Would you consume a cocktail crafted from pastries that are a day old? A martini concocted with leftover feta brine? With more than half of US food waste stemming from the food sector, bartenders are becoming inventive with strategies to address the issue. Fruit pulp, vegetable peels, meat remnants—even croissants from yesterday—are transitioning from the kitchen to the cocktail bar, resulting in extraordinary and exciting drinks with reduced landfill waste. But do these upcycled cocktails truly make a change?
Perched above the bar at N/Soto in Los Angeles, jars filled with crystallized fruit constitute the lab of Reed Windle, where stone fruit remnants transform into shōchū cocktails. “It’s a symbiotic relationship,” he describes regarding his cocktail laboratory. The Izakaya vibe, a more laid-back establishment from the team behind the Michelin-starred N/Naka, inspires Windle to experiment, fermenting the fruit scraps utilized in N/Soto’s small dishes, blending them with shōchū for up to six months, contingent on the fruit’s ripeness, for his Chu-Hi cocktail. Windle carefully documents his trials in a substantial notebook, recording how the sweetness of each fruit enriches a cocktail’s complexity, that rice vodka could overpower one fruit, or precisely when to ferment black plums. Due to this involvement, he plays a direct role in determining which ingredients make it to the kitchen menu in order to minimize waste; the collection of test jars atop the bar incessantly expands.
Essential tools, gift-worthy mixers, and elegant glassware for your aspiring bartender at home.
Incorporating the bar program into the restaurant menu extends beyond merely using random leftovers from the kitchen; it fosters a symbiotic connection between drinks and dishes.
Kenzo Han, bar director of Firstborn in LA’s Chinatown, does not restrict the use of scraps to sustainability alone but also views it as a chance to enhance flavor. When the kitchen required a menu update, Han contributed his insights on what should replace certain items, instinctively recognizing that the fat drippings from a 30-day dry-aged lamb saddle would provide a nutty nuance to a Rob Roy–inspired drink.
This collaboration and “use everything” philosophy also informs Firstborn’s non-alcoholic menu. “People my age aren’t frequenting bars as often, or we’re not consuming alcohol,” which motivated Han to develop a nonalcoholic program that is just as appealing as their alcoholic offerings.
Han has a special affinity for the “continuous loop of production [of kombucha],” where the low alcohol content accentuates the flavors of the ingredients, yet during fermentation, bacteria reduces the alcohol levels. Firstborn emphasizes reusing that kombucha base and incorporating seasonal fruits to frequently refresh the non-alcoholic menu instead of sourcing out-of-season fruits to replicate the same mocktails and ultimately discarding the unutilized fruits. Han has grown comfortable with omitting traditional drinks from the menu and declining specific requests, preferring creative variations with seasonal food scraps instead. “Bars don’t need to offer everything,” Han states.
Harmonizing the Unusual and the Exceptional
No matter how inventive a menu is, customers might still find it, well, unappealing to sip on leftovers.
