ory wood aptly named the Chuck Norris. It
was a smoky, sweet number with a pickled
ginger garnish that went down dangerously
smoothly.
It was bar manager Gabriel Colom-
Rocha who clarified their mission. To
him, creating a cocktail menu that pushes
people’s boundaries is more important
than serving up a new take on something
you’ve had a hundred times before. After
all, why have yet another bloody mary
when you could discover a new brunch
favorite altogether?
46 NOVEMBER 2 0 1 7
And that’s how The Highwater began: a
group of friends aspiring to create something
accessible, but completely new, come
hell or high water.
My next drink was personally recommended
by self-described “OG waitress”
Bianca Rodriguez: Riker’s Riot, a cocktail
that came about by accident but hits your
tastebuds with a purpose. Cucumberinfused
rum mixes with a delightful citrusy
syrup in a creamy splash of summer, and it
was born when someone on staff mistakenly
put rum in a drink that was supposed
to have gin in it.
But hey, it works, and I wouldn’t have gotten
to try it if I had come in wanting more
of the same.
Happy though I was to keep drinking whatever
they put in front of me, I knew I had to
eat something at some point, and started
asking after their dinner menu. Their winter
menu should have hit tables by the printing
of this article (I’ll certainly be keeping an
eye out for the seafood hot pot), but to get
me started, they brought out two all-season
dishes: chili edamame and taro fries, a french
fry made from an Asian root vegetable called
the taro. The edamame was lovely, but it was
the taro fries that stood out to me — soft yet
still possessing the crunchy exterior charac-
FOOD +DRINK