Bottoms up: Power drinks at The Oak Table

Since opening its doors across the street from the State House in September 2012, The Oak Table on Main Street has become a well-established watering hole for lobbyists, politicians, lawyers, doctors and young professionals.

“We get a young crowd that comes in that either just graduated from college or are interning, so they’re coming in to hang out with their superiors,” said Shonn Tapley, assistant general manager of The Oak Table. “If the boss is down here drinking, he’s bringing the younger guys that he’s coaching, so it’s a good mix. It’s not necessarily an older or younger clientele, but they’re all professionals.”

And sometimes an after-work cocktail is in order.

“Bourbon is the new trend,” Tapley said. “People are big on bourbon with king cubes. The idea is that the large cubes don’t water your drink down by having multiple small chips. So you can enjoy that cocktail for 20 minutes, and it’ll taste almost the same from when you first got it.”

It’s this attention to detail that has the Charleston-based restaurant group flourishing on the bar and restaurant scene. Like the restaurant, the bar has an ever-evolving menu that Tapley says changes four times a year with the seasons.

“A few are staples, but we change 70 percent of the menu each time,” he said. “So we’re always coming up with new creative flavor profiles. Different kinds of bitters.”

Tapley said a few of the bar’s more popular drinks include the sugar and spice martini – “a combination that teases your taste buds” – Oak Table lemonade – “clean, crisp, not sweet” – and the restaurant’s seasonal sangria.

“We make it from scratch,” Tapley said. “We chop up apples, pears, a little bit of mint, add a homemade pomegranate grenadine – and sticking with the true Spanish we use a Tempranillo wine. We let that soak with the fruit for a 48-hour minimum, and then I’ll pull that out and add some amaretto to it, some grand marnier, peach schnapps. The pomegranate grenadine, instead of adding simple syrup, really gives it a deeper richness.”

Tapley said the specialty drinks weren’t conceived overnight, noting that it took trial, error and plenty of cocktails circling the drain before they were ready to reach consumers.

“Bartending has become a lot like cooking: It’s a lot of pairings, flavor profiling, what works well with others, what clashes,” he said. “Really, when you’re making a specialty cocktail, the hardest thing to do is find a perfect blend of ingredients. Sometimes what worked in my head and what I thought looked good on paper doesn’t come through in a glass, so you have to go back to the drawing board. But you take from that what doesn’t work together. So even when you’re dumping it down the drain, you’re educating yourself.”

It’s that kind of work that keeps The Oak Table among Columbia’s top restaurants.

“We’re always going to be working to stay on top of new trends and keeping what we’re true to, which is local, sustainable, fresh,” he said. “As long as we stick with that program, keep the menu changing and stay committed to service we should be great. It’s important that every guest that walks through our door leaves with the impression that they want to come back because it was an amazing experience.”