America’s top bar trends

Going Garden-to-Glass

Why should chefs have all the fun? The farm-to-table movement has transformed gastronomy, and now the garden-to-glass craze is poised to do the same for cocktailing. It’s not just about using fresh herbs, fruits and vegetables in cocktails, as serious cocktail bars have been doing for some time now.

Bartenders around the country are foraging for local, seasonal ingredients and even growing their own gardens, like Greg Seider (pictured) of Summit Bar in New York, who has a plot in a local community garden dedicated to growing produce for such garden-fresh cocktails as the tequila and pureed bell pepper based Ground to Glass. Thad Volger of Bar Agricole in San Francisco’s SoMa district harvests the ingredients for his fiercely locavoric cocktails, like the Long Rhum Buck with ginger and homegrown lemon, from a 500 square foot biodynamic garden on the premises. —CM