Austin Hot Spots To Offer Watermelon Cocktails On Special Day

AUSTIN, TX — It may have escaped your notice, but Aug. 3 is National Watermelon Day. What time does your family unwrap the gifts under the watermelon patch on this glorious day? Just kidding. What is in store on that day are some juicy food and beverage offerings in Austin and beyond suffused with the flavor of this noble fruit.

So let's get started, shall we?

SWAY

Sway is an award-winning modern Thai restaurant serving up lunch, dinner and weekend brunch in South Austin, Domain NORTHSIDE and West Lake Hills. The restaurant also boasts a weekday happy hour program at all locations featuring half-off all alcoholic beverages Monday through Friday from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m., including the Monk Water cocktail. The Monk Water is made with vodka, lime, cucumber, mint, cilantro, soda water and, of course, fresh watermelon juice. Whether sipping on the patio during brunch or sitting at the bar for happy hour, Monk Water is a perfectly refreshing cocktail for the summertime.

Sounds good, eh? Here's what it looks like:

Photo by Julia Keim.

DESERT DOOR

Launched in November 2017, Desert Door offers its signature summer cocktail dubbed El Rio. It actually produces a line of sotol made from the evergreen sotol, or Desert Spoon plant, native to West Texas. Desert Door sotol is made with only three ingredients: wild sotol, yeast, and purified natural Texas water and is available in two variations; the Original Desert Door Texas Sotol and a 100-proof Desert Door Oak-Aged Sotol. They're not messing around, either: Desert Door has an 8,000-square-foot distillery and tasting room, located in Driftwood, Texas, offering craft cocktails and tastings. They recently introduced summer cocktails at the distillery, which includes the watermelon-based El Rio. Below are the ingredients to this refreshing summer cocktail:

• Desert Door Original Sotol.
• Watermelon.
• Strawberry.
• Fresh Lime Juice.
• Agave Nectar.
• Chili Lime Salt (Optional).

Here's what you do:

Muddle one chunk of watermelon and one strawberry in shaker. Add 1.5 oz Desert Door Original Sotol, 1 oz Fresh Lime Juice, 0.5 oz Agave, and ice. Shake well. Optionally, add a chili lime salt rim to your glass. Strain into glass over fresh ice. Garnish with watermelon.

Behold:

Photo courtesy of Desert Door.

EBERLY

Next comes Eberly, with its Summer Crush watermelon-infused cocktail. Forged from an old print shop on South Lamar, Eberly is a thoughtful collection of dining, drinking and thinking spaces, offering a welcoming study, a rooftop event space, and its crown jewel, the historic Cedar Tavern bar of Greenwich Village in New York City, as officials describe in their promotional literature. With an emphasis on freshness and locality, Eberly’s menu changes seasonally to reflect the highest quality products sourced from farmers, ranchers, and fishmongers of Central Texas. This season, Eberly’s cocktail menu includes the Summer Crush, built to be a refreshing, approachable summer crusher.

So what's in it? Glad you asked: The Summer Crush is made with El Jimador Blanco tequila, Chareau aloe liqueur, watermelon, lime, cardamom and black pepper. "The fruit-forward cocktail’s base is a house syrup that is made with a slightly more labor intensive process: Eberly breaks down the watermelon, strains it, fine strains it, and then hand-hammers the cardamom and black pepper," officials describe tantalizingly. "The cardamom makes for a wonderful pairing, adding a bit of depth to the drink." What's more, officials add, the black pepper balances out the incredibly strong mint/cucumber flavors that come from the Chareau aloe liqueur.

Lookie:

Photo courtesy of Eberly.

Headed to San Antonio anytime soon? Our neighbor to the south also offers watermelony delights, one with an Austin twist.

TWANG

The family-owned maker of cocktail additives in San Antonio (available in 45 states nationwide and Amazon) has teamed up with Austin Eastciders Watermelon Cider in combining flavors to yield the Twang-A-Rita Sangrita. One of Twang’s brands, Twang-A-Rita, is a line of tasty salts and seasonings designed to easily add flavor to drinks and upgrade beverages into cocktail bar status. Twang’s cocktail rimming blends are made with ingredients like kosher salt, real spices and cane sugar; try Twang-A-Rita Sangrita to take any watermelon drink up a notch (like Austin Eastciders’ new Watermelon cider).

You're in luck, fellow cocktail enthusiasts, for here is the recipe:

• 3.5 oz Watermelon Eastciders.
• .5 oz fresh squeezed lime.
• Rim with Twang-A-Rita Sangrita.

Photo by Julia Keim.

Happy National Watermelon Day in advance, readers! Cheers!

RESTAURANT AND BAR OWNERS: Will you be serving up watermelon-flavored cocktails in observance of National Watermelon Day? If so, please send details to antonio.cantu@patch.com.