Florida report: Edison and Ice Plant

When you’re working on a tight travel-book deadline, every mile has to count. For “vacation” (as I laughingly call it), my trusty travel assistant Mr. Wayne and I arranged a loop around the state of Florida a few weeks ago: Six days, 1,600 miles, 5 cities, 3 distilleries (Fish Hawk Spirits, St. Petersburg Distillery and St. Augustine Distillery), with stops to visit friends and family in Tallahassee, West Palm Beach and Tampa/St. Pete.

We worked in pleasure, of course, with stops at the Dali Museum in St. Pete and dinner with old friends at Bern’s Steakhouse in Tampa.

We also had an unusual set of “bookend” experiences, at the beginning of the trip at The Edison, Tallahassee’s new restaurant in Cascades Park, and at the end, at St. Augustine’s hot restaurant the Ice Plant.

Both buildings are in early 20th century industrial buildings. The Edison in Tallahassee is in what used to be an old brick power station, while the Ice Plant is in, yes, an old ice plant that was once part of a 1890s-era station in St. Augustine. Seeing old buildings turned into new food spaces is a brilliant example of smart urban planning.

Both places play up the industrial/Brooklynesque vibe, but do it successfully. Lots of reclaimed wood, exposed brick, visible-filament light fixtures and young staff. Both are restaurants with strong cocktail programs.

At the Edison, Wayne and I were amused by our own memories of the setting in Cascades Park. When we were young and frolicking around Tallahassee 35 years ago, the area was undeveloped green space, known for being unguarded and a little rough. The power plant had created so much pollution that when Wayne once started a small grass fire setting off fireworks, he tried to use water from the creek to quench the flames: There were so many PCBs in the water, the flames just jumped higher.

Today, it’s been reclaimed and turned into a beautiful public park with a water walk, bandshell, fountains and a waterfall. The old power station, which I remember just being a hulk in the back of the land, is now The Edison, spiffed up with terraces and outdoor seating. We started with cocktails while we met old friends, a French 75 for Wayne and a smoked cocktail for me. (Yes, sorry, my memory gets a little fuzzy here – day-drinking, after all). Then we stayed to have dinner with family members. I do remember that the Wagyu hamburger was on par with the nationally praised burger I had at Au Cheval in Chicago a few weeks before.

In St. Augustine, the bar program at the Ice Plant is built, naturally, around ice. Hand-shaved ice in my pina colada with fresh pineapple juice, hand-shaped ice spheres in rocks glasses. Now, I can be disdainful of the idea of gourmet ice. But the Ice Plant is the place that proved me wrong: Hand-shaved ice is fantastic. Very fluffy and light. When I got to the bottom of my pina colada, I ate every fleck, like a coconut-flavored Sno-Bliz.

There are two bars and both were jammed on a Saturday afternoon, with the bar sinks piled with blocks of ice ready to put into service. The cocktail menu is a good spread of classics, like Sazeracs and Old Fashioneds, and creations of their own. Once we scored two seats at the bar, I would have happily tasted my way through the whole cocktail menu. There’s an impressive collection of bourbons behind the bar we kept ourselves amused surveying, and plenty of skilled bartending action worth watching.

Our favorite: The Southside Cocktail. Now, we’ve been making Southsides in the summer for several years, using a very simple recipe I pulled from Bon Appetit years ago. It’s sort of a twist on a minty gin & tonic with a squeeze of lime. But the Ice Plant’s version was a revelation: Served in a Collins glass, it had much more mint than we had been using, like a gin version of a Mojito, muddled straight in the bottom of the glass. Result: Much more flavor, much more refreshing.

When we got back, we hit our cocktail books to re-create it. Most only use a single sprig of mint, while other call for serving it straight up in a cocktail glass. That seems wrong to me for a summer refresher. Luckily, our mint patch is thriving at the moment – it looks like a green feather boa wrapped around the patio. So we had plenty of mint to spend working on it. It took a couple of tries, but we finally hit on the perfect formula.

Ice Plant-Inspired Southside Cocktail

5 or 6 mint sprigs (about 3/4 cup packed), plus a sprig for garnish
3/4 ounce freshly squeezed lime juice (about 1 lime)
2 ounces gin
1 ounce simple syrup
Bubbly water (I use a SodaStream carbonator, but club soda or unflavored seltzer would work)

Place the mint, lime juice, gin and simple syrup in a cocktail shaker. Press vigorously with a wooden muddler. Top with ice and shake. Fill a tall Collins glass with ice. Strain the mixture into the glass and top with about 4 ounces bubbly water. Add a sprig of mint and serve.

Yield: 1 serving.