Daily dispatches on the Washington, DC area's food, restaurant and dining scene.
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Best of Washington: Tuscany in an Ice Tray?
Best New Drink
By
Sara Levine
Gina Chersevani's novelty drink: wine over frozen cubes of Tuscan sangria. Photograph by Matthew Worden.
After her sophomore year at the University of Maryland, Gina Chersevani begged her parents to let her go to a summer bartending school. “It was fake school,” she laughs. “The only thing I learned was to mix a drink the same way, every time.” Now Chersevani, 31, is the mastermind behind cocktails at the five Northern Virginia restaurants owned by the Neighborhood Restaurant Group: Evening Star Cafe, Rustico, Vermilion, Tallula, and EatBar, where she’s based. She’s often in the kitchen quizzing chefs and testing new drinks—cooking down fruit, making purées in a Vita-Prep, rolling out ribbons of alcoholic strawberry-and-coriander “fruit leather” with a pasta cutter. Chersevani, whose father is a chef, recently debuted a summer drink that took two years to perfect. “My baby lives in a tray,” she says, displaying an ice tray filled with frozen cubes of Tuscan sangría made of vin santo, Chianti, lemons, limes, and oranges. Tableside or at the bar, she stacks a few of the cubes in a glass and pours wine—red or white—over them from a carafe. “The choice of wine makes it a completely different drink,” she says. “Or it’s great with gin and a splash of Champagne. Then it’s a cocktail.” Frozen Sangria is available at EatBar, 2761 Washington Blvd., Arlington; 703-778-9951.
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Comments
Thanks Sara. I did request it and was told it wasn’t available anymore(7/17). Maybe all of the staff is not aware that it can still be ordered. Thanks for the heads up...!
Posted by: ads, Jul 24, 2008 06:24:24 AM
I checked in with EatBar’s manager last week, and Gina’s frozen sangria isn’t on the menu, but she’s got enough of the cubes on hand to make it for anyone who sees this story and requests it! The off-menu drink is $9.
Posted by: Sara [at the washingtonian], Jul 21, 2008 07:43:23 AM
Went to Eatbar tonight (7/17) and this drink is unfortunately not available anymore!
Posted by: ads, Jul 19, 2008 08:22:53 AM
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