Charleston Fine Dining Restaurants Start to offer High-End Zero-Proof Drink Pairings
“The Restaurant at Zero George is perhaps the first in Charleston to do so, thanks to forward-thinking lead bartender Casie Fennell.
“People think they’ll be missing out by not being able to drink, but we are saying, ‘Hey, we made this menu special for you,'” said Fennell.
The zero-proof pairing menu Fennell has come up with costs $50, half the price of a wine pairing option. It comes with five drinks that are served alongside Chef Vinson Petrillo’s exquisite high-end menu that includes an appetizer that is shaped like a cigar but in fact edible brown butter ash and one featuring preserved watermelon and ants. Fennell wanted to reflect the level of artistry that Petrillo puts into his dishes and flavor match as best as she could with the N/A pairing menu. She raided the pantry one night and found an orzo malt sitting around that she decided to use for an N/A Old Fashioned.
There’s also an Italian Soda with sweet corn and salted vanilla, the Wölffer “Spring in a Bottle” N/A Rose, the Wild Thornberries with blueberry, lime and Sichuan peppercorn and a dessert Dirty Chai Espresso Martini with spiritless rum, espresso, cinnamon and nutmeg.
“We’re trying to amplify the N/A choices,” she said.
She also shared that there are more ingredients that go into making a balanced mocktail versus a traditional cocktail with liquor. For instance, the Thai Iced Tea (paired with the red shrimp Thai curry) is made with black tea, coconut, star anise and some other tricks up her sleeve that aren’t revealed on the menu.
