With the coming of the new year, some folks are considering resolutions for a healthier lifestyle and/or maybe participating in Dry January. If you’re in this group, there are more good nonalcoholic options than ever, including a New Year’s Eve bash courtesy of the team behind Support the Homies and Killjoy.
Nathan Gifford of Gifford’s Bacon and Alex Chont came up with Support the Homies in an effort to work closely with the MNPS H.E.R.O. program, which supports the underserved students in our community. Their latest project has been converting Gifford’s former production facility at 1109 Straightway Ave. into a sort of clubhouse and event venue they are calling The Eastsider.
When Gifford moved his bacon production to a larger manufacturing plant in Alabama, his building was freed up to host events with a focus on food and drink, as well as live music. Each event at The Eastsider will have a charitable component to benefit the Support the Homies initiative.
For New Year’s Eve, Gifford and Chont have partnered with Stephanie Styll, the proprietor of boozeless beverage store Killjoy, for an alcohol-free celebration of the turning of the calendar. Well, it's actually the turning of the calendar if you live in Puerto Rico, because they have timed the party to reach a crescendo at 10 p.m., with a countdown that will allow early birds to be back home and in bed long before the night owls fire off the midnight fireworks.
Gifford will provide bacon treats to snack on, and Styll is in charge of the elevated NA cocktails, so you can start the new year a lot more alert and possibly with a little less guilt. Tickets are $60 (plus fees) and can be purchased at the event website. A portion of the proceeds will go to the Homeless Education Resource Office (H.E.R.O.) for Families in Transition program, which identifies and supports students within Metro Nashville Public Schools who are experiencing homelessness.
If you want to eliminate alcohol from your regular routine but still want to enjoy a bit of cocktail culture, Cut Above Spirits would like to have a word with you. Former banker Andrew Raul wanted to cut back on his alcohol consumption without giving up the entire cocktail experience, so he founded the nonalcoholic spirits company to create new cocktail ingredients that bartenders and home mixologists can use as 1:1 replacements for whiskey, gin, mezcal or white agave in drinks.
This makes it easier for bartenders to add NA drinks to their lists without having to invent a totally new cocktail based on alcohol substitutes. This also means that you can use Cut Above as a substitute for just one of the alcohol components of a cocktail, to cut the ABV without going completely NA. Think of whipping up a martini with vermouth and a gin substitute for a low-alcohol cocktail you could still enjoy at a “three-martini lunch.”
Raul consulted with bartenders and flavor experts to develop new products that mimic the flavor, viscosity and mouthfeel of upscale spirits. While you probably wouldn’t want to sip these straight up out of a snifter, I found that they were more than acceptable as part of simple or complex cocktails.
Cut Above’s gin is very juniper-forward — as you’d expect in a gin analog. The piney notes are stronger on the nose than in the glass, but it makes a fine gin and tonic. One interesting fact I learned from speaking to Raul is that he mimics the “heat” of alcohol by adding capsaicin (extract of chili peppers) to his blend, though less in the gin than his whiskey and agave spirits.
The whiskey was definitely the most difficult for Raul and his team to crack. He told me that, according to his flavor consultants, Cut Above's whiskey set the record for the most ingredients used in a single product — 140 different compounds. As the base of an Old Fashioned (traditionally a very boozy drink), it would markedly reduce the calories as well as the alcohol.
The agave blanco demonstrates the innate complexity of many high-end tequilas. The capsaicin contributes to a peppery nose and a familiar heat on the palate, along with berries and celery. It would make a fantastic Bloody Maria with your favorite spicy tomato mixer.
Cut Above’s version of mezcal was incredibly complex, smoky and earthy, with elements of some of the fusel alcohols that manifest in the slight hint of petroleum or tar in some mezcals. Whether this sounds appetizing to you, Raul committed to replicating those elements that make mezcal different and special. As part of a mezcal margarita, the smokiness of the nose is slightly muted, and the citrus of the mix complements the mezcal analog nicely.
If you’d like to try Cut Above Spirits, they offer full-size bottles and cocktail kits at their website, and also locally at spirits shops like Iroquois Wine & Spirits, Providence Wine & Spirits, Last Chance Liquors and Brinkmann's Wine & Spirits of Brentwood.
