& 45 degrees in Providence.
Time for a Rum Punch!
Clément Première Canne white rum, Smith & Cross Rum (oak-aged, navy strength), Blackstrap Rum, Pierre Ferrand Dry Curaçao + coconut water, fresh pressed lime & orange…garnish with fresh mint sprig & an orange wheel.
Happy New Year! Summer is a state of mind. <3 Little Bitte
I am a writer, mixologist and beverage consultant & I own Little Bitte Artisanal Cocktails, Rhode Island’s first “garden to glass” cocktail catering company. I grew up on a small herb farm called Blessingway, just 10 miles outside of Providence, where I learned to make bitters, tinctures and infusions with my mom, an herbalist & midwife. I’m inspired by fresh and foraged foods, natural wine & knowing where my ingredients come from. I sing and make performance art with my sister Glenna (We’re called VNS, Van Nostrand Sisters.) & I love living on the Westside of Providence. I enjoy travelling across our small Ocean State to find the most delicious food & drink. Keep your eyes peeled for my cocktail column, Here’s How! Cocktails, in Edible Rhody.
For Coffee & Pastry: Pastiche. I have been going there for cappuccino and rugelach since I was a young teenager. I love the warm ambience with the fireplace in the winter. I’ve also been known to end up at Pastiche on my morning runs. Counter-intuitive? I think not!
Bolt Coffee at The Dean for espresso, quick meetings & checking out the great culture & couture magazine collection in the lobby.
For Brunch: Nick’s on Broadway, Kitchen and Loie Fuller’s. You cannot beat a meal at Nick’s. Howard at Kitchen makes a mean french toast and his bacon is thick, hand-cut and crispy. Loie Fuller’s hosts 1 brunch a week on Sundays and it always feels like a special occasion: farm fresh eggs, colorful salads, inventive omelettes. You may even catch an order of fried chicken & waffles if you’re lucky.
For Dinner: Alforno for Spicy Margherita Pizza and a martini, Den Den for the Kimchi Hot Pot or Ramen & a glass of rosé & El Rancho Grande for Enchiladas Suizas and Mezcal (my favorite spirit). And always, oysters at North.
Cocktails: The Slow Rhode. I am so excited about this place! It’s Pat Lowney’s (from Broadway Bistro) newest addition to the Westside food scene. Amazing small shareable plates, a take on Nashville hot fried chicken, a delicious burger…The Westside has been due for a place like this for a few years now. I consulted on the cocktail menu & we have some real beauties for you, like a pristine honey-distilled vodka & cassis (black currant) cocktail or a spicy & floral margarita with black sea salt & a Bourbon Old-Fashioned with a serious kick. Go with a friend or 2 and taste through the cocktail list. I dare you. Pair with the seared kale salad, crawfish beignets & any of the bigger plates (hot fried chicken!!).
After, hop down to Lonely Street in Olneyville Square for a round. Order a mini Bud bottle (It’s just so darn cute!) and a shot of VEP Green Chartreuse, this is one of their specialties…While you’re at it, take a few pics in the black and white photo booth!
Wine: I am really excited about natural wine. Natural wines are generally biodynamic & organic ones that have been produced with very little intervention on the vineyard, in the cellar and during bottling, i.e., low-to-zero additives or sulfites. Think purity, personality and terroir. Campus Fine Wines has a great natural wine selection as does Grapes & Gourmet in Jamestown. A few bottles to try: Morphos Petillant Naturel (from Maine) or Royaz Sparkling Wine (from Slovenia). You will find both at Grapes & Gourmet. Taste Domaine du Mortier Graviers 2013 (Loire Valley, France) & Chemins de Bassac Isa White 2014 (Languedoc-Roussillon). Both are available at Campus Fine Wines. Not sure if your local wine store stocks natural wine? Ask! And yee shall receive…
Live Music: There’s nothing like it! I used to book music & curate art shows at Machines With Magnets in Pawtucket. Marcel Mcvay is doing a great job lining up fresh acts & exciting experimental musicians now (Great bar program too!). I love what the guys at The Columbus Theatre are doing – I look forward to seeing Morgan Eve’s new project, The Huntress. Keep your eyes peeled for Jacob Wolf, he books fabulous (free!?) folk shows at Aurora on Monday nights.
Outings: I love any hike that’s next to the ocean. Walks at Beavertail in Jamestown, Goddard Park in East Greenwich & Lincoln Woods are my go-tos. I’m always looking for new spots to take my pup Gladiola (Gladdy) for a long walk.
The Old-Fashioned Dram
(A spin on a traditional Old-Fashioned with a spicy, warming bite of allspice)
2 oz Bulleit Bourbon
¼ oz Saint Elizabeth Allspice Dram
barspoon sugar (or a brown sugar cube if you have one)
garnish with blood orange wheel
Preparation: In a rocks glass, add a barspoon of sugar (or brown sugar cube) and Allspice Dram and muddle for 10 seconds until you have a fine paste. Add ice and pour whiskey. Stir for 15 seconds and garnish with a blood orange wheel. Cheers!
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Whether you prefer a sparkling blowout of a party or a quiet night at home on the couch, New Year’s Eve deserves a special cocktail. Enter The Sequin, a fabulous Armagnac-based concoction crafted just for you by Willa Van Nostrand, the award-winning mixologist behind catering operation Little Bitte Artisanal Cocktails of Providence. With the motto “from garden to glass,” Willa aims to please the palate and concoct a feast for the eyes. Here, she presents the perfect libation for New Year’s Eve, a pick-me-up for the day after, and a mocktail for teetotalers (or little people) who want celebrate with style.
With The Sequin – a twist on the traditional sidecar – she’s swapped Armagnac for Cognac (they’re cousins), and added a some extra citrus for brightness. “I adore Cognac,” explains Willa, “but it’s a pricey style of brandy to use in mixed drinks, especially if you’re making a batched cocktail. Armagnac is a cost effective alternative, and has a really lovely palate – specifically, butterscotch and vanilla notes that lend themselves to mixing.” Make it by the glass, or mix up a batch as a signature cocktail to delight your entire squad.
And because a few bubbles always put a little sparkle back in everyone’s mood the following day, Willa’s also concocted the Olympia Spritz, a lightly sweetened, sparkling delight. “A good ‘hair of the dog’ cocktail needs to be light, simple, and just sparky enough to add the bounce back to your step,” adds the mixologist. “This one is great bc it’s deliciously refreshing and there’s very little prep involved.”
Prefer to avoid potential regret or just need a non-alcoholic option? The virgin Persephone Sparkler, made with lime, ginger, and pomegranate, is the perfect potion for night or day. “The pomegranate symbolizes the cyclical change of seasons,” says Willa, “and reminds us that spring follows winter. Persephone, in this case, is a ray of sunshine on a cold winter day.”
Yes, these cocktails require a little more effort than popping open the Veuve and pouring it straight out of the bottle, but the send-off to the holiday season is totally worth it, right? No matter how you celebrate, New Year’s is a time to reflect on times gone by, and to look forward with hope to the future. So go ahead and make a special drink then raise a glass and make a toast to auld lang syne and all that’s to come. After all, every sequin needs a spotlight to really make it shine. – Meaghan O’Neill
makes 1 drink
1½ ounces Armagnac (I <3 Marie Duffau Armagnac)
½ ounce Dry Curaçao or Cointreau
½ ounce fresh squeezed lemon juice
½ ounce fresh squeezed Honeybell tangelo juice (or substitute your favorite fresh citrus juice here)
Granulated sugar for glass rim*
Pour liquid ingredients over ice, shake hard and strain into a chilled cocktail glass rimmed with sugar. Add a twist of orange in homage to a classic sidecar. Yields 1 cocktail.
*To prepare a sugared rim, coat the outside lip of the glass with a citrus wedge and roll the edge of the glass in sugar. Allow to dry as you build the cocktail.
makes 1 drink
1/2 ounce Creme de Cassis (I love Giffard Cassis De Bourgogne)
1/4 ounce Dry Curaçao or Cointreau
Champagne or Prosecco
orange wheel, for garnish
Pour liqueurs in Champagne flute and top slowly with chilled bubbly. Garnish with an orange wheel. Sip. Sunshine!
Persephone Sparkler mocktail1 teaspoon fresh pomegranate seeds, plus more for garnish
½ inch fresh ginger, diced
1 lime wedge (½ lime, cut into quarters)
sparkling water (or substitute ginger beer for a sweeter variation)
Muddle lime wedge, fresh ginger, and pomegranate seeds in the bottom of a sturdy rocks or highball glass. Add ice and sparkling water and garnish with additional whole pomegranate seeds.
Photos by Glenna Van Nostrand
Visit Puddingstonepost.com for more fun & delicious reading!
We had the chance to join Bronwyn Dannenfelser on air yesterday for the WaterFire Ignites RI Radio Show – tune in to the podcast below to listen & check out 4 new Little Bitte Holiday recipes!
Cheers! – Little Bitte
Brew 1 cup hibiscus tea and steep for 20 minutes and sweeten with 1 tablespoon honey. Let cool. Pour 2 ounces over ice & top with sparkling water. Garnish with citrus wheel: choose mandarin, kumquat or tangerine. Take advantage of the citrus that’s coming into season!
Glassware: Highball glass
(Sparkling Black currant lemonade)
.5 oz organic cassis juice
.5 oz lemon juice
Sweeten & dissolve 1 tablespoon honey in the solution.
Add ice & top with sparkling water.
Garnish with a lemon wheel & a fresh sprig of mint
Glassware: Champagne flute
2oz Tequila
.5 oz triple sec (Grand Marnier or Cointreau is great)
.5 oz fresh lime juice
1 oz fresh clementine juice
Garnish with a clementine wheel
Preparation: Shake the ingredients except the garnish and pour over fresh ice in a rocks glass.
Glassware: Rocks glass
*The brilliance of this cocktail is that it’s a traditional sour recipe so you can substitute any spirit for the base liquor: vodka, gin, rum or whiskey. Choose your favorite and elaborate from there!
.5 oz fresh blood orange juice
.5 oz Giffard Ginger of the Indies or Canton Ginger Liqueur
Top with sparkling wine like Cava or Prosecco
Garnish with a blood orange wheel
Glassware: Champagne flute
Brunch cocktails are a weakness, especially a mimosa with fresh squeezed orange juice and a dry sparkling wine. In the winter, I look forward to blood orange season and the fresh citrus from sunnier parts of the globe. In short, I look for inventive ways to add sunshine to my glass.
Roselle (Hibiscus sabdariffa), commonly referred to as Red Sorrel, is in the hibiscus family. When brewed as a tea or a simple syrup, Roselle produces an exotic crimson hue and a taste similar to fresh cranberries. In New England, Roselle is grown as a decorative annual. For this purpose, it’s not the flowers but the calyx, the horned crimson pod also produced by the plant, that you’re after.
It’s easy to start Roselle from seed in a sunny bed after the last frost of spring and watch it sprout into tall (2-foot) stems mitted with three-pronged leaves and pinkish-yellow buds. The calyxes are ready to be picked in August or early fall, just after the buds have blossomed.
Air-dry the pods in a cool dry place with good air circulation and save them to make a rich ruby-red simple syrup. In mid-winter its flavors will remind you of the not so distant past, when only fans and popsicles could alleviate the heat.
If you’re not met with success in the garden, dried hibiscus can be purchased at Farmacy Herbs in Providence or online at FrontierCoop.com.
½ ounce roselle simple syrup*
½ ounce blood orange juice
Top with dry sparkling wine
(I like Morphos American sparkling wine from Maine or prosecco)
In a flat champagne coupe, add Roselle simple syrup, blood orange juice and top with dry sparkling wine. Yields 1 cocktail.
* Boil 1 cup water in a small saucepot. Remove from heat and add 5 dried Roselle calyxes (or 1 tablespoon dried hibiscus leaves), cover and steep for 25 minutes. Remove and discard calyxes, then add 1 cup granulated sugar. Stir over low heat for 1 minute, cool and pour into a clean glass jar. Refrigerate for up to 1 month.
Visit ediblerhody.ediblefeast.com for more recipes & delicious reading!
Photo by Chip Riegel
We’re hosting a signature cocktail tasting with Grapes & Gourmet! We’re excited to team up with our ol’ pals (Did you know we grew up together!?) and taste a few holiday fancies.
Come experience 2 fabulous new cocktails, bring home the recipes & do a little pregame Thanksgiving shopping: wine, cheese, cocktail fixings anyone?
Yes, please!
Cheers!
– Little Bitte + Grapes & Gourmet
with Little Bitte Artisanal Cocktails
Thursday, December 3rd, 2015 | 6-7pm
Field of Artisans, 333 Main St, Wakefield RI
This workshop includes everything you’ll need to craft your own customized bitters blend. Learn the essential principles of building aromatic bitters and choose from an array of fresh and dried herbs, medicinal botanicals, spices & locally grown edible blossoms.
Taste traditional & experimental bitters recipes for inspiration
Learn how to make savory, floral & botanical bitters blends
Mix and master the perfect Champagne cocktail
Take home your personalized bitters infusion
No prior experience is necessary! Come ready to taste & experiment.
Class $25 – includes materials & cocktail tasting
Email Katrina at Fieldofartisans@gmail.com for questions & purchase tickets HERE!
<3 Little Bitte
One of my first memories involves harvesting bushels of apples in the backyard with my mom on our farm in Rehoboth, MA. We would make a game of depositing overflowing armloads of apples into baskets as fast as we could, my father at the cider press crushing the fruit with his hand-crank machine. I can still see Dad slopping the amber liquid down a funnel into gallon containers, carelessly swatting lazy yellowjackets as they buzzed drunkenly from apple to overripe apple. The addition of the cider to the Cider Press Sidecar was inspired by those wasps in bacchanalian flight.
— Little Bitte | Willa Van Nostrand
APPLE CIDER. We simply cannot get enough of it! Right now it’s fresh and fabulous, so embrace this nectar while it’s truly in season. Imagine, one in every ten farms in New England operated its own cider mill by the time of the American Revolution.
Today we raise our glass to Johnny Appleseed!
The Cider Press Sidecar is a variation of a traditional Prohibition-era sidecar, made with Calvados (apple brandy from the Normandy region in France) instead of Cognac and the addition of fresh apple cider. Use local cider and experiment with domestic apple brandy such as Laird’s Applejack Brandy as your base spirit.
The Cider Press Sidecar
1½ ounces Calvados or apple brandy
½ ounce fresh apple cider from your local orchard (We like Jaswell’s)
½ ounce Cointreau or dry Curacao
½ ounce fresh squeezed lemon juice
Granulated sugar for rim
Pour ingredients over ice, shake hard and strain into a chilled cocktail glass rimmed with sugar. (To prepare a sugared rim, coat the outside lip of the glass with a lemon wedge and roll the edge of the glass in sugar.) Add an optional twist of lemon or orange in homage to a classic sidecar.
Cheers! – <3 Little Bitte
Avoid Turkey Day panic with expert advice.
Q to Little Bitte: I’d like to serve a festive cocktail. Do you have any ideas? And can you suggest something that can be made in advance so I don’t have to make drinks while cooking?
