Swordfish Tom's creates pepperoni pizza cocktail
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Swordfish Tom's, the speakeasy hidden down a Crossroads alley, put pizza on its summer menu in cocktail form: gin infused with real pepperoni slices.
Why it matters: The bar has made playful, inventive cocktails its signature, and this one delivers a beloved comfort food by the glass.
Zoom in: Longtime KC bartender Brett Pitner created the limited-time cocktail, Pizza My Heart ($15), which pairs the pizza-infused Hayman's Old Tom Gin with Meletti Amaro, an Italian herbal liqueur.
- The drink is topped with pepperoni — or at least it looks like it. It's reduced Campari and isomalt, a sugar substitute, disguised to look the part.
What they're saying: "I had a dream about fat washing gin with pepperoni pizza. So I did it. Then I was like, 'What the hell am I going to do with this?!'" Pitner tells Axios.
How it works: Pitner uses a technique called fat washing, which steeps a spirit in something fatty — in this case, pizza — then freezes it and filters out the grease, leaving only the flavor.
- He drops three slices of pepperoni pizza from Buffalo State Pizza into three bottles' worth of gin, weighs the slices down and lets everything sit at room temperature for a day.
- He then presses the slices, freezes the infusion and strains it through a coffee filter twice.
- Pitner said he was tempted to try the gin-soaked pizza but thought better of eating days-old, soggy pizza.
Flashback: When Travis and I brought our visiting Axios editors by, Pitner poured us Holiday Blues, a blue cheese old fashioned that none of us expected to love.
- "I never imagined I'd enjoy blue cheese in an old fashioned. Once I got past the initial offense, I was surprised by how well it worked," managing editor Delano Massey said.
- "If you're going to be adventurous with your liquor, this is the place to do it," editor Chloe Gonzales said.
- As we finished our glasses, Pitner gave us a sneak peek of the summer menu and mentioned something even funkier was brewing (Pizza My Heart).
My thought bubble: I went back for my brother's birthday and had to see what Pitner cooked up. I'm a sour cocktail girl, but I set my beloved Exorcism aside and walked away a believer in savory cocktails.
- Pizza in a glass has no business being this good.
If you go: Swordfish Tom's opens at 4pm Tuesday through Saturday. Cash only, no reservations. Knock when the light glows green.
Have you tried this cocktail? Let us know your thoughts!