Cocktails with a Twist
Misty and I opened The Good Lion cocktail bar in the Granada Theater building in Downtown Santa Barbara in fall of 2014, so fall is a special time for us. The bar was and remains a convergence of all the things we love in this world: travel, seasonality, hospitality, socializing in the presence of the almighty cocktail, cultural drinking traditions, design, community and celebrating the importance of “third spaces.”
We named the bar after a silly short story Ernest Hemingway wrote while living in northern Italy—a story of a winged lion that drinks Negronis. We like lions and we like Negronis.
The Good Lion has always carried an undercurrent of Spain and Italy—Italy is a part of my heritage—and that undercurrent has influenced our always-changing seasonal menus over the years. Italian cocktails make sense not only in the summertime in piazzas in Rome; they make sense all year long, including—dare I say it—autumn. Executing the tried-and-true Mr. Potato Head strategy* and applying our love for Italian cocktails have resulted in a few hits over the years on our menus.
*Phil Ward’s genius technique—developed while he was an original member of the Death & Co team—was to swap out one individual ingredient of a classic cocktail à la Mr. Potato Head. Substitute rum in a gin gimlet and voilà! You’ve got a Daiquiri. Substitute tequila for the rum, reduce the sugar, and add some orange liqueur and voilà! You’ve got a Margarita. Try it at home with your favorite classic cocktails sometime soon.
Photo: Lure Digital courtesy of Good Lion Hospitality 
Photo: Lure Digital courtesy of Good Lion Hospitality 
Photo: Lure Digital courtesy of Good Lion Hospitality
I treat spritz like a verb. To spritz is to instantly decompress from the day’s trials and tribulations. To spritz is to kick back, to spend time in conversation with a loved one, and to consider some dinner ideas (a favorite pastime of mine). Fall doesn’t feel quite right, though, for classic summery spritzes like Campari, Hugo or Aperol (or something more complex and interesting like Bordiga Aperitivo). They should be moodier and darker while still providing that fizzy, appetite-generating, shut-this-day-down, no-more-emails-goodness. This fits the bill:
Happy fall, and happy imbibing!
Brandon Ristaino
Brandon Ristaino is the co-founder and managing member of Good Lion Hospitality, a Santa Barbara-based hospitality group established in 2014 with his wife, Misty Orman. Known for bringing contemporary, high-end cocktail culture to the Central Coast, they operate popular venues including The Good Lion, Test Pilot and The Lion’s Tale in Santa Barbara County.
