"With summer on the verge, the W Philadelphia in Center City is gearing up with a revamped cocktail menu with a new face at the helm. 'Drinks are equal to food,' says Isai Xolalpa, W Philadelphia’s new beverage director. Xolalpa, 35, who was has lived in Philly for roughly 70 days, was the previous beverage director at the W Aspen in Colorado. He comes to the city of brotherly love and sisterly affection during a seasonal transition that inspired him to 'reset everything on the beverage menu completely.' 'All 13 drinks on the menu are new,' Xolalpa says. 'When I came to the W Philly, I wanted to give people something that smells, tastes, and feels like summer. So I reimagined what we could do here for the season.' The 13 new cocktails are broken up into three categories: Eight of them are signature, three of them are classics (margaritas, spritz, and ranch water), and two are zero proof (such as their I’ll Drive that’s made with non-alcoholic gin, raspberry syrup, Fever Tree tonic and the W Faloma made with aloe vera, super kumquat, super grapefruit, simple syrup, soda water). With these summer cocktails being served at the W Philadelphia’s popular WET Deck pool rooftop, Xolalpa says the vision for these cocktails is to 'get away, but not drunk.' 'These cocktails are meant for you to savor and enjoy, not get hammered,' Xolalpa says about the low ABV (alcohol by volume) in these beverages." - Ernest Owens
