Classic Meets Creative

A great cocktail can take you places. A complex, inventive drink might help you discover a new favorite spirit or unexpected combination of flavors, while a classic can stir up memories of the many times and places you’ve enjoyed it before. A legendary cocktail infused with a creative new take can do both: the traditional element creates a connection and provides a framework for the mixologist, while the twist gives them creative leeway to take it in an unexpected direction.

“That’s why at Sea Island, the ‘classics with a twist’ concept drives cocktail menus every season,” says Nic Wallace, resort lead bartender who oversees everything cocktail and beer related at Sea Island. The original recipe provides an outline that can be used as a base. “The cocktails are tried throughout history, but you can take each individual component and modify it to something more suited to your needs, for that season, or that bar,” explains Wallace.

Inspiration can come from anywhere — a North Carolina truffle festival, a distinctive artisanal spirits brand, or a botanical ingredient that makes you see, and taste, the cocktail in a whole new way. To try it yourself, here are five different classic-and-creative cocktails you can find on Sea Island menus.

Espresso Martini

MARTINI CRAZE ON TAP

In recent years, the espresso martini has become “a new-age classic that the entire world can’t escape,” says Wallace. That’s also true at Tavola, the Italian restaurant at Sea Island, where Wallace says they often had a server stationed at the espresso machine for the entire service to keep up with demand. Now the vodka-based martini is poured from a five-gallon keg on a line infused with nitrogen — giving it an extra creamy, Guinness-like consistency. The house-made vanilla vodka also brings another twist, topped with mascarpone cream and garnished with white and dark chocolate shavings as a decadent detail.

HINT OF TRUFFLE

Served at the Oak Room, the Pisgah 75 is an ambitious adaptation of the French 75, an elegant gin and champagne cocktail. Originally dreamed up as part of the seasonal “Fables, Folklore, and Festivals From Around the World”- themed menu, the Sea Island version gets its inspiration from the Asheville Truffle Experience. “Its star component is a truffle-washed Irish gin that adds a subtle note of mushroom earthiness, while also letting the bitter orange and fresh lemon juice flavors through,” explains Wallace. Cava sparkling wine and raspberry “caviar” — tiny pearls of raspberry that bounce around with bubbles — provide a fun, effervescent effect.

The Last Tango

FLOWER-POWER MARGARITA

The best selling cocktail at Sea Island, The Last Tango, also happens to be a variation on a classic — a margarita. Wallace, who also created the drink for River Bar & Lounge, wanted to showcase the tequila, which is steeped with hibiscus flowers for 15 minutes. Lime and agave tie it all together, along with muddled cantaloupe, which gives the drink its signature orangish-pink hue. The cocktail is then garnished with a large basil leaf, topped with cantaloupe spheres, and finished with cayenne salt — creating a floating, edible treat. “The striking color and elaborate garnish catches the member and guest’s eye,” says Wallace.

BRINGING THE HEAT, TWO WAYS

A classic Moscow mule — made of vodka, ginger beer and lime juice — is spicy in its own right, but the River Bar & Lounge Chipotle Mule kicks it up a couple of notches. That heat comes from green chili vodka, made with a blend of sweet and hot peppers by California’s St. George Spirits. “It adds a mellow but notable heat,” says Wallace, “as does the addition of Velvet Falernum, a Caribbean liqueur with ginger, lime and spices.” Served in a copper mug, it’s topped with fire-roasted green and red bell peppers and cooked in front of the guest on a wooden barrel stave.

“It’s a very quick procedure, but it adds a nice element of involvement for the guest and gives them something to watch and make them feel like part of the whole presentation,” Wallace says.

EVOLVING IN PLACE

For Colt & Alison, the resort’s steakhouse restaurant, an Old-fashioned on the menu seemed a natural pairing for heavier, richer flavors. Aging the entire cocktail in a barrel, however, took the concoction to the next level. The cocktail was a partnership with ASW distillery out of Atlanta, which provided the 10-liter barrel, and whose Resurgens Rye whiskey is featured in the drink. The team pre-batches the drink, and then adds it to the barrel, which sits in the middle of the restaurant.

“It’s actually aging and changing every single day, and it’s used as a decor piece along with a physical service piece for the cocktail,” remarks Wallace. Rather than standard Angostura bitters, the drink features 18.21 Barrel-Aged Havana & Hide bitters, which has flavors of tobacco, cedar and toasted oak that pair perfectly with the ASW whiskey.