Quintet of inventive cocktails raises the bar

Las Vegas Review-Journal

3 years ago

Bartender Casey Freeman creates a Foggy Hill Negroni made with Vida mezcal, Cynar, Aperol, fog made with orange peels and thyme, infused with dry ice, for the Flight Unknown at Bar Centro in Bazaar Meat by José Andrés. (L.E. Baskow/rjmagazine) @Left_Eye_Images

LN2 Caipirinha is made with Avuá cachaça and fresh lime, made tableside with liquid nitrogen (L.E. Baskow/rjmagazine) @Left_Eye_Images

Ben Franklin’s Milk Punch is made with Lepanto Spanish brandy, lemon, nutmeg and clarified milk. (L.E. Baskow/rjmagazine) @Left_Eye_Images

The Leña y Campo is made with pineapple rum and served with cedar smoke. (L.E. Baskow/rjmagazine) @Left_Eye_Images

For cocktail aficionados ready to expand their sipping beyond the traditional coupe glass, one bar has devised a menu full of smoke, spheres and liquid nitrogen.

Bar Centro visitors can drink in surprising flavor combinations and techniques from The Flight Unknown.

A Cava Sangria Sphere is served in Yari glass with a mini porron of Cava, with simple syrup, Plymouth Gin, Cointreau, Flight Fundador brandy and Cava. (L.E. Baskow/rjmagazine) @Left_Eye_Images

The five cocktails, with creative backstories and unexpected ingredients, are a distillation of the innovative techniques used at Bar Centro in Bazaar Meat by José Andrés.

Cocktails include the Cava Sangria Sphere, served on an airplane-shaped spoon; the LN2 Caipirinha, which is served frozen; a glass carton of Ben Franklin’s Milk Punch; a Foggy Hill Negroni with orange and thyme fog, and the Leña y Campo, made of pineapple rum and served with cedar smoke.

The cocktails are made by bartenders enthusiastically relating the origin story for re-creating Benjamin Franklin’s punch and demonstrating how they freeze the cachaça — a disilled spirit made from fermented sugarcane juice — with liquid nitrogen.

The last offering is a mini version of Porrón, the traditional Spanish wine pitcher. Available at the bar, $75. thebazaar.com