Food

Next of ’Kin

These Cocktails. They’re All Pumpkin-y.

Every time you pass a stoop with a glowing jack-o’-lantern on it, your life flashes before your eyes. Well, not so much your life as bourbon and egg whites and pumpkin ice cream. The takeaway: here are the city’s best pumpkin cocktails. Gourd responsibly.

PUMPKIN LEVEL: 1

Hot Spiced Pumpkin

Where: Three Sheets.
Made with: Roasted pumpkin. Apple. Bourbon. It gets siphoned into a machine, infused with those aforementioned ingredients, heated up, siphoned back down and, if you ask, lit on fire. No, there won’t be a quiz later.
Pairs well with: A hardback copy of The Shining. Maybe a plaid scarf.

PUMPKIN LEVEL: 2

The Great Pumpkin

Where: Whiskey Blue.
Made with: Pumpkin puree. Bourbon. Rum. Cognac. Egg white. Served in a coupe glass with freshly grated nutmeg on top. Points for obsessive attention to fall-spices detail.
Pairs well with: Candlelight. Another round. Not forgetting you’re at the W Buckhead and there are 291 hotel rooms right below you.

PUMPKIN LEVEL: 3

Hot Buttered Pumpkin

Where: Bourbon Bar.
Made with: Hot water (that’s the “hot” part). Butter and pumpkin-ice-cream batter (that’s the “buttered pumpkin” part). Oh, and bourbon. That’s the implied part.
Pairs well with: Rousing conversation about phantoms with unfinished business. So... ghost stories.

PUMPKIN LEVEL: 4

Pumpkin Shine Shake

Where: Bone Lick BBQ.
Made with: Pumpkin-pie-infused moonshine. Spiced vanilla bean ice cream. Whipped cream. Nutmeg. Basically, dessert in a cocktail costume.
Pairs well with: A big plate of ribs. Never pumpkin-pie-infused moonshine on a ribless stomach.

PUMPKIN LEVEL: 5

Spirits from the Pumpkin Patch

Where: CinéBistro at Town Brookhaven.
Made with: Three options: rum punch, apple liqueur cider or a marshmallow-vodka-rich ginger fizz. Right, about the pumpkin part: they’re served inside actual, fresh-carved ones.
Pairs well with: The Schwarzenegger/Stallone action thriller Escape Plan. Or, like, another movie.