5 Purveyors to Add to Your Gift List
To uncover the finest engineers of home entertaining, we partnered with Edible magazine editors around the country. Here, these foremost providers of food, drink, and festivity invite you to celebrate the season to its fullest.
Words: Laurel Miller, Andrea Pyenson, Regina Schrambling, Kara Newman, Devorah Lev-Tov
Images: Tiffany Whitsitt, Betty Liu, Scott Gordon Bleicher, and Kate Headley
The Colorado couple shaking up the cocktail scene
Based out of a former 19th-century saloon in the ghost town of Silver Plume, Colorado, Dram Apothecary owners Shae Whitney (pictured) and Brady Becker concoct their small-batch bitters, syrups, and tinctures. From the fennel-forward “Hair of the Dog” to the walnut-infused “Black,” their products have quickly grown to achieve national recognition, lining the shelves of 120 retailers around the country.
Setting them apart? Authenticity. As bottles of rhubarb, celery, sage, or blood orange bitters increasingly crop up in bars, not all brands adhere to the exacting small-batch standards their old-timey packaging would suggest. Certainly, Dram is unique in foraging native Colorado plants like gentian root and dandelion leaves and purchasing citrus — bergamot, limes, lemons, and oranges — from small growers. “Anything we can’t pick ourselves is sourced from organic and fair trade suppliers, always,” Whitney says.
“Dram was the perfect way to meld my passion for plants, food, and drink. ”
And while mine shafts may be more common at 9,100 feet than bartenders, that’s just the way they like it. “I want Dram to be accessible,” Whitney says, about her company, located a scenic, two-hour drive north of Aspen. “You don’t need to be a mixologist to make a great Manhattan or spiked hot cider using our bitters. We just want people to enjoy our products, without being intimidated by them.”
Dram Apothecary, Silver Plume, CO
dramapothecary.com
The New England farmer spicing up Boston
Walking through the endless rows of rosemary, garlic, lavender, and sage at Muddy River Herbals’ farm is both an education and sensory pleasure. “Interest in these plants is growing in a way that seems sustainable,” says Jenny Hauf, its owner and career cultivator. “It’s not just a trend.”
A transplanted Midwesterner, Hauf has been farming for 10 years. Her journey from Wisconsin to Massachusetts spanned the South, East Coast, Midwest, across Europe and back, and involved experiences at myriad farms, CSAs, and nurseries. Since 2015, she has cultivated a bounty of flowers and herbs, and with it, a thriving business on a roughly quarter-acre plot in Dracut, just 30 miles outside Boston.
“I was obsessed with the pioneer, do-it-yourself lifestyle.”
Throughout the season, Hauf distributes her herbs, perfect for winter salads, teas, and seasonings, through regional CSAs, drying any that are left over and selling them at the SoWa outdoor market in Boston’s South End. “Almost all herbs offer health benefits,” she asserts, “and, of course, they taste great.”
Muddy River Herbals, Dracut, MA
muddyriverherbals.com
The Manhattan butcher who epitomizes
farm-to-table
Financier-turned-butcher Tim Forrester’s urban meat market, Harlem Shambles, is an experience unto itself. The floors are polished hardwood, the design is reminiscent of Victorian London, and half-carved hogs and in-progress sausage production are commonplace.
Located in the burgeoning uptown area of South Harlem, the shop’s walk-in refrigerators — more spacious than most Manhattan kitchens — accommodate the aging and storage of an impressive selection of beef, pork, lamb, and chicken, each hand-selected from farms in upstate New York. The contents of two large display cases speak to this pastured provenance — Autumn’s Harvest in Romulus, Meili Farm in Amenia, Kinderhook Farm and Arcadian Pastures in Sloansville — all greenmarket-quality, never having so much as neared a freezer.
“Everyone who works here lives within one mile of the shop.
We’re local — just like all our products.”
Since opening its doors in 2011, Forrester — whose résumé includes the famed Fleishers Craft Butchery in Kingston, New York — and his crew have steadily grown their offerings; today, they make spuma (whipped, seasoned lard), smoked bacon, ham hocks, and, most recently, an array of charcuterie including terrines, head cheese, and an outstanding pork pastrami. And should you ever find yourself in the market for a lamb head; well, they’ve got that, too.
Harlem Shambles, New York, NY
harlemshambles.com
The Hudson Valley distillers who believe in the basics
While many spirit purveyors respect their product’s history, they usually opt to employ fast, modern methods. Not so at Coppersea Distilling.
Based in the Hudson Valley town of West Park, a two-hour jaunt north of New York City, the operation prides itself on “heritage distilling” techniques. This is what owner Angus MacDonald, a veteran of the IT industry, dreamed of when he opened the business in July 2012. “We want what we’re doing to be incredibly primitive,” he explains.
And in that, they’ve succeeded. Every step of their process is modeled on 19th-century practices, starting with malting and milling locally-grown grain. In fact, Coppersea is one of only four distilleries in the US with its own floor-malting space, within which the staff spreads a layer of fresh, moistened grain across the floor and allows it to sprout, converting the starches into the sugars and enzymes needed to feed the yeast.
“For us, it’s not just a product. We’re very much tied up
in the process.”
Next, fermentation and sour-mashing take place in 500-gallon barrels before transferring to a custom-built copper still kiln. The final step? The nascent spirits — rye, bourbon, brandy, even a pear eau de vie — barrel-age to perfection, developing an incredible depth of flavor and an intricacy worthy of their process.
Coppersea Distilling, West Park, NY
coppersea.com
The DC florist refreshing the event industry
As a floral designer and private chef, Sidra Forman’s Washington DC home is perhaps her greatest showpiece. “People come over to my house often. Friends, colleagues, clients — I prefer to meet in person,” she says. “The intimacy of my home, as opposed to, say, a coffee shop, helps us focus on the matter at hand.”
Not to mention, the flowers in question — whether for a wedding bouquet or a Thanksgiving centerpiece — may well be in bloom just outside, in Forman’s backyard. Sourced from locales as far as across the world and as near as her own gardens, she creates intricate arrangements from her studio in DC’s Shaw neighborhood. Forman’s gardens also provide inspiration on a grander scale; her company designs private green spaces for clients, from herb patches to potagers to traditional English plantings.
“Florist, chef, and gardener — my daily practice integrates pleasure, nutrition, and health.”
Named by Martha Stewart Weddings among the top florists in the country, Forman’s capabilities range from ornate canopies of maple foliage to artfully undone vases of blossoms peppered with bay leaves, pear branches, and spearmint sprigs. Whether a wreath beckoning guests to enter or a tabletop array encouraging them to remain just a bit longer, these efforts epitomize the art of entertaining.
Sidra Forman, Washington, DC
sidraforman.com
The pasta-maker bringing old-school
Italy to Brooklyn
With the recent opening of Un Posto Italiano, a delightful Brooklyn pasta shop, Antonio Capone has finally returned to his family’s original trade. After a successful career as a documentary filmmaker in Italy and seven years in the New York City restaurant industry, he decided to follow in the footsteps of his grandfather, a turn-of-the-century pasta-maker in Abruzzo.
After training with an Italian master to pinpoint ingredients (especially the all-important flour) and refine his lighter-than-air technique, Capone came home to Brooklyn, where he runs his emporium on a residential side street of the borough’s Park Slope neighborhood. Inside, he greets customers from his small-but-functional open kitchen, its countertop littered with bits of dough, many crafted from two Italian flours he sources from the Bronx-based importer Gustiamo. A chalkboard lists the ever-changing offerings — usually one or two noodle shapes, a ravioli of the day, and gnocchi — all priced per pound, rolled and cut to order.
“I know how to make pasta because of my family; my grandmother, my mother, my sister, all make pasta.”
He’s also quick to recommend what kind of pasta to purchase, taking your menu into careful consideration. As for his personal favorites? Easy — the Abruzzo-born, squared strands of chittarina and chitarra — which can withstand the season’s heartiest sauces.
Un Posto Italiano, Brooklyn, NY
unpostoitaliano.com
