Vivid, Earthy and Spicy
In Behind the Stick, we task Ottawa bartenders with creating a wholly original cocktail using an oddball ingredient. We’ll be highlighting one bartender, their spot and an ingredient per column, at the end of which they’ll challenge another of the city’s drink-makers for the next rendition.
The concept of the aperitivo isn’t lost on North & Navy’s bartender Can Taspinar — a fact well reflected in his cocktail menu. At any restaurant featuring pasta and hearty meats, the cocktail’s place is at the meal’s start, to whet the appetite. Something light, fresh and oftentimes bitter. “It’s mostly Negronis,” he says with a laugh, though guests are always inclined to try his newest creations.
Having worked at a handful of cocktail bars in the city prior to making NoNa his home, he understands how his guests order drinks. On many nights, he’s the man behind the bar making drinks for the entire floor, the private dining room upstairs, the chef ’s table and the library, the cosy nook across from the bar for more intimate dining.
As with many high-end restaurants, the bar and kitchen work hand in hand to produce drink ingredients that can’t be bought or juiced, and require a tad of culinary creativity. The ingredient Taspinar was challenged to use was beets — and, as luck would have it, beets were a prime ingredient in a ravioli dish featured at the time, so there were lots in-house with which to play around.
Taspinar had no wish to produce a simple beet juice. No, a beet purée would bring the same flavour, plus a rich drink-enhancing mouthfeel. Boiling the beets before blitzing them yielded a savoury product that, thanks to a touch of added salt and vinegar, would prove stable. To keep it within an Italian framework, Taspinar used Italy’s national spirit, grappa, as the headliner.
Grappa is a spirit made from the residuals of winemaking. Rather than leaving the skin, stems, pips and seeds to decompose after the grapes are pressed for their juice, grappa producers rehydrate this pomace to a low-alcohol “wine” and then distill it. The result is a florally fragrant and minty spirit. In this particular case, the grappa was barrel-aged, mellowing out the usual slight harshness into a softer, more rounded flavour. These floral and herbal notes played beautifully into Taspinar’s beet purée, which offered up its own earthy and dark-fruit notes.
To enhance the earthy character he was after, he riffed on a simple syrup by roasting habanero and chili peppers to create a spicy but sweet base note for the drink. The sweetness would not be directly perceptible, but would slightly tame the zip of the lime juice and soften the alcohol’s edges. The touch of heat from the peppers would add a spring to the drink’s step, something hardly noticeable on the first sip, but growing to a pleasant spicy note as the glass grew empty.
His Battito Viola, or purple beets for you non-Italians, was shaken and served over ice in a beautifully etched vintage tumbler. This kept the drink incredibly refreshing, while displaying the softened pink of roasted beets. Taspinar rimmed half of the glass with salt, sugar and dried roses — but only half, adding to the drink’s complexity. Sipping from the unrimmed side gave an as-is encounter with the libation, while sipping out of the rimmed side added a deep earthy flavour of potpourri. Garnishing with a few edible flowers tied it all together.
Taspinar offered this cocktail in the autumn of 2019 to much success, and he wouldn’t be surprised to see it come back as a special. If, however, Battito Viola isn’t on the menu, he’s always got a trick or two up his sleeve and will turn out a potion sure to enhance your encounter with the pastas, seared meats and decadent tiramisu that are North & Navy’s stock in trade.
Start with one of Taspinar’s drinks, finish with an espresso and a shot of amaro.
Call it doing as the Romans do or maybe la dolce vita.
North & Navy
226 Nepean St., Ottawa, Ont.
northandnavy.com | 613.232.6289 | @northandnavy
Battito Viola
2 ounces Berta Barrel Aged Grappa
1 ounce roasted pepper simple syrup
1 ounce lime juice
1 tablespoon beet purée
Shake and fine strain all ingredients into a rocks glass rimmed with sugar and rose salt. Top with ice and garnish with edible flowers.
Roasted pepper syrup
Roast one habanero and chili pepper, remove skin and add to a saucepan with equal weights of white sugar and water (250 grams per drink). Simmer until sugar is dissolved. Strain and cool.
Beet purée
Roast beets in the oven until soft, blend with a pinch of salt and a splash of white wine vinegar until smooth. Keep in refrigerator
