Throughout the coronavirus pandemic, some Arizona bar owners have continued to serve customers by selling cocktails to-go.
Many stocked up on plastic bottles, soda cups and mason jars to start slinging drinks for takeout. Los Sombreros created a popular drive-thru that served margaritas. Some started delivery, such as Tequila Corrido. The locally-owned tequila company delivered margaritas, shots and bottles via Selena, a retrofitted Volkswagen bus from 1971.
But throughout the pandemic, two of metro Phoenix's best bars have held off — until now.
Century Grand, a new bar from the team behind popular underground tiki bar Undertow, focused on selling full bottles of liquor including specialty whiskies. Downtown cocktail destination Bitter & Twisted was completely closed down for months.
Now both Century Grand co-owner Jason Asher and Bitter & Twisted's Ross Simon have launched craft cocktails ready for customers to enjoy at home.
Bitter & Twisted's takeout drink menu
At Bitter & Twisted, customers can expect to see some of the "greatest hits" along with "something new that goes with the season," Simon says.
The takeout cocktail menu launched in late June with just a few options and has since expanded to include eight drinks.
Customers can choose between the following drinks:
- JT "Canhattan" made with Wild Turkey 101 Rye, sweet vermouth, Curacao and Angostura. Served with cherries and orange peels.
- Lemongrass Collins made with lemongrass infused vodka, lemon juice, vanilla syrup, vanilla liqueur and ginger beer. Served with a lemongrass garnish.
- Old Fashioned made with Woodford Reserve, cane sugar, Angostura and orange bitters. Served with lemon and orange peels.
- Watermelon Hibiscus Margarita made with tequila, watermelon and hibiscus syrup and lime. Served with watermelon and Tajin salt.
- Flawless Gin Martini made with Ford's Gin and Bitter & Twisted vermouth blend. Served with olives and lemon peels.
- La Chocolate Sazerac made with rye whiskey, cacao, sugar and bitters. Served with a "lemon infused absinthe atomizer."
- Mr. Hendrick's made with Hendrick's gin, cucumber, lime and club soda. Served with cucumber slices.
- Pornstar Martini party pack made with vanilla vodka, fresh passion fruit and passion fruit liqueur. Includes two cans, a fresh passion fruit and one mini bottle of Prosecco, serves four.
Bitter & Twisted's canned cocktails include two drinks and range between $22 and $25. The Pornstar Martini Party Pack serves four and costs $59. A three-can combo pack of various cocktails, which serves six, costs $60.
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Simon and his team developed the cocktail recipes so that the drinks are stable in a can and last for 30 days when refrigerated.
Each can also is printed with a QR code that, when scanned, brings up instructions on how to properly assemble each drink.
After five weeks of waiting for the canning machine to arrive, Simon was excited to get the new menu up and running and to get craft cocktails back in his customers' hands.
"The other night I had a reheated dinner with a Pornstar Martini; it was dope," he says, laughing. "You have to take the little victories." Simon says he and the team are "testing the waters" with the new takeout program at Bitter & Twisted. If it goes well, he hopes to start selling cocktails to-go at his other bar, Little Rituals, as well.
Orders can be made online at bitterandtwistedaz.com.
Experimental cocktails from Century Grand
Across town at Century Grand, the new takeout cocktail program serves two purposes: It gets drinks to customers, and it allows co-owner Jason Asher to test new drinks for the bar's reopening.
The Grey Hen, a whiskey-focused bar inside Century Grand, is undergoing renovations while the business is closed due to the pandemic. When it reopens, Asher says it will have a new look and menu.
Asher is experimenting with new cocktails that one day could make up the new Grey Hen menu, giving customers a sneak preview at what's to come.
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Available for takeout at Century Grand, one new experimental cocktail will be created each week. The first cocktail, aptly titled Experimental Cocktail No. 1, includes a long list of ingredients, something customers may recognize from Asher's drinks.
The first drink includes:
- Century Grand’s Cask Strength Peerless 3 year and 4 month Rye Whiskey
- Hine ‘H’ Cognac
- Lustau East India Sherry
- Husk cherry infused Carpano Antica
- Toasted rosehips
- Giffard Crème de Pêche
- Passion fruit flower
- Long pepper
- Orange oils
It is then washed in coconut oil for 24 hours, which infuses flavors of coconut into the drink without adding oiliness.
Asher plans to make 50 bottles per each batch of experimental cocktails. Each bottle will serve between three and four and cost between $30 and $50. Experimental Cocktail No. 1 costs $42.
To go with the Grey Hen's new look, modeled after a New Orleans-style apothecary, the cocktails will be served in brown glass medicine bottles and include ingredients historically thought to cure ailments.
The first bottle's label reads, "For indigestion or anxiety consume 5.5 tablespoons stirred over ice with the oils of orange."
A new cocktail will be available each week on Thursdays at greyhenrx.com.
Reach the reporter at tirion.morris@arizonarepublic.com. Follow her on Twitter at @tirionmorris, on Facebook at Tirion Rose and on Instagram at tirionrose.
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