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The new beverage program at Yellowbelly, the St. Louis concept from One Point Hospitality that gets culinary direction from Southern California chef and restaurateur Richard Blais, is a menu of “New School Cocktails.”
“We think of our menu with the mindset of old-school tiki in modern, non-tiki ways. We are really proud of this menu because it gives our guests a chance to try some spirits and ingredients that they most likely haven’t before,” co-owner and beverage manager Tim Wiggins said.
One such cocktail is the Shirts & Skins, which features a sweetener that Wiggins makes from pressed green grape skins mixed with simple syrup. He adds that to with Rhum Neisson, Château Arton Blanche Armagnac, Lillet Blanc, lemon, olive oil and nutmeg.
Availability: The next six or seven months
Price: $12
The starring spirit in this other cocktail from Wiggins and his team at Yellowbelly is Avuá Amburana, a brand of the Brazilian sugarcane spirit cachaça that’s aged in amburana wood casks. Wiggins combines that spirit, which has cinnamon and cardamom notes, with an orgeat he makes by blending oat milk with almond and brown sugar. He also adds Plantation Three Star rum, pineapple juice, lime, ginger beer and bitters, resulting in a creamy, spiced cocktail with tropical flavors.
Availability: The next six or seven months
Price: $11
Pastry chef Kaley Laird is mixing together two classic Southern desserts — Coca-Cola cake and chocolate mayonnaise cake — to create a new kind of chocolate cake at chef John Fleer’s restaurant Benne on Eagle in Asheville, N.C.
Laird uses Duke’s Mayonnaise, a Southern staple, for the cake’s batter and its buttercream frosting. The mayonnaise adds tang and moisture to both components.
For the cake, Instead of the traditional approach of adding Coca-Cola to the batter, Laird plays on the flavors of Cherry Coke by making a gastrique with dried cherries, cola, orange peel, salt and pectin. Laird serves a layered slice of the cake with the gastrique around the plate and a scoop of dark chocolate cocoa nib ice cream.
Availability: Indefinitely
Price: $8
Boba is a surprising element in the new dessert at Grey Ghost Detroit in Michigan. The tapioca pearls are often found in bubble tea, a popular Asian beverage, but pastry chef Wendy Watson adds the chewy little balls to churros instead. To create the menu item, Watson pipes pâte à choux dough into a spiral shape and rests it in a cooler before frying. Once the dough is fried, she sprinkles the churros with rosemary-infused sugar and plates them with guava ice cream, boba, orange segments, pineapple gastrique and chopped rosemary.
Availability: Through early spring
Price: $8
In a nod to National Frozen Food Month in March, New York City beer hall chain Clinton Hall and food manufacturer Kellogg’s are collaborating for the launch of the French Onion Eggo Grilled Cheese — a mashup of the former’s famous Doughnut Grilled Cheese and the latter’s Eggo waffle product. The menu item, which will be available at all Clinton Hall locations, is an Eggo waffle sandwich with mozzarella, Swiss and Gruyère cheese inside, grilled and served on a hook over French onion soup.
Availability: Starting March 1 through March 31
Price: $16
A new addition to the menu at Trejo’s Coffee & Donuts, a Los Angeles doughnut shop from actor Danny Trejo, is the Trejo Coneado. The sweet treat is a doughnut cone “tornado” dipped in cinnamon sugar and lined with chocolate inside. The Coneado is filled with soft-serve ice cream of the guest’s choice and can also be customized with toppings such as sprinkles, chocolate crumbs and cornflakes.
Availability: Indefinitely
Price: $5.95
