5 Things - with Beverage Director Adam Miller

Photo by Eric Striffler Photography

The Beverage Program at Rita Cantina in Springs, New York is led by Adam Miller who boasts an impressive background in NYC’s cocktail scene. Rita has an extensive agave-focused bar program that embraces locals and visitors alike in a lively atmosphere. The cocktail program supports local farmers, utilizes in-season ingredients, and offers a killer Margarita—its namesake cocktail.

ADAM HAS WORKED AT THE BEST BARS IN THE BIZ.

I’ve worked at some of the best bars in NYC, including Bay Kitchen & Bar, The Happiest Hour, and Slowly Shirley. I’ve learned from some of the most incredible industry experts, who allowed me to rethink the ways we’re approaching cocktails.

HE LOVES TO SHARE HIS SIGNATURE MARGARITA RECIPE.

The classic Margarita is timeless and loved for its simplicity. Many classic cocktails with name recognition become timeless because they were popularized as artificial cocktails. Our classic Margarita is a simple tequila sour with an orange element that you can plug and play with in a simple yet beautiful way.

ADAM OPTS FOR A HYBRID STYLE OF MARGARITA

It was very important to have an amazing Margarita unique to Rita—especially when naming your bar after the last four letters of the namesake cocktail. Over the past 50 years, there’s debate over Tommy’s style or the Classic Margarita. There were challenging discussions choosing one way or the other when opening Rita. We decided to attempt a hybrid by combining that orange element into the agave in Tommy’s style.

HE CREATES HOUSE MADE ORANGE AGAVE SYRUP.

The orange agave syrup brings in the rich agave notes found in Tommy’s Margarita and the orange notes found in the original classic. This approach makes for a well-balanced, thoughtful, classic-adjacent, and unique Margarita. We aren’t reinventing the Margarita; people already love it. We just wanted to combine the two styles with a slight difference. The beauty is simplicity.

TO ADAM, EFFICIENCY IS KEY.

The orange agave syrup is super sustainable. We just dilute a highquality 100% agave syrup with some water and then bleed the orange essence into it. It’s got a great shelf-life and is usable in other agave-based cocktails. It’s not a one drink pony. We rim half the glass for efficiency’s sake eliminating the salt vs. no salt question. We rim every Margarita glass with half salt pre-service.