To celebrate Cocktail Week, Eater teamed up with some of our favorite bars around town and asked them to create special drinks. While last year we reached out to no less than twenty watering holes for special drinks, this time we chose only five to feature specially crafted Eater Cocktail Week drinks. The five bartenders who created the drinks are all women and each of them chose one or more Colorado spirits to mix in their beverages. They are not only offering these cocktails at their bars all week, but they also shared the recipes so you can make them yourself.
First, Allison Widdecombe of Williams & Graham shared Leo's Revenge and Amy Kempster of Colt & Gray the Maeby, and now Kyla Ostler of the Kitchen serves up the Tartan Spritzer. Before we share that recipe, we encourage you to go to Williams & Graham, Colt & Gray, and the Kitchen for those drinks. And while you are out, try the other two special Eater cocktails: the Press & Cask from bartender Regan Horacek of Ace, and the Vice President from bartender Alex Parks of Acorn.
Kyla Ostler, a Colorado native who grew up in Parker, got her foot in the proverbial door behind the bar at the Kitchen when a co-worker did not want to bartend anymore during brunch. Kyla was charged with making coffee, something she was comfortable with having worked with the same coffee beans at a coffee shop in Boulder. Four and a half years of learning later, she left the Kitchen Boulder to open the Kitchen Denver. Her drink, the Tartan Spritzer, is based on a drink she made in Boulder called the Elder Apple Spritzer. There, she used St. Germaine which was replaced with Leopold Bros 3 Pins. She used CapRock gin, a spirit made with an apple distillate side-by-side with the Big Bs Apple Juice to bring out the apple note in the gin. "It's a lovely, floral, softer gin that matches up nicely with the Montanya Oro Rum, also a Colorado product, which gives the drink more depth," Kyla explained.
Tartan Spritzer
Combine in a shaker:
1.5oz Cap Rock gin
.25oz Leo Bro 3 Pin
.5oz Montanya Oro rum
1.5oz Big B's Apple Juice
Squeeze of lemon (.25 oz)
Shake all together, then strain into a coupe glass and top with 1.5oz of Prosecco.
Garnish with a small dash of cinnamon in top.
· Maeby From Amy Kempster of Colt & Gray [EDen]
· Leo's Revenge From Allison Widdecombe of Williams & Graham [EDen]
· The Cocktail Heatmap: A Guide to Where to Drink Now [EDen]
· Lucinda Sterling on Transcontinental Bartending, Scrutiny Behind The Bar, [EDen]
· All Cocktail Week 2013 Coverage [EDen]
Kyla Ostler of the Kitchen [Photo: Adam Larkey]