Every Tuesday on The Feed we chat with Alex of @CTfoodgirly about the great spots offering fun food and refreshing drinks in Connecticut. Today we dive into Connecticut’s cocktail culture as Alex shares her favorite picks with fun twists on great adult beverages!

Check out Alex’s list here:

Cocktails:

1928 Cocktail Club – Branford It’s a modern Cocktail Bar and reminiscent of a 1920’s era Speakeasy, it’s super cool to have a speakeasy here in CT with a bar and lounge. They offer a bunch of different crafted cocktails for every palette and every weekend there is a new password to get you in the doors, it’s super cool, you have to knock on the wall and whisper the word of the weekend to get in. They do live jazz every Thursday night so you’re really brought back to that 1928 feel.

My two favorite cocktails there are:

Strawberry Fields – St. George vodka, strawberry, lemon, simple syrup, and egg white.

Queen Bee – Empress 1908 gin, sparkling, lime, lavender syrup, orange, blackberry and raspberry. This club turns two on June 3rd, and so on this Saturday, June 1st, they will be having a big celebration.

Rosso Vino – Branford

One of my all time favorite restaurants, Rosso Vino has a Rhode Island, beach vibe that is an open, clean, quaint neighborhood spot. Every week they announce their specials menu and what I love about Rosso Vino is that they always have a section for their specialty cocktails that week. They make them all in house, Friday they released the menu and they have a black cherry aperol spritz, a blackberry mini martini with blueberry vodka, and a mezcal paloma with fresh grape juice. A big bowl of their bolognese pasta and a specialty cocktail is perfect for this springtime weather outside.

Shell & Bones – New Haven Now this is an award winning spot for waterfront seafood, steak and raw bar. They have such a great bar scene with a very lively and fun atmosphere on the weekends.

They offer a great frose with rose vodka, rose wine, lemon and strawberry, delicious on a sunny day. They also offer a super refreshing white or red sangria. Shell & Bones is also owned by the same business as Geronmo’s Tequila bar, so they offer those famous margaritas there as well and a classic mojito with sugarcane and fresh mint.

Mezcal – New Haven Down-to-earth restaurant serving Mexican classics ranging from burritos to margaritas.

They offer tasty margaritas, frozen ones too which are my favorite for this sunny weather, all different flavors like mango, lime, strawberry, passion fruit, peach and you can even mix two flavors together if you want. They offer flavored mojitos too, mango, strawberry, coco, pina, which is delicious.

Mocktails:

Ordinary – New Haven

This is such a cool spot in New Haven if you’ve never been, it’s a restored bar with the best vibes. For mocktails, they are just as handcrafted as any other cocktail here. A couple on their menu right now are the Carribean Queen, with pineapple syrup, white chocolate heavy cream, and hosmer white birch with some nutmeg. The John Daly, which is aloe soursop vinegar, fresh lime, athletic beer, and orange. And lastly, the Not Your Mothers Mai Tai, orgeat, slated cherry orange juice, citrus shrub, ginger beer and rose water.

Sherkaan – New Haven This is a great restaurant if you’re a lover of Central and South Indian street food, they offer great seasonally rotating menus. Now Sherkaan has a whole list of non alcoholic beverages a rose lemonade, a lemongrass mojito, but I really would love to try their Nimbu Pani, which they call Indian Gatorade, it’s lime cordial, black salt, lime juice, masala soda and mint.

Athletic Brewing Company – Milford

This is the first and the largest non-alcoholic brewery in America. They always have at least four beers on tap, all non-alcoholic and you can sample them in flights. I see a lot of people trying their yellow and navy blue cans, for their Upside Dawn non-alcoholic brew. I’ve tried it. It’s well-balanced, clean and definitely light-bodied, which I love this time of year. You can purchase their non-alcoholic canned beers online as well if you can’t make it out to Milford

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