SMOKE AND OAK, ZEN AND PRESERVED

The rooftop garden at Creekside’s Nita Lake Lodge is always the prime inspiration for summer cocktails. But this year, Head Bartender Rhiannon Csordas is throwing a few riddles into the mix. Literally. Clue: I can crawl, I can fly, and I have hands but no legs or wings... What am I? Answer: Smoke and Oak — the name of her single-malt sipper mixed with sage-infused honey and garnished with a thyme sprig. Other herbaceous elixirs include: the easy-going Zen, which incorporates cucumber-infused gin with Lillet, chamomile syrup, mint and lavender; and the Italian-inspired Preserved, with oak-barreled gin, basil-infused white vermouth, strawberry jam and cracked pepper. “It’s so cool to be able to tell people about our garden and bring them up there when it’s in bloom,” Csordas says. “You don’t see it when you’re sitting here looking out over the lake, but it makes me so proud because all the products I’m using are homegrown.”