Little Miss Sunshine

Oliver’s Offers Montecito Sunshine

While it’s tricky to make a pitch that drinking alcohol is actually good for you, this issue’s cocktail is up to that challenge. After all, how many drinks help you consume more vegetables? How many let you exercise, for you will, giving it a vigorous stir with a carrot you then get to gnaw upon, a highly antioxidant snack? Welcome to the Little Miss Sunshine.

Given the horror and hardship that has befallen Montecito in the aftermath of the Thomas Fire and Mudslides, it seemed that turning to a business there for cocktail inspiration this spring might be a good way to remind the world of the culinary best Montecito has to offer. Even better, Coast Village Road saw the opening of the long-awaited Oliver’s in October 2017, only for its launch to get interrupted for weeks thanks to natural disaster. Luckily, the spot that used to be Peabody’s suffered no mud damage itself, so once again this classy but comfortable plant-based restaurant is ready to please your nonmeat-eating palate.

One of its signatures is a cocktail list that works with the Juice Ranch, a company founded in Santa Barbara that sources 90% of its produce from Santa Barbara County farms. All its product is cold-pressed and organic. “Everything they stand for we stand for,” says Phillip Thompson, assistant GM at Oliver’s. “They stand for freshness and quality of ingredients. We knew we wanted to do liquor and alcohol, and working with them was how we could bring the healthful idea to cocktails—it was a perfect match.”

A marathon tasting session with Juice Ranch co-founder Scott Walker, Oliver’s head bartender Josh Burrey and Thompson led to a fascinating list of juice-forward cocktails for the new establishment. Thompson suggested the Little Miss Sunshine—named after its base Juice Ranch juice of carrot, grapefruit, orange, ginger, mint—for a spring potent potable for Edible. “Just as the weather is getting warmer and the days are getting longer,” he says, “this drink has a market-fresh, bright, crisp mix of flavors.” Plus the carrot, pardon the pun, gives it a rootedness most cocktails never match.

The drink’s zip comes from gin, and Thompson has a specific suggestion there, too, calling for Greenbar Organic City Bright Gin. Greenbar, when it opened in 2004, was LA’s first distillery since Prohibition, so that’s early on for the craft spirits craze. The Bright Gin isn’t a typical style, either, as its botanicals wander wide beyond just the usual juniper to more exotic realms with ancho chiles, lemongrass and Makrut lime.

Somehow the pushing at the edges of the traditional still stays in pleasing balance, especially mixed into this delight. That said, Thompson says the drink works well with the gin of your choice (well, don’t go genever or navy strength) and the bar can whip up a version with Cutler’s gin or even Nolet’s, if you’re willing to pay for that and want to taste it with as many floral notes as anyone short of a florist can stand.

And while you might think, “Hey, this cocktail already has carrot, grapefruit, orange, ginger and mint in it, it’s gotta be OK to skip that lemon juice,” you better think again. First, keep the measurement exact, as too much lemon becomes an acidic issue. But at a half ounce for two drinks, the fresh lemon juice acts more as a chemical agent than a flavor. Remember those old 3M ads about “we don’t make __, we make it better?” That’s what lemon juice does here—perking everything up, adding brightness like you can with a slider in Photoshop. That’s particularly important with a drink that could get weighed down with the carrot.

Which brings us to another important consideration with drinks made based on Juice Ranch products: Using them is not like just adding a clearer fresh citrus juice; it’s all about pulp and texture. That’s great when it’s all you’re drinking for a liquid breakfast and you haven’t spiked it and still want to feel like you ate something even if you didn’t use your teeth, but in a cocktail it causes some issues.

Thompson suggests mixing the ingredient over ice, then pouring over ice into a large tumbler, skipping the stirring or shaking. Yes, the drink will start to separate after a bit, but that’s why you garnish it with a whole carrot that ends up a stirrer, a snack, a conversation piece.

“We serve many of our drinks with oversized garnishes,” Thompson says, “almost in a kitschy way.” It just happens to be delicious, too.

Editor’s Note: Oliver’s ceased operations on April 20th, 2024.