By Edible Maine Staff • Photography By Russell French 2017-12-08 10:27:51
While drinking in winter generally brings to mind things served hot–toddies and mulled wine at the lodge or warm punch, hot cocoa, and coffee concoctions with added alcohol at the company party, this does not have to be the case at all. In reaching out to restaurants in Bar Harbor, Kittery, and Portland, we discovered that bartenders mix and match all kinds of flavors and alcohols to create warmth that has nothing to do with the temperature of the liquid in your glass.
At the Black Birch in Kittery, they get a dark, rich effect by combining just a bit of whisky with bourbon- barrel aged ale and cherry liqueur. Way up north in Bar Harbor, the heat comes from spicy ginger juice spiking dark rum. In between, at Lolita in Portland, it is a mix of rye, apple brandy, and maple syrup touched with aromatics that warm the palate.
At Lolita atop Portland's Munjoy Hill, the barkeep's approach to mixing drinks is just as precise and demanding as Chef Guy Hernandez working the stove. Between the two, you're sure to come away not just satisfied, but feeling fat, sassy, and spoiled into the bargain
"At Red Sky," said Elizabeth Lindquist, who owns Red Sky with her husband, James, "we really like our ginger. Here, the fresh ginger juice offsets the sweetness of the rum."
Their restaurant, tucked away in the compact village of Southwest Harbor, is a refuge open almost year round, always welcoming to strangers and regulars alike with an inventive and spirited menu offering much local and from the sea.
If this drink doesn't make you "curieux" about Black Birch, you need to have another. Seriously, with a turntable and stack of vinyls behind the bar and a finely-tuned 19th-century sensibility in the atmosphere and drink list, this is a joint not to miss.
©Edible Maine. View All Articles.