The American South’s Best Cocktails in a MICHELIN Restaurant in 2025

"Housed inside a restored century-old church, I help lead one of Charlotte’s top dining destinations: the main dining room is bright and inviting with soaring ceilings and sunlight, while the cocktail bar—once the minister’s residence—is equally charming and luminous. We were honored as the 2025 MICHELIN Guide American South Exceptional Cocktails Award Winner. I describe our cocktail program in recipe form: shaken, straight up—1 part classic, 2 parts modernist, 1 part molecular, 2 heavy dashes of local & sustainable—shaken until full dilution without being showy, double strained and garnished with a smile. The main dining room menu features cocktails meant to pair with our Southern steakhouse—like the Queens Cosmopolitan (a local honey–sweetened riff with a glittery honey powder rim) and the Midwood Manhattan (bourbon and rye blended with a house vermouth made from three sweet vermouths, bitters and a house brandied cherry). Our main cocktail bar is where we get technical and experimental: nitro muddling (for example the Nitro Muddled Mint Julep), glass‑evolving cocktails using flavored ice with melt times controlled by a refractometer, clarified milk punches, olive oil and fat‑washed cocktails, and items like green apple ice (we juice fresh apples, preserve the color with a trace of sodium bisulfite, freeze the juice into cubes and use the cooked‑down remains with hydrocolloids to make a vegan foaming egg‑white replacer). I lean heavily on local, seasonal produce—I go to the regional farmers’ market weekly—and in the fall my favorite is the Paw Paw Spritz (Drumshanbo Gunpowder Green Tea Gin, pawpaws cooked down with pineapple skins, a touch of sugar, topped with Pet‑Nat sparkling wine and garnished with frozen grapes). For a nonalcoholic option I reach for the NA Amaretti Sour." - The MICHELIN Guide