By Nanette Wiser
HOLIDAY SPIRITED SIPS The newest wine bar to join Grape Wine Café and Sea Grapes on the beaches is a new wine/charcuterie spot opening next to Indian Rocks Beach Slyce, name TBD. With Wine Knot closed and Café Largo’s new owners, we welcome a charcuterie and wine tasting oasis on the beaches. If only DTSP’s Flute & Dram or Lolita’s would migrate to the Gulf! Please, Santa. Speaking of holiday goodies, the new 900 Pages of Drinking Wisdom, A Decade in the Making, is the perfect gift for your mixologist.
DTSP’s Bayboro Brewing debuted a sunshiney beer (Spraycation) a strawberry, orange, passionfruit ale brewed to support the St. Petersburg Arts Alliance’s award-winning mural festival. It’s a fantastic event or catch up with pals hang-out. Monday through Wednesday, from 4-7pm, kids eat for free! Dino nuggies and crinkle cut fries and BOGO beer for 21+ peeps.
St. Pete’s Kozuba & Sons Distillery uses 53-gal American oak barrels and Florida climate to create classic spirits, especially the latest release–uncut 7-year high wheat rye packed with aroma and flavor. For the holidays, their Cranberry & Juniper flavor vodka is the perfect pre-turkey refresher. Make it easy to serve cocktails with their Bar Box Cosmos, Vodka Sours & Negronis.
St. Pete Distillery creates luscious liquors. Savor the essence of sunshine with Old St. Pete’s collection of local and artisan spirits crafted in small batches in copper pot stills. They elevate their margaritas with their Tippler Orange Liqueur, rich, ripe & zesty orange & citrus notes with a hint of delicate sweetness. Serve their White Lady with a side of Bing’s “I’m Dreaming of a White Christmas.”
Old St. Pete White Lady
- 1.5 oz Old St. Pete Tropical Gin
- .5 oz Tippler’s Orange Liqueur
- .75 oz fresh lemon juice
Add all ingredients into a shaker, add ice and shake well. Strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with lemon zest.
SHAKEN, NOT STIRRED James Bond drinks them. So did the President FDR and 95-year-old Queen Elizabeth until recently (per doctors’ orders). For me, the only way to drink a martini is dirty, traditionally with olive juice, and now with a cornucopia of reduced “dirty” tonics. The Dirty Martini dates back to 1901, when NYC bartender John O’Connor first muddled the olive into the drink, and later added a splash of olive brine. I like mine with a blue-cheese or feta stuffed olive garnish. Swap out the olive brine/juice for pickle or caper brine for a salty twist.
Classic Dirty Martini
- 2.5 oz. gin or vodka
- .5 oz. dry vermouth
- .5 oz. olive brine and 2-4 olives
Add the gin or vodka, vermouth and olive brine to a mixing glass filled with ice and stir until well-chilled. Strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish-skewer of olives.