The Whiskey Sea

Itzel Gracian

May 27

At the Manor Bar, located in the Rosewood Miramar Beach Hotel in Montecito California, the cocktails read like a good book. This year the innovative bar manager Itzel Gracian has created a drinks program inspired by female writers who feature strong female lead characters in their novels. The next chapter in the bar’s literary series, “Chronicles of the Cocktail: Volume II”, features drinks referencing novels such as Like Water for Chocolate and Little Women. Gracian comments, “The multifaceted appeal of literature provides such rich material for our flavor-forward menu and this new iteration dedicated to and celebrating women, is our most exciting showcase yet.”

The elegantly appointed Manor Bar, with its polished mahogany paneled walls, shelves full of books, and tasteful art adorning the walls, would not be out of place aboard the Nautilus, and in fact sounds quite like Captain Nemo’s smoking room. Perhaps Gracian will one day create a drink for the brilliant, haunted captain. Until then we can toast his Quest with one of her other novel drinks, which would be a perfect nightcap beneath the ocean. Her Whiskey Sea, inspired by Ann Howard Creel’s eponymous novel, is a brooding reflection on the illegal rum trade, ironically containing no whiskey at all. It is, regardless, delicious, with flavors of banana and chocolate to bring out the natural sweetness in the rum, and might be just the thing to launch you on your own Quest. Onward, to adventure! Cheers!