Low Waste(d)
Bartenders in Nashville are bringing kitchen scraps back to life in earthy, refreshing cocktails
Wielding fresh ingredients behind the bar has always been essential to making great cocktails, with fruit, vegetables, and herbs spun into everything from juices and garnishes to syrups, cordials, bitters, and the like.
As those ingredients become even more precious, bartenders are making extra efforts to reduce waste, leaning on technical skill to maximize them and their flavor. Whether they’re purchasing specialty produce for the bar and want to maximize their investment, or they’re hoping to give a second life to ingredients left behind after the kitchen crew finishes their prep, bartenders in Nashville are getting creative with ways to stretch and savor it all.
MIREPOIX NEGRONI
No shade to potatoes, but finding culinary inspiration during the cold winter months isn’t always easy—the season drags on and local produce is limited to root vegetables and hearty brassicas. But as the carrot and onion scraps piled up in the compost bin at The Catbird Seat, Bartender Natalie Newberry didn’t shy away from the earthy flavors. To translate them into cocktail form, she leaned into soup season with inspiration from a mirepoix-infused Cocchi Americano she had once sampled. “Someone I worked with made it. The bitterness from the Cocchi made me think [those flavors] would be great in a Negroni,” she says. But a simple infusion of carrots, onions, and celery into gin wouldn’t do, so she looked to a tool that has become a staple behind the Catbird bar. “I tried carrots in the gin with a 24-hour infusion and it pulled little to nothing, but the sonicator brought every layer I wanted—that crisp, first-bite note.” The device’s ultrasonic waves homogenize flavors at a rapid speed, making for a quick infusion with full, developed flavor. As for the onions and celery, a fresh infusion left overpowering allium flavor, so Newberry freeze-dries the vegetables along with more carrots before infusing them in a blend of Luxardo Bitter Bianco and Suze for a softer, more leveled result. “The cocktail has interesting savory notes like a Gibson, with the vegetal note of the celery, and the bones of a White Negroni with hints of sweet and dry,” she says, turning soup season into sipping season.
BREADWINNER
Baking fresh bread is a core practice at Rolf and Daughters, whether for bread service or breadcrumbs for pasta dishes. But the breadcrumbs only utilize the inner part of a loaf, leaving behind perfectly tasty sourdough crusts. So, Bartender Ryan Barrentine took on the challenge of creating “a drink about bread.” He found the best way to showcase the tangy and yeasty notes was to toast the bread hard—“almost burned, but not quite, really kind of caramelized”—and turn the scraps into an orgeat-style syrup. With that in his well, Barrentine thought to go with an Army & Navy-inspired format while leaning into the savory flavors. He went with a split base of Sheringham Seaside gin, which is finished with kelp, and aquavit, “to add another layer of bread—like rye bread with caraway.” The touch of seaweed in the gin complements the savory sourdough, and so Barrentine doubled down on the flavors by finishing the drink with a toasted nori saline solution “so you’re bookended with seaweed.” It’s balanced with lemon juice and yuzu curaçao for a complex citrus flavor. “Ultimately, when you drink it, you kind of don’t recognize any of the printed ingredients. It’s just this delicious, crushable gimlet vibe that’s got a little umami, too.”
ZW SUNSET
In need of a margarita-esque cocktail for the menu at 1 Hotel Nashville, Bartender Harrison Deakin took the opportunity to incorporate local fruit and punch up each component with the fullest possible flavor. He noticed an abundance of watermelon rinds left over from the kitchen’s fruit plate and dove into R&D to find ways to utilize every bit of the ingredient in a refreshing drink for the warmer seasons. “We’re in Tennessee,” he says, “and what’s better than watermelon?” For the juice component, he boosts both watermelon and lime juice with citric and malic acids, while the watermelon rinds are infused into an oleo saccharum to balance the drink without diluting the melon flavor. And after juicing, rather than tossing the leftover watermelon pulp, Deakin spreads it on an acetate sheet to dry, then blends it with Tajín to create a powerful powder to use as a garnish. The ZW (“zero waste”) Sunset comes together with blanco tequila and a touch of Ancho Reyes Verde liqueur for a hit of vegetal flavor. Deakin tops it off with a salted foam that makes use of aquafaba, a byproduct from the restaurant’s hummus. It’s tart and punchy and utilizes every part of the watermelon to reduce waste while maximizing flavor.
