Seasonal drinking: Fall favorites from Island bartenders and baristas

0
Dailyn Markie of Offshore Ale Co. — Photo by Kaylea Moore

First off, I want to apologize to Faith’s Seafood Shack in Aquinnah. They are still open seven days a week through the end of October, Sunday through Thursday, 11 am to 4 pm; Friday and Saturday, 11 am to 7 pm, weather permitting.

In the spring, I wrote an article on what bartenders and baristas, the familiar faces that serve our drinks, were drinking for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. With the changing of the season, I decided to revisit beverages, and create a fall edition.

For breakfast, I am still on my smoothie kick, blending a combination of banana, blueberries, orange juice, Mermaid Farm yogurt, spinach, and chia seeds. For a mid-morning warm-me-up and pick-me-up, I heat up Oregon Chai with almond milk. Lunch could be a Cosmic Cranberry Kombucha or seltzer with a splash of cranberry juice and squeeze of lime. Night-time varies; towards the end of the summer, I was on a white wine spritzer kick, which has transitioned into red wine spritzers. Similar to the spring, hot toddy’s are back on my radar and I always get excited about finishing a night out with a sweet and sour caramel apple martini, and Atria makes a really good one.

With the changing of the season comes a transition of our taste buds. Fall flavors of apple, cranberry, pumpkin, and pear replace the refreshing watermelon, strawberry, basil, and cucumber flavors of the summer. Restaurants, bars, and coffee shops evolve their drink menus with the weather. Fall brews, full of spice, Oktoberfest ales, and apples and pumpkins dominate drink lists.

Here is a selection of people you may know who serve you beverages and what they like to drink during the fall:

Tatiana Pavlenko, manager at The Lookout Tavern in Oak Bluffs

Morning: Hot vanilla coffee with a little bit of Bailey’s (on my day off).

Noon: Kombucha or soda water.

Night: For dinner I like red wine. Pinot Noir is my favorite, but sometimes I like a nice heavy Cabernet.

Lookout signature fall drink: Milk and Cookies: Left Hand Milk Stout beer with chocolate vodka.

David Martinello, bartender at Henry’s at The Harbor View Hotel in Edgartown

Morning: Pumpkin spice latte, normally it would be Starbucks, but now it’s from Espresso Love or wherever else I can find on the Island, it’s all really good stuff.

Noon: A nice Pinot Noir or hard apple cider, you can’t go wrong with that. Angry Orchard or Woodchuck, those are really good. I like Granny Smith.

Night: A good old Harpoon IPA, an India Pale Ale, it’s relaxing.

Henry’s signature fall drink: Lighthouse Lemonade is our most popular signature cocktail. It’s muddled blueberries and raspberries with simple syrup, Maker’s Mark, and lemonade. It’s delicious. It might stick out through the fall since it’s so popular. We are working on a new cocktail list, with a white chocolate orange martini. We already made it once and it’s out of this world.

Julianna Hopkins, baker at Not Your Sugar Mamas in Vineyard Haven

Morning: Soy chai with a shot of espresso. I’ve been working on a chai recipe so maybe we’ll have one here sometime soon.

Noon: I’m usually a coffee or water person, it’s really one or the other. I put a little bit of coconut creamer and a little bit of sugar in my coffee. We make the Chilmark Coffee here, which is really good, but other than that it has to be good organic coffee.

Night: Water or Simply apple juice.

NYSM signature fall drink: Our Dandy lattes are something that I’ve never seen anywhere else. It’s made from dandelions and beetroot. It’s an alternative to coffee so you can drink that and still have the same energizing effects as coffee without having the caffeine addiction. We can make chocolate lattes too.

Vanessa Campbell, barista at Tocco Puro in Edgartown

Morning: Tocco Puro’s regular medium roast Honduras coffee with vanilla syrup.

Noon: Iced café crème brulée.

Night: I would do the iced café crème brulée again. It’s pretty good.

Tocco Puro signature fall drink: Either the iced café crème brulée or the iced chocolate caramel delight.

Jade Deslauriers, bartender at The Wharf Restaurant and Pub in Edgartown

Morning: Bloody Mary, nice and spicy. We make our own mix here. We liquefy horseradish with salt, pepper, and Old Bay. For a garnish, I like using celery, olives, lemons, and limes. I like that The Shanty and Atlantic does a shrimp garnish with an Old Bay rim.

Noon: Oktoberfest or beer in the afternoon.

Night: Glass of wine with dinner, I like the Meiomi Pinot Noir. Or a glass of prosecco or Champagne. I also like vodka soda. I stay on the vodka soda year round, but it’s not very seasonal.

Wharf signature fall drink: Honey hot toddy with American Honey whisky, lemon, a little bit of honey, and hot water.

Madeline Fuller, barista at Espresso Love in Edgartown

Morning: Regular cup of hot coffee with a splash of half and half.

Noon: To get me through the rest of the work day I’ll have a latte and sometimes put a little caramel in it if I’m feeling like I deserve it, which is really good.

Night: If I went out to dinner I would probably have a glass of Pinot Grigio or a beer. I usually just do Budweiser, because that’s what my dad drinks, or a Harpoon IPA.

Espresso Love signature fall drink: Absolutely the pumpkin spice latte, with homemade pumpkin spice syrup that our baker makes. We can put caramel in it too, which I like, the caramel and the pumpkin.

Dailyn Markie, bartender at Offshore Ale Co. in Oak Bluffs

Morning: Mocha Mott’s coffee, with just a little bit of milk.

Noon: Water and probably another cup of coffee.

Night: Shipyard Pumpkinhead beer and Guinness, half and half, at least once in a season.

Offshore Ale Co. signature fall drink: IPA is the most popular but Abel’s Hill India Dark Ale is coming right into season.

Keep Kaylea up-to-date with your restaurant news by emailing her at kaylea@mvtimes.com.