Fort Worth Booze News — The City’s Drinks Scene Keeps Getting More Interesting

The cup runneth over in Fort Worth. From new craft cocktails to wine purifiers and an unique Irish whiskey with a true Texas provenance, Cowtown’s bar and drinks scene keeps getting more interesting.

But it’s a lot to keep track of. Here are the Fort Worth drink happenings you need to know:

Ellerbe Ups Its Game

Joining a new autumn food menu from chef Molly McCook, Ellerbe’s bar menu is launching new classics and seasonal cocktails to go with the new food. These new drinks utilize boutique liquors and express the true flavors of Southern New Orleans. Some are smoky bourbon-based cocktails, while others are more fruit forward.

The enhanced bar menu at Ellerbe Fine Foods is a collaboration between McCook, Ellebre co-owner Richard King and new bar manager Kris Kuit, who moved to Fort Worth about three months ago. The trio calls it a “farm-to-cocktail” approach, and the new concoctions are designed to pair perfectly with McCook’s seasonal menu, including a harissa crab salad with lump crab, housemade harissa, honey roasted peanuts and fresh mint. Or the new BBQ dry rubbed tofu steak featuring Cowtown field peas, Hollow Trace mustard greens, crispy okra and local stout mustard butter.

The new cocktail classics include what one friend at this week’s preview event described as a “liquid forward” Sazerac (translation: a dab will do ya’); a Pimm’s Cup with Pimm’s gin, fresh citrus and muddled strawberries; and a real New Orlean’s style hurricane with both white and dark rums.

The two new Temperance alcohol-free cocktails were a hit too.

Kuit and McCook played with ingredients perfecting their new seasonal cocktail too. Ellerbe’s Southern old fashioned is made with rye whiskey, housemade sweet potato syrup and tobacco bitters for a traditional smoky note.

Two new gin drinks are also worth a taste. The garden spritz is herbal with fresh cucumber at the front, a bit of strawberry liquor and a splash of prosecco. Then there’s the purple-hued Rif Ram Bah Zoo (named after the TCU fight song) with a bit of lavender syrup, elderflower and citrus.

McCook tells PaperCity Fort Worth that the Ellerbe trio experimented with many ingredients, including purple cabbage, before landing on Japanese ube (sweet potato) to achieve the drink’s coloring.

Taking The Headache Out Of Wine

One wine accessory hopes to keep any wine headaches at bay and let you enjoy your favorite drinks without any worries. Pure Wine’s Wand purifiers eliminate histamines and sulfites while enhancing the wine’s natural taste, aroma and color.

Pure Wine was founded in Grapevine in 2014 by the father and son team of Dr. David Meadows and Derek Meadows, who investigated the cause and effect of wine sensitivities. After two years of trial and error in their lab, the duo discovered a way to remove the culprits (histamines and sulfites), without altering the flavor.

The Wand came to market in 2016, and in both 2021 and 2022, Pure Wine had the No. 1 selling wine accessory on Amazon.

The Wand is a portable wine filter ― a convenient, per-glass wine purifier. Simply place a pre-packaged Wand in a six-ounce glass of wine for at least a few minutes. Then gently stir it intermittently for about three minutes.

It is said to remove more than 50 percent of the histamines and sulfites from the wine. After eight minutes, as much as 95 percent of the histamines and sulfites can be removed. Pure Wine promises to make wine drinking a pleasure for all again. So you might want to stock up with the holdiay season approaching.

Triple Dog Irish Whiskey Comes Home

A new Irish whiskey is making the rounds in North Texas. How, you may ask, is an Irish whiskey related to the Lone Star State? The roots of Triple Dog Irish Whiskey are firmly planted in The Metroplex.

While it is (of course) produced and bottled in Ireland, Triple Dog’s Irish-Texan distiller Dan O’Shevlin hails from Dallas. He’s using his Irish grandfather’s recipe, which dates all the way back to 1916. While most Irish whiskey is a bit hot for many American palates, Triple Dog is smooth. It gets triple distilled in copper pot and copper column stills and is then left to mellow a minimum of four years in French oak.

It’s a lovely blend of Emerald Isle tradition and Texas knowhow.

This summer, Triple Dog Irish Whiskey entered into a distribution agreement with the third largest national brand spirits distributor in Texas — Green Light Distribution. Green Light has significantly expanded its reach in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, as well as Austin, Houston, San Antonio and many other parts of the state. So you’ll be seeing Triple Dog (with its very own spiked collar label) on more shelves and more cocktail menus soon.

Here’s a cocktail recipe that Triple Dog founder Dan O’Shevlin shared with PaperCity:

Triple Dog Dare Cocktail

INGREDIENTS

1.5 ounces Triple Dog Irish Whiskey

.5 ounces Fresh Lime Juice

.75 ounces of Monin Habanero Lime Syrup

3 ounces Ginger Beer

PREPARATION

― Fill a 16 ounce copper mug full of ice.

― Pour ingredients into serving glass in order listed.

― Pour mixture into mixing tin and back into serving glass to mix.

― Add garnish of chipotle spice, lime wheel, mint sprig and a pepper slice.