With our love for libations rivalling our love for food, it’s no surprise that menus are changing to include the best of both worlds in the form of liquor-laden snacks, apps, entrees, and desserts. From pizza with toppings soaked in alcohol to hard cider apple pie, alcohol-infused foods are creating quite a “buzz.”
VANILLA PORTER CAKE – The New York Wine & Culinary Center in Canandaigua, New York, offers up infused sweets like the Rohrbach Porter Vanilla Cake, which takes locally crafted Rochester, NY porter and complements it with ginger butter cream and cranberry compote. Through partnerships with area farmers, wineries, breweries, distilleries, artisans, and entrepreneurs, the Center offers an array of inviting experiences which proudly highlight the agricultural bounty ofnew York State.
BOURBON CREAM PUFFS – Making waves since its opening last summer, Middle Fork Kitchen Bar (from acclaimed chef and food truck legendmark Jensen) in Lexington, Kentucky, serves up bourbon-coffee infused chocolate cream puffs made with choux pastry and Bavarian cream the puffs, as well as the cream, are made daily while the coffee is locally roasted and thebourbon distilled just feet away from the restaurant.
HOPAPENO BURGER – The evolving menu at Pouring Glory, Fort Worth, Texas, includes many dishes either infused with beer or that pair well with beer. Highlights include the “Hopapeno Hopfusion,” a grilled chuck burger topped with fried egg, Hopfusion Hairpin Session ale pickled jalapeño relish, sliced avocado, andqueso fresco on ciabatta bread. Hopfusion Brewery is part of the Fort Worth ale trail.
HOT TODDY CARAMEL POPCORN – In 2012 Keavy Landreth and Allison Kave, united by their love of all things sweet and boozy, teamed up to develop Butter & Scotch, in Brooklyn, New York. Butter & Scotch transformed the classic winter-warming Hot Toddy cocktail into a caramelized mixture of bourbon and golden honey popcorn for their Hot Toddy Caramel Popcorn. Or savour the Namesake, a luscious combination of Black Bottle Scotch, butterscotch caramel, vanilla ice cream, whip and toffee bits.
BANANA WAFFLE DOUGHNUTS WITH RUM-BANANA FOSTER GLAZE – Enjoy sweet views and even sweeter treats at Tidal Restaurant at Paradise Point Resort & Spa, San Diego, California, located on the sparkling waters of San Diego’s Mission Bay. Guests can delight in the banana “waffle”doughnuts with rum-banana foster glaze, candied walnuts and vanilla for a decadent rum dessert to cap off the night at the waterfront restaurant.
PEI MUSSELS, WHITE OAKS RESORT AND SPA – LIV Restaurant at White Oaks Resort & Spa is a four diamond gem in the wine country of Niagara-on-the-lake, Ontario. Chef Michael Price’s version of PEI mussels features fresh mussels poached in a rich and fragrant broth of house-made smoky bacon, with the intense flavours of creamy gorgonzola cheese and the hoppiness of craft ale from just down the way, translucent Spanish onion and local garlic. The combination of these heavily pronounced flavours has created one the restaurant’s mostpopular signature dishes.
