Holiday Gift Guide: Stocking Stuffers
A Roundup of Bar & Restaurant Merch: Hats, Totes, Tees, Candles, Calendars...
On LAST CALL we’ve got you covered with Holiday Gift Guides for Holiday Advent Calendars, Food & Provisions, Drinks & Spirits, Books & Cookbooks, and The Spirit of Italy. Today’s Holiday Gift Guide, the final guide in a weeklong series, is devoted to Stocking Stuffers with a focus on merchandise from some of our favorite bars and restaurants. This is a super-sized dispatch and will likely be truncated in your email, so be sure to click the “View Entire Message” link to expand. And when in doubt, I can’t of anyone who wouldn’t love to receive a gift card for their favorite restaurant or bar.
We’ll be back tomorrow with our third-annual Thanksgiving Eve Holiday Special!
Today’s LAST CALL Holiday Gift Guide is available to all readers thanks to the generous support of Forthave Spirits.
Through a mutual love of experimenting with macerations, infusions, and aromatized, botanical-driven spirits, Aaron Sing Fox and Daniel de la Nuez, the founders of Brooklyn’s Forthave Spirits, have been producing an acclaimed portfolio of botanical-driven spirits and liqueurs since 2016.
Just in time for the holiday season, they’ve released RED, their signature bitter citrus aperitivo, in a 375ml half bottle for the first time. Made with infusions of more than 13 botanicals—including Seville orange peel, gentian root, chamomile, and rhubarb root—the garnet hue is achieved via naturally using botanical extracts including hibiscus and black carrots. The highly aromatic RED comes on slightly dry with a perfectly balanced level of bitterness and is excellent on the rocks with a twist or in a cocktail (it plays especially well with agave-based spirits).
In addition to RED, Forthave Spirits welcomes the new vintage of BLACK (also in a 375ml half bottle), the limited annual release of their modern take on the European tradition of nocino, made using hand-picked, foraged young, unripe black walnuts in the Hudson Valley during the summer of 2023. Each batch of BLACK begins with a nine-month maceration in stainless steel tanks that are then sweetened with raw cane sugar and rested in demijohns for another nine months as the aromatic blend reaches a perfect balance. This release is limited to 200 cases. With a pronounced green walnut presence, it’s an ideal digestivo served chilled, or over a couple of ice cubes.
Both of these new releases from Forthave Spirits are the perfect size for gifting this holiday season, just be sure to keep a bottle for yourself to enjoy.
Forthave RED (Astor Wines & Spirits)
Forthave BLACK (Astor Wines & Spirits)
Holiday Gift Guide: Stocking Stuffers
Bernie’s Restaurant 2025 Calendar
The hottest restaurant merch of Holiday 2024 just might be the Bernie’s “Collector’s Edition” 2025 Calendar. I had a sneak peek a couple weeks ago when I stopped by for some baked clams and a Manhattan, and each month features striking photos of the food (Vinegar Chicken, the Burger) and the wonderful staff who work there that bring this always buzzing Greenpoint hot spot to life. It’s still available to pre-order to have shipped or pick up at Bernie’s. If you pre-order or purchase a Bernie’s Calendar, join the fun on Monday, December 9th from 6:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m., celebrate the calendar release party with snacks, surprises, and maybe even some prizes, and have an ice-cold Martini on the house.
$36.00 (Bernie’s; Pick Up at Bernie’s or Shipping Options Available)