Watershed Kitchen & Bar Yard Sale Menu
How the Yard Sale Menu Came to Be
BY: JOSHUA GANDEE
Beverage Director, Watershed Kitchen & Bar
We change the cocktail menu two times a year at Watershed Kitchen & Bar. Depending on the time of the year, a menu labeled Spring//Summer or Fall//Winter will be placed in front of you. Every six months, the bar staff and I embark on a journey of flavor, design, and sharing that allows us to dig into our inner cocktail-psyche and pull out (what we hope is) something extraordinary that the drinking community in Columbus can be excited about.
It takes approximately three months from the first time one of us says, “I have an idea for the next cocktail menu,” to fully flesh out the landscape and send the finished product to print. In the case of our latest, “YARD SALE: A MIDWEST COCKTAIL MENU,” there were many steps, and just as many touch points along the way.
In January of 2019, I put together a brief overnight field trip to Detroit for myself and the bar staff. I had packed away with me the idea for the next cocktail menu that I was to unveil to them before we started our activities. I chose Detroit because it is a food and drink destination, built by honest Midwest folks who aren’t being told what to do or how to do it, and happen to be producing some of the best restaurants and menus this side of the US. It’s also an easy drive.
While we were all standing in an Airbnb, I informed my bartenders that the next theme for the menu was to be ‘Midwest Nostalgia’ and that I didn’t yet know what that meant. Our goal was to collectively figure that out. On our trip, we toured Shinola to see how a company that started the same year as Watershed was able to produce world-renowned watches, while also giving back to the community. We visited the Henry Ford Museum so that we could time travel through the technology that defined generations. We ate together as a family and consumed everything the city had to offer. The one piece of homework the bartenders were to carry with them was the question of, “What does the Midwest mean to me?”
From our trip came many ideas and lovely taste and sense memories shared by the team. A few that arose: “I want a cocktail that tastes the way the air smells the first time you cut the grass in the spring.” “I remember eating Neapolitan ice cream at my grandparents’ house.” We wanted to create a menu that reflected who we are now, how we grew up, and how the Midwest impacted us.
As the bar team plugged away on cocktails that defined the Midwest, the creative team began holding meetings about how to visually show the emotion and care that the bar team was producing by way of mixed drinks. After many crumpled pieces of paper and scribbles on whiteboard, we settled on the idea of the Yard Sale. We figured, what better a way to introduce pieces of nostalgia - the things and memories we hold dear - than by literally putting them on display? It led us to separate the cocktails into ‘lots’ which allows for our guests to pick a theme or a direction before they settle on a cocktail. The two ideas were merging into one, and we were excited.
Iterations of cocktails were being tasted by the team and tested by trusted regulars while trinkets and brick-a-brack were being sourced from basements, garages, and vintage stores. The bar team settled on spec, and the creative team scheduled photo shoots. After three days and eight sets, we had all the shots we needed and got to put together the final thing.
What resulted is a beautiful piece of nostalgia that is as much a treat to look at as it is to drink from. It contains little pieces of everyone that worked on it, whether that be a recipe or a piece of memorabilia from their home. If you grew up in the Midwest, you get to play a little game called, “hey remember when,” and if you grew up elsewhere, you get to leaf through a few pages and learn about the team and how we got where we are.
I’d like to share a couple cocktails from this menu. That way, you may carry their memory on once we make the inevitable move on to next menu, and so I may tell you a little bit about their background.
“I remember eating Neapolitan ice cream at my grandparents’ house,” led to the creation of the Three’s Company, a stirred vodka cocktail that holds flavors of vanilla bean, fresh picked strawberries, and delightful cacao that we’ve pushed through a nitro line on one of our tap handles. The nitro creates a velvety mouthfeel that mimics the perfect scoop of ice cream effect from start to finish.
“I want a cocktail that tastes the way the air smells the first time you cut the grass in the spring,” inspired the First Mow, which elicits the sense memory of mowing the lawn, replicated by green bean-infused cachaca, and a slightly bitter Italian dry vermouth.
Sunday Punch is a refreshing vodka cocktail that harkens back to punch bowls filled with sherbet, ginger ale, and laughing with friends. Kaffir lime leaf-infused vodka mingles with mango simple syrup and gets topped off with a fizzy ginger soda that keeps you coming back for more.
For more info on our latest menu, stop into the restaurant and start a conversation with your bar staff or any of us, really. Ask us about where we grew up, or feel free to share with us some of the flavors or moments that defined your upbringing. We hope you see you soon.
