Bubbles for everyone! Celebrate the new year with a champagne cocktail
Champagne is a tried and true celebratory drink. And if there’s any time to celebrate, it’s New Year’s Eve.
It’s customary to have a glass of champagne to ring in the new year, but it doesn’t have to be just champagne. Here are three champagne cocktails being served around Columbia.
Solstice Kitchen
This Northeast Richland restaurant has a reputation for delicious seasonal meals. And now you can add a great St. Germain cocktail to the list.
“Our most popular just by the glass is the La Marca prosecco, and we have a St. Germain cocktail that we put with the La Marca prosecco,” bartender Lisa Stone said. “It’s an awesome drink to have.”
The beverage is St. Germain liqueur, prosecco (Italy’s version of champagne) soda water and lemon. Solstice adds elderflower liqueur to make it a little sweeter. As far as popularity goes, you need only look around the bar for the tall Collins glasses to know it’s a drink worth trying.
“It’s been on our menu for a couple of years,” Stone said. “Everyone loves bubbles.”
841 Sparkleberry Lane #4. (803) 788-6966, www.solsticekitchen.com
Mr. Friendly’s
Mr. Friendly’s general manager Lauren Tebeau created Grandma’s Cider for this time of year, but it’s not for every grandma. The drink is made up of Zaya rum (“a beautifully rich rum”), apple cider, fresh lemon, tart apple shrub and topped with J. Roget.
“I like to do something fun every now and then,” Tebeau said. “I just came up with it a few weeks ago. It’s on the list and has sold well so far.”
Tebeau thought up the drink when she realized she hadn’t made a rum-based cocktail in a while. But to add champagne to rum?
“Every part of this cocktail just needs that brightness; that bubbly-ness,” she said. “It’s got the sweet, it’s got the bitter, it’s got everything else it needs. It just needed that brightness.”
2001 Greene St., Suite A. (803) 254-7828, www.mrfriendlys.com
Saluda’s
Leave it to Saluda’s to take a classic like the French 75 and jazz it up for the holidays. The French 75 l’Orange is made of Cava (Spain’s version of champagne) with Grand Marnier, Hennessy, lemon juice, simple syrup and an orange twist instead of the standard lemon twist.
“I appreciate taking a classic cocktail and putting a spin on it. It’s my favorite thing,” bartender Andrew Thompson said. “I took the original French 75, which is gin and lemon juice, and was thinking of what I could do that was more fall and had orange flavors. It’s just a really good fall, wintery cocktail. People seem to enjoy it. No one’s thrown it back at me yet.”
751 Saluda Ave. (803) 799-9500, www.saludas.com
This story was originally published December 28, 2016 at 2:28 PM with the headline "Bubbles for everyone! Celebrate the new year with a champagne cocktail."