Food & Spirits Magazine #17 | Page 20

Autumn N’ June - V. Mertz Cozy in the calm of the Old Market Passageway, V. Mertz serves some of the best food and cocktails in town. With a reputation for class, patrons enjoy five to eight course dinners that change along with the availability of the fare, currently boasting scallop crudo, chicken roulade pho, and oxtail croquette. Bar manager Alex Diimig is more of a cocktail engineer, a connoisseur of fine spirits who understands how to pair a drink with a desired sensory experience. His cocktail, Autumn and June, was created on a whim for Breaking the Ice, a March event put on by the Omaha Craft Bartender’s Guild. The base is Memoire d’Automnes vin blanc sec, an aged and oxidized dry white wine akin to sherry, which is shaken along with pear nectar into a champagne glass. Tying the drink together is a honey and tartaric acid foam, accented with L’Esprit de June, a wonderful liq Y]\