Celebrate The End Of Dry January In Style At Este

Need To Know:

• From January 27-31, Este—in partnership with Bawi Agua Fresca—will serve quite-possibly the best-sounding mocktail of all time—the La Patraña, which Este’s owner, Sam Hellman-Mass told Social Stimulus is “inspired by a highball cocktail and made with Bawi Lime, tonic water, raspberry syrup, and non-alcoholic rhubarb bitters.”
• Este is the Dua-Lipa beloved, Michelin-recommended, Austin Chronicle “best chef” winning Mexican seafood restaurant that resides on the New York Times list of “The 25 Best Restaurants in Austin Right Now” and Esquire’s 2023 list of “Best New Restaurants in America.” Esquire even promised its readers that Este makes: “The best goddamn fried-fish tacos you’ll ever have in your life.”
• Bawi, which Food and Wine recently described as “the Goldilocks of beverages” and “the only soda alternative [that’s] worth drinking” is an Austin-based business. Bawi’s co-owner, Victor Guardiola, “grew up loving agua fresca in Monterrey, Mexico,” and when he came to Texas he found himself wanting “to sip on something that reminded him of home.”

Three Favorite Snippets From Our Conversation With Este. Social Stimulus Connected With Sam Hellman-Mass, co-founder of Este, Bar Toti and Suerte. Here are our three favorite exchanges from that conversation:

1. The Art of Mixing Mocktails

• Social Stimulus: Can you explain the artistry behind mixing cocktails versus mocktails? Are there certain creative freedoms that not using alcohol allows? Are the standard flavor bases that you use and then add-on from that base (like you would with say Rum or Bourbon)?
• Hellman-Mass: “Mixing mocktails is a different art form compared to crafting cocktails. Alcohol adds viscosity and complexity, so when it’s removed, you have to approach the process differently - finding creative and innovative ways to build a truly great drink without relying on spirits. We’ve had a lot of fun experimenting for Dry January.”

2. Unpacking The La Patraña

• Social Stimulus: For anyone fortunate enough to be dining at Este during the last few days of the month, why order the La Patraña? What’s special about it? What other drink or flavors does it remind you of? What inspired the recipe?
• Hellman-Mass: “The La Patraña is inspired by a highball cocktail and is made with Bawi Lime, tonic water, raspberry syrup, and non-alcoholic rhubarb bitters. Using tonic water in nonalcoholic cocktails is a great way to mimic a complex spirit in mocktails, as quinine (the bittering agent in tonic) is used in many fortified wines and herbal liqueurs -  there’s a natural affiliation between tonic and alcoholic beverages.

3. Bawi x Este

• Social Stimulus: Would you tell us a little bit about why you are partnering with Bawi? It’s quite an endorsement for one of the highest profile chefs and restaurateurs in Austin (and the country) to team up with another food related business. What makes Bawi’s product or vision worthy of an Este partnership?
• Hellman-Mass: “Victor, the founder of Bawi, is a friend, and at Este, we genuinely love the product so it felt like a natural fit. We were drawn to the idea of doing something fun and collaborative with them and Dry January was a perfect fit. Partnering with Bawi for Dry January has also allowed us to create a unique experience that introduced our audiences to one another. Guests at Este can discover Bawi, and vice versa, Bawi fans can explore what we’re doing at Este. Plus, it’s always exciting to team up with another local Austin business with a shared passion for quality and creativity in the spirit of fun.”

A Wider Lens:

Austin’s Booze-Free Makeover

• One in five adults over 21 are participating in Dry January, a campaign that started in Europe, made its way over to the United States, and is now a deeply popular way for people to reset habits, improve health, and reflect on their drinking.
• For younger generations, though—and Gen Z in particular—consuming alcohol is going out of vogue more broadly. As Solcyré Burga details in Time Magazine, national data now shows that while “lifetime drinking, past month drinking, and past year drinking among young people began to decline around the year 2000 … the share of adults under age 35 who say they ever drink dropped ten percentage points in two decades.”
• Austin is on the leading-edge of these generational shifts. Back in 2017, Sans Bar became North America’s first alcohol-free bar. Since then, as Madeline Hollern chronicles for Austin Monthly, the city has undergone something of a “sober revolution” and is now “home to zero-proof beverage brands, booze-free meetups, and the country’s first nonalcoholic bar, Texas’ biggest party town is transforming into the hub of conscientious consumption.”

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