Happy Hour Spotlight: Cafe Flora
New infusions, new cocktails, new patio. Same vegetarian appetizers.
Posted by: Jessica Voelker on Sep 01, 2010 at 10:01AM
4 Comments
People like infusions, and why not? They look beautiful in their glass jars and they taste of lovely things—rosemary, raspberry, hibiscus, lavender.
Cafe Flora has a new collection of infusions (other places to try them: Serafina and All Nations Sports Bar up north). The Madison Valley restaurant makes light and easy vegan cocktails with their infusions, the sort of drink that taste good with vegetarian food. Each week, they feature one of their specialty cocktails on the happy hour menu—available at the bar or, weather permitting, on the newly public back patio.
Happy hour runs from 3 to 6pm on weekdays at Flora. Apps such as the “pate” platter (the pate is made of pecans and lentils) and the sweet Walla Walla onion rings cost $6. The full HH menu is here.
I wish they sold the infused vodka by the bottle!
I’m not sure I understand the ‘vegan’ cocktail. I’m aware that a few select cocktails use egg whites or maybe a bit of worcester sauce in a bloody mary, but is it necessary to create a whole category of drinks that are ‘vegan’ when that moniker applies to the vast majority of the cocktails in the world? It might be more interesting to add some detail to the infusions they’ve got going there. I would find that much more helpful and interesting as a consumer.
Hi Mari,
I’m not sure if this is what you’re asking for, but you can see the full list of Cafe Flora infusions here: http://www.cafeflora.com/menus/bar.pdf.
As cocktails become more complex and experimental, strict vegans like to know that they are not inadvertently consuming meat or dairy. I’m totally sensitive to that, and will always indicate if a restaurant has an all-vegan cocktail menu.
Mari, believe it not, many spirits and brews are not vegan. Often distillers and brewers use animal products such egg shell, bone powder, and others to filter or refine the spirits and eliminate the cloudiness associated with some of the esters in the liquid. It is a sacrifice of purity, taste, and aroma in favor of appearance. This is a hotly debated issue. Here is an article to take you further: http://www.vegetarian.ie/alco.htm.