Native Chattanooga bartender shares recipes for special cocktail creations

McLain Hedges

Every year, thousands of the cocktail industry's best and brightest convene in New Orleans for Tales of the Cocktail, the country's premier cocktail festival featuring new recipes and spirits. Among this year's crop was Chattanooga native McLain Hedges, who routinely crafts special concoctions at his Denver bar, RiNo Yacht Club.

Leading up to the festival, Hedges joined some of the nation's best bartenders on a motorcycle ride from New York City to New Orleans as part of the annual Wandering Spirits tour. They made stops at bars along the way for pop-up events sponsored by Diageo, maker of Johnnie Walker and Don Julio, mixing craft cocktails at each stop to benefit No Kid Hungry, a charity that funds free summer meal sites for children across the U.S. "Every part of the journey is about having a great time and hitting it home with our charity, raising as much awareness as we can about childhood hunger," Hedges says.

During the Wandering Spirits pop-up at Easy Bistro, we got Hedges to share recipes for two of his personal creations.

The Hookie Mentor is his take on a tequila tonic, which he describes as a "super-refreshing, bright, summery cooler of sorts." It blends Don Julio Blanco with the slight salinity and brininess of manzanilla sherry, along with freshly squeezed watermelon juice, lime juice, simple syrup and Fever-Tree tonic, which he prefers for its traditional, more bitter taste with hints of roots and herbs.

His other cocktail, the Ded Reckoning, gets its name from a sailing term and is on the menu at RiNo Yacht Club, which he owns with wife Mary, also a Chattanooga native. He describes it as a twist on the Vieux Carre, a classic New Orleans cocktail. Instead of cognac and rye whiskey, he crafts his version with Don Julio Reposado, mezcal and crème de cacao. "It's a boozy, stirred beverage with some oomph behind it," Hedges says. "There's clearly a lot of depth, while still having a refreshing brightness to it."

DED RECKONING

What you need:

» 1 ounce Don Julio Reposado Tequila

» 1 ounce Del Maguey Vida Mezcal

» 1 ounce Carpano Antica Formula Vermouth

» 1/4 ounce crème de cacao

» Dash orange bitters

» Bittermens Hellfire bitters

» Orange twist, for garnish

What you do:

» Add all ingredients aside from orange twist to a glass. Fill with ice, stir, garnish and serve.

HOOKIE MENTOR

What you need:

» 1 ounce Don Julio Blanco

» 1 ounce manzanilla sherry

» 1 ounce freshly squeezed watermelon juice (he adds a heaping teaspoon of kosher salt to each quart at the bar)

» 1/4 ounce lime juice

» 1/4 ounce simple syrup

» 1 ounce Fever-Tree tonic water

» Slice of salted watermelon, for garnish

What you do:

» Combine ingredients over ice, stir, garnish with salted watermelon and serve.