When Ariana Grinblat was looking to start a traditional Russian restaurant in Greenwich Village, she knew she needed an exceptional menu of craft vodkas to complement her unique dishes. A match was made in heaven when she met Orson Salicetti, famed cocktail artist and former mixologist at Apotheke, who told the crowd at the restaurant on a recent evening that he’d always wanted the opportunity design the cocktail menu for a vodka bar—a not-so-common staple when among its whiskey and gin bar counterparts. The resulting menu at Ariana is arranged into three distinct type of drinks to please any vodka drinker, and a selection of unique barrel-aged vodkas will even appeal to those more inclined to drink brown liquors.
One standout drink on the menu is The Petite, a spring-y cocktail with a base of muddled grapes accented with elderflower liqueur and hibiscus elixir. Here’s how to make it for yourself this weekend.
The Petite
8 green grapes
1 1/2 oz of vodka
1 oz of elderflower liqueur
3/4 oz of lime juice
1/4 oz of agave nectar
1/4 oz club soda
1/4 oz hibiscus elixir
Muddle four grapes in a shaker, add the rest of ingredients except for the hibiscus elixir and soda. Shake with ice, pour in a rock glass and the remaining grapes. Add one dash of hibiscus elixir in the top of the cocktail and one splash of soda topped with one green grape as a garnish.
