With fall just around the corner, catering companies and restaurants are modifying their cocktail lists for the chillier weather ahead. Here are nine creative drinks from bars and caterers across North America, featuring everything from applejack brandy and pureed pumpkin to golden-pineapple serving vessels.
Earl's Kitchen & Bar's Bee's Knees
Earl's Kitchen & Bar is a Vancouver-based chain that's opening Chicago and Virginia outposts this fall. The venue's cocktail selection includes the cutely packaged Bee's Knees, served in a honey-bear-like glass and made with gin, Cointreau, honey, fresh lemon, and bitters.
Photo: Courtesy of Earl's Kitchen & Bar
Paramount Catering's Great Pumpkin Cocktail
Chicago's Paramount Events serves the Great Pumpkin cocktail at fall events. The drink contains bourbon, pumpkin ale, spiced syrup, pureed pumpkin, an egg white, and grated nutmeg.
Photo: Courtesy of Paramount Events
Pomp & Circumstance's the Shakedown
New Chicago restaurant Pomp & Circumstance has a cocktail list that includes the Shakedown. The drink—made with vodka, coconut water, fresh grapefruit, lime, and pineapple juices, agave syrup, ginger juice, and bitters—is served out of a pineapple-shaped copper vessel. The restaurant and its menu items are inspired by the 1960s.
Photo: Courtesy of Pomp & Circumstance
Lo Spiedo's Milk Punch
In Philadelphia, Lo Spiedo has a milk punch made with spiced applejack brandy, vanilla, green tea, and clarified milk. Steve Wildy is the eatery's beverage director.
Photo: Courtesy of Lo Spiedo
Limelight Catering's Pomm Pomm
Chicago catering firm Limelight just launched its fall and winter 2015 cocktail menus. Selections include the Pomm Pomm, made with vodka, pomegranate juice, and Lucien Jacob Framboise liqueur.
Photo: Courtesy of Erica Dufour/Limelight Catering
BarChef's Fall Essence
In Toronto, BarChef has new menu items including Fall Essence. Owner Frankie Solarik describes the drink's innovative ingredients as: "a spherified maple and Fernet Branca granita, bitter almond and orange blossom air, [and] essence of cedar and earth. [The] cocktail, poured table-side, consists of a brandy base with balsam fir bitters, sweet vermouth, and rosemary syrup."
Photo: Courtesy of BarChef
Earl's Kitchen & Bar's Cabin Fever
The chain also makes a Cabin Fever cocktail. Described as a "spicy, smoky whiskey sour," the pinecone-adorned drink contains Crown Royal, port, ginger and pineapple syrups, fresh lemon juice, and bitters.
Photo: Courtesy of Earl's Kitchen & Bar
Blue Ribbon Sushi Izakaya's Bloody Mariko
New York's Blue Ribbon Sushi Izakaya serves a Bloody Mariko cocktail. The spicy burnt-orange drink contains tomato juice, the Japanese grain spirit Lichikoshochu, white miso, horseradish, and Worcestershire and sriracha sauces.
Photo: Steve Hill
William Grant & Son's Paloma Negra
Milagro Tequila brand ambassador Jaime Salas, who's based in New York, developed the Paloma Negra cocktail for Halloween or Day of the Dead celebrations. The drink contains Milagro Silver tequila, fresh grapefruit, agave nectar, fresh lime juice, club soda, and activated charcoal.
Photo: Courtesy of William Grant & Sons
