Chinese food
https://dc.eater.com/2020/2/26/21154257/coronavirus-dc-chinese-restaurants-peter-chang-rockville-fairfax
Toms is making your boba dreams come true, in this week’s ‘Add to Cart’ newsletter
This post originally appeared on February 26, 2020, in Add to Cart — the weekly newsletter for people who love shopping (almost) as much as they love eating. Subscribe now.
It’s cliche but true that the little things — and often, the little purchases — can make a significant difference in your day. I recently got two sets of the Mepal microwavable nested storage bowls, one set in light blue and another in a rosy pink shade, which are already pulling their weight in multiple ways. The littlest bowls are great for dips and sauces and the leftover scraps I just can’t bring myself to toss; the big bowls are ideal for transporting food — say, to a dinner where someone’s asked you to prepare a dish.
Most importantly, the two middle sizes are prime lunch containers, not only because of their proportions but because of how pretty they look, making reheated leftovers feel like a purposeful, civilized meal. And because the bowls are made from a thick opaque material rather than glass or clear plastic, my coworkers can’t actually see whatever sloppy detritus I’m wolfing down. Making a Sad Desk Lunch not so sad can’t turn your whole day around, but it doesn’t hurt.
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Seedlip makes non-alcoholic spirits. | Courtesy of retailer
To make zero-proof cocktails just as good as the professionals, you’ll need these recs for the best spirits, shrubs, bitters, and syrups, from the Strategist
Alcohol-free drink menus continue to pop up at bars alongside their usual alcoholic options, while other bars, like Greenpoint’s Getaway, only sling beverages with zero percent ABV. According to Sam Thonis, a co-owner of Getaway, this latest nonalcoholic wave is definitely part of our current wellness-obsessed times, but “there have always been people who choose not to drink, or want to drink less, and what we’re doing is finally catering to that existing market.” The movement to cater to that market has birthed a host of new nonalcoholic products that offer something a little more sophisticated and special than a seltzer-lime. And some nonalcoholic spirit companies even claim their products deliver unique “buzzes” that range from feeling more relaxed to elevating your energy level — without having to nurse a hangover the next day.
Much like a proper home bar with alcohol, “a great alcohol-free home bar is a combination of some of the new and exciting products, like spirits, with some at-home tinkering,” according to Lorelei Bandrovschi, the founder of Brooklyn’s alcohol-free Listen Bar. Since alcohol-free cocktails are typically some combination of spirits, shrubs, fruit juices, syrups, and bitters, you should feel free to experiment. Thonis says crafting alcohol-free cocktails is less about attempting to make an alcohol-free martini or old-fashioned and more about creating new drinks using flavors you already love. Below, Thonis, Bandrovschi, and three other experts tell us about their favorite essentials for any booze-free bar cart.
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Seedlip Distilled Non-Alcoholic Spirits, Garden 108
Every expert mentioned Seedlip as an essential part of any alcohol-free home bar. Seedlip is a U.K.-based spirits company that burst onto the nonalcoholic cocktail scene a few years ago and can now be found on a variety of bar menus. “Seedlip makes a beautiful line of nonalcoholic spirits” that “add flavor and viscosity” to nonalcoholic drinks, according to Bryan Dayton, the founder and beverage director at Colorado-based Half Eaten Cookie Hospitality, which counts four restaurants with nonalcoholic-drink menus in its portfolio. One of his favorites is Garden 108, which he describes as “herbaceous, bright, and spring-y,” due to its notes of hay, spearmint, rosemary, and thyme. Dayton suggests using it as a base for light, floral cocktails, and Bandrovschi agrees, adding that it’s perfect at home with a splash of tonic or ginger ale.
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Seedlip Distilled Non-Alcoholic Spirits Sampler Trio
In addition to Garden 108, Seedlip makes other spirits, including Spice 94, another favorite of Dayton’s. With notes of allspice, cardamom, and bark, he describes it as “echoing the flavors in a Manhattan or Negroni.” Thonis also uses Seedlip Spice 94 in his bar’s mixed drinks, as well as its citrus-y spirit, Grove 42. If you want to sample all three of Seedlip’s offerings, this gift set will do the trick (and, for the right person, it would also make for a very nice hostess gift).
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Kin Euphorics High Rhode
Several of our experts also recommended Kin Euphorics spirits as ones that should be stocked in any nonalcoholic bar at home. Unlike Seedlip, Kin adds adaptogens and nootropics to its blends, which the brand claims can have positive effects on your body and mood. Jeremy Mustakas, the director of restaurants for ABC, particularly loves High Rhode, which he calls a “must-have for any at-home nonalcoholic bar.” It features a combination of rhodiola, gentian root, licorice root — which Kin claims will relax and energize you — as well as botanical flavors like citrus and hibiscus. Purported mood-enhancing benefits aside, the spirit has great flavor, according to our experts, who also pointed out that Kin Euphorics products have excellent packaging (which is important if your bar cart doubles as décor). While High Rhode can be added with a mixer of your choice, Mustakas loves his with black-currant juice and lime.
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Kin Euphorics Dream Light
Bandrovschi is also a big fan of Kin Euphorics, and loves its earthy, slightly spicy Dream Light blend, which contains reishi mushroom and melatonin (ingredients that the brand claims can deliver a deeper, sounder sleep). She adds it with a splash of oat milk for a nightcap before bed.
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Som Cordials
If you’ve seen a shrubs list on your local bar’s menu and wondered what exactly you might be ordering, you’re not alone. According to Thonis, “shrubs are drinking vinegars” that combine fruit, sugar, vinegar, and sometimes herbs and spices. Most bars will create their own versions from scratch, but for a perfectly premixed shrub, Thonis recommends Som cordials, which Getaway features on its menu. He says Som’s shrubs “have that vinegar, which gives it a kick, and some sugar, which gives it a pleasant mouthfeel and a little more viscosity than more watery spirits.” The Pineapple Szechuan-Pepper Cordial is the most popular among his customers, but Thonis’s favorites are Oregon Berry and Cranberry for their “rich, deep flavors.” Because shrubs are typically highly concentrated like syrups, Thonis says they should be mixed with seltzer in a one-to-three-part or one-to-four-part ratio. While you can mix them with spirits like those above, the bartenders we spoke to say to let shrubs be the focal point, since they have a strong flavor.
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Som Cordials Gift Set
This set of Som shrubs features five flavors that will allow you to experiment with your nonalcoholic cocktails, as our experts suggest. It includes Cranberry and Oregon Berry, as well as Thai Basil, Tangerine, and Ginger.
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Dram Apothecary Bitters Gift Set
Bitters are also an easy way to add more depth and flavor to nonalcoholic cocktails, much like they do in alcoholic ones. To keep your drink alcohol-free, though, Thonis says it’s important to look for glycerin-based bitters, like these from Dram Apothecary, which they use at Getaway. Dram Apothecary is a Colorado-based company that focuses on herbal blends, and this set comes with mini bottles of its entire bitters line, including palo santo, citrus, lavender lemon, wild mountain sage, “black” (which contains notes of black cardamom and black tea), and “hair of the dog” (which includes notes of ginger, fennel, cinnamon).
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Fee Brothers Bitters
Fee Brothers bitters go a long way — just a few dashes adds a ton of flavor and depth to your cocktail,” says Dayton, adding that his personal favorites include black walnut and cardamom. “They have a great variety of flavors, but I like grapefruit and black walnut especially,” adds A-K Hada, a manager at cocktail bar Existing Conditions, which is known for its innovative booze-free drinks. For a simple recipe you can make at home, Dayton suggests mixing two-and-a-half ounces of Seedlip Spice 94, half an ounce of cranberry juice, a quarter-ounce of simple syrup, and two dashes of Fee Brothers black-walnut bitters. Thonis is also a fan of Fee Brothers, but notes that while it is glycerin-based, some of its flavors can contain trace amounts of alcohol. The levels are similar to what is found in mouthwash or vanilla extract, but if you are aiming for 0.0 ABV, he suggests sticking with Dram.
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Pickett’s Hot N’ Spicy Ginger-Beer Concentrated Syrup
For even more versatility, you can also stock up on store-bought concentrated syrups as well. To add a spicy kick, Thonis loves Pickett’s ginger syrup. Because the concentrates can be quite sugary, he recommends using no more than two ounces, so it doesn’t overpower the other ingredients.
Jack Rudy’s Tonic Syrup
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“Jack Rudy’s small-batch tonic syrup has a hint of lemongrass and orange peel and is great for your at-home bar,” says Mustakas. Thonis also keeps Jack Rudy stocked at Getaway and uses both the classic tonic syrup and its elderflower tonic syrup, which adds a bright, floral dimension to your cocktails. The handsome glass bottles will also look super nice displayed on a bar cart.
Bougie Spirits Orgeat
Dayton is also a fan of Bougie Spirits syrups, specifically its Orgeat, which is a nutty almond syrup infused with floral aromatics that he says brings an earthy balance when mixed with tropical flavors.
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ALO Exposed Aloe-Vera-Juice Drink
Having different mixers on hand is of course also helpful when creating an alcohol-free cocktail at home. Unsurprisingly, our experts recommend having standards like grapefruit juice, tonic water, and seltzer on hand, but they also told us about a couple more specific mixers they say work particularly well in alcohol-free drinks. “Aloe-vera juice is a really fun ingredient and another way to add viscosity to your nonalcoholic drink,” says Dayton. When using it, Dayton says you can leave the pieces of aloe in the drink to add texture, or double strain the juice to remove them, depending on what you prefer. While the bars within the Half Eaten Cookie portfolio usually use the basic aloe-and-honey flavor in most of their drinks, Dayton says ALO offers plenty of different flavors of its aloe-vera juice to play with, including wheatgrass, cranberry pomegranate, grapefruit lemon, and mango.
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Materva Yerba-Maté Soda
Another unexpected mixer comes to us from Bandrovschi, who loves using yerba-maté sodas in her drinks. Yerba maté is an herbal tea that she says will add a little “caffeine kick,” as well as a “more grown-up bitterness” and complexity to drinks. “When I first started going out without drinking, that would be what I would instinctively look for at a regular dive bar and club,” Bandrovschi told us.
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