Bottoms Up: Fall Books & Bespoke Cocktails

Something for the ghosts, divas, and neurotic artists within us all.

Picture this: There’s a chill in the air, you’re wearing the perfect layers of soft cashmere, and tearing through a new fall book. Most literary newsletters might call it quits right here — “This is perfect!” they’d say — but not us. We know there’s another level of sensuality one can add to the experience of getting lost in a great read…and that’s getting just a liiiitle bit drunk. Ahead, we’ve created bespoke cocktails for a few of our most anticipated books of the season, courtesy of Language Arts’ (and Byroads Bars’) very own bartender-in-residence, Sophia June. Cheers!

Model Home by Rivers Solomon - Oct. 1

For this modern day haunted house story: a smoky, boozy Southern Gothic-inspired cocktail that packs as big a punch as invasive kudzu.

Smoky Peach Margarita with Kudzu Flower Garnish

2 oz. Georgia peach puree

1.5 oz. mezcal

1 oz. triple sec

1 oz. lime

1 oz. honey

Black salt rim

Add to mixer with ice. Shake, strain into rocks glass. 

Garnish with kudzu.

Didion and Babitz by Lili Anolik - Nov. 12, Scribner  

These two literary icons would each demand cocktails of their own. For Babitz, a California take on the rum punch, for an intrepid party girl (with an option to light it all on fire at the end). For Joan, a distinctly flirty twist on the distinguished Manhattan, for the woman who can undoubtedly tie a cherry stem in a knot with her mouth. 

Eve’s California Gold Rum Punch

2 oz. pineapple juice 

2 oz. guava juice 

1 oz. fresh-squeezed orange juice 

1 oz. lime juice 

2 oz. white rum

2 oz. dark rum

Add to glass over ice. Stir. Garnish with a maraschino cherry. 

Hollow out a lime. Fill it with 151 Rum. Light a match. Watch it burn :) 

Serve with a bendy straw, poolside.

Joan’s Cherry Manhattan

2 oz bourbon

1 oz sweet vermouth 

.5 oz. Luxardo cherry liqueur

1 dash of Fernet

Add to mixer with ice. Stir and strain into a coupe. 

Garnish with a bourbon-soaked cherry, sans stem.

Woo Woo by Ella Baxter - Dec. 3, Catapult

For Ella Baxter’s novel about a conceptual artist? A martini almost too beautiful to drink, featuring Ume, an implausibly luminescent plum liqueur.

Plum-Tini

2 oz. gin

1.5 oz. Ume

.5 Current Cassis currant liqueur

Add to mixer with ice. Stir and strain into a coupe.

Garnish with a lemon twist.