Taste Cocktails By David Gadd
Living Libations COCKTAIL CREATORS TURN TO THE GARDEN FOR THE FRESHEST FLAVORS.
A Finney’s Crafthouse & Kitchen Strawberry Mojito
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ardening is a year-round affair in the 805, but even so, spring has a special meaning for those with itchy green thumbs. Likewise, for cocktail lovers it’s the season to begin incorporating garden-grown ingredients into mixed drinks. For inspiration, we turn to five Central Coast practitioners who literally bring the garden to the glass. Longtime Santa Barbara resident Alvaro
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Castellanos Rojas grew up in the kitchen of his father, a professional chef, and opened his first restaurant while still in his early 20s. With the arrival of Alcazar Tapas Bar in 2000, followed by Milk & Honey in 2007, Rojas hit his stride serving inventive food and creative cocktails, both of which draw extensively on the garden’s offerings. His latest venture, opened this spring, is Glass House Cocktail Garden (glasshousecocktails.com), an all-outdoor cocktail garden inspired by pioneering
American botanist David Fairchild. “Fairchild is responsible for [introducing to the United States] over 200,000 plant species that we enjoy in our diets today—things like mangoes, dates, kumquats, avocados, etc.,” says Rojas. “Thanks to him we have a vastly more extensive array of choices when we sit down to eat our meals.” Naturally, botany enthusiast Rojas relies on living ingredients for his cocktails. “We’ve been growing goodies from our
