Today’s LAST CALL dispatch is available to all readers thanks to the generous support of Casamara Club.
The New Year is often a time of reflection and resetting to focus on things you may want to change or improve in your life. And for many that means embracing Dry January as a time to take a break or cut back from drinking alcohol.
Whether you’re sober or sober-curious, seeking flavorful and inventive spirit-free options to replace an alcoholic drink can be a challenge.
Casamara Club founders Jason LaValla and Erica Johnson felt this way and grew tired of having to choose between lackluster flavored seltzers and sickly sweet sodas and mocktails when they wanted a non-alcoholic treat at the end of the day. Taking inspiration from Italian amaro and aperitivo culture they created a line of botanical-driven adult sodas, each with complex flavors and an extra dry finish that are perfect on their own, as a mixer, or to accompany your favorite aperitivo spread.
In fall of 2018 they introduced their first four amaro-centric flavors in bottles. Alta is their classic Italian aperitivo, reminiscent of a Negroni. Como is a breezy Alpine-style soda, inspired by Braulio. Onda is their coastal, Sicilian-style flavor, inspired by the warm, herbaceous flavor notes of Averna. Sera is their citrus- and spice-forward take on the Aperol Spritz.
Since then, they've reintroduced all of their flavors in cans, including two fun new flavors from around the world: Isla, a Caribbean-style mellow ginger soda, and Fora, a delicious New Orleans-inspired "red drink" with strawberry and hibiscus.
You can find Casamara Club sodas across the US and Canada, at retailers like Boisson and top bars and restaurants like Lilia, Dame, and Inness in New York; Ladder 4, Lula Cafe, and Pompette in the Midwest; and Mr. Jiu's and Chez Panisse in the Bay Area.
This Dry January, reset the way you think about non-alcoholic beverages with the sophisticated, refreshing, non-alcoholic taste of Casamara Club Botanical Sodas.
Use promo code LASTCALL15 to save 15% on any online purchase from the Casamara Club Shop through Wednesday, January 31, 2024.
My Favorite Sips & Bites of 2023
Welcome back to a new year of LAST CALL! It’s great to have you all here as readers and subscribers. I appreciate all of your support and taking the time to read these spirited dispatches. If you like what you’re reading here, don’t forget to leave a comment, throw us a “like,” share with friends, and even better, become a paid subscriber.
I wanted to kick off 2024 with one last look back upon some of my Favorite Sips & Bites of 2023. Aside from an extended trip throughout Italy with my creative partner and photographer Ed Anderson and a few trips to Lancaster, Pennsylvania, I still haven’t been back out on the road (for a number of reasons) like I was back in 2019. I hope to remedy that a bit this year.
And on the bar and restaurant front, it’s important for me to keep up with the new openings around New York and beyond, and I certainly try to, but I’ve always been more of creature of habit and tend to frequent many of the same spots over and over rather than trying to chase down the hot new thing.
I hope you dig this, and this is a very super-sized dispatch and will be truncated in your email, so be sure to click the “View Entire Message” link to expand.
Happy New Year!
(I think today is the last day I can still say that.)
—BTP
Sips
La Passeggiata | The Long Island Bar (Cobble Hill, Brooklyn)
My second-most-popular post of 2023 was on La Passeggiata, an aperitivo-style drink created by Toby Cecchini that’s named in honor of the Italian tradition of residents enjoying the evening with a long, leisurely stroll through the streets of their town, village, or city’s centro storico, usually between 5 p.m. through 8 p.m. on weeknights. There is typically no destination in mind, and many will make several circuits walking to one end and back over again. Taking inspiration from Michael McIlroy’s modern classic the Rome With a View, Cecchini presents a very low in alcohol cooler made with Campari, Mattei Cap Corse Blanc Quinquina, lemon juice, Giffard Crème de Pamplemousse, and chilled soda water that’s, per Cecchini, “a little bit bitter, a little grabby, a little citrus. Not too sweet at all. The day’s waning. You want something simple and tall and cool and refreshing.”