Bartender Joel Schmeck IN At Irving Street Kitchen

Bartender and Oregon native Joel Schmeck may have cut his mixologist’s teeth working for San Francisco’s Corner Store restaurant group, but he’s back in the Beaver State, mixing up mocktails, lunchtime low-proof cocktails, and spirit-forward drinks for Irving Street Kitchen so that you can pair them with executive chef Sarah Schafer’s daytime and dinnertime eats menus.

Think low-proof drinks for lunchers like Aperol spritzes, peach lemonades spiked with bourbon, cucumber lemonade spiked with gin, and a “Million Dollar Baby” drink made with Cocchi Torino, verjus and apricot liqueur.

New dinnertime cocktails include The Lovejoy, a Boulevardier that Schmeck twists by adding dark chocolate bitters, and the “Thyme Traveler,” a gin-based sipper with vermouth, thyme, grapefruit, and lemon that gradually gets spicy when its peppercorn ice cube starts to melt.

In the coming weeks, Schmeck will further up the Kitchen’s bar game by making homemade nocino, seasonal shrubs, and barrel-aged cocktails.

Irving Street Kitchen: 701 NW 13th Ave., 503-343-9440

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