Meet the Mixologists

continued

The bar's rotating menu features familiar drinks such as an Amaretto Sour made with the classic egg white, simple syrup, and lemon juice--and not a drop of sweet-and-sour mix. But they're also creating some new concoctions made with traditional cocktail ingredients, like a "Y'ain't from 'Round Here," a drink containing Espolon Blanco, Dolin dry vermouth, grapefruit bitters, and a dill pickle.

Experimenting with ingredients, Farrell says, is a way of continuing the American cocktail traditions. No stranger to playing with food, he's also founded a jam-making company, Farrell Fruit.

"I try not to call them cocktails," says Farrell of his alcoholic creations. "I just call them drinks. It's become this thing. People act like they invented it," Farrell says, echoing the sentiments of the former bartender at Knight's.

"We're doing something people started ten years ago that really began decades ago."

---

The journey of these "drinks" into the lives of Ann Arbor imbibers was indirect. One might assume the mid-1990s arrival of martini lounges served as a precursor to the trend, but ask any classic cocktail bartender in town, and you'll get a different perspective.