The secret to cool cocktails at STIR is artisanal ice, made and cut in-house
Making a cocktail at STIR isn’t as simple as it may seem. While you may not normally pay close attention to the ice in your drink, STIR does. So much so that this new downtown restaurant has a program devoted to making ice in-house.
Part of the original concept of the Chattanooga-based STIR brand, which currently has five locations in the Southeast, the ice program is one of STIR’s “four pillars,” which also include craft cocktails, a scratch kitchen, and the oyster bar, according to Ron Brown, the Greenville restaurant’s bar manager.
To form STIR’s ice, water is filtered three times before being frozen in two 300-pound blocks in a special machine that sits in a small room off the kitchen.
“The cloudy ice you normally get from your refrigerator has oxygen bubbles in it,” explains Montario Washington, STIR’s general manager. “The Clinebell machine actually pulls those oxygen bubbles out by freezing the water from the bottom up. So, as it’s freezing, it’s pulling the bubbles [and impurities] out from the bottom to the top. That’s how you get that dense, clear, transparent ice.” And because the oxygen is pressed out of it, STIR’s ice is denser and harder than regular ice, which significantly slows a drink’s dilution.
Once frozen—a process that takes approximately 18 hours—the ice is lifted out of the machine with an engine hoist and cut into four 75-pound blocks for easier handling. From there, chefs use a band saw to cut the ice into different shapes: a one-inch cube, a two-inch cube, and a long rectangular rock. Spheres of ice are formed in aluminum and tungsten molds, while crushed, shaved, and pebbled ice are formed with hand-shavers.
STIR Ice Show
Creating an ice sphere is part of what Brown calls a tableside “ice show.” When a customer requests a sphere of ice in a drink, the server brings the mold to the table and a standard cube is put inside the half-round bottom of the mold. Then the top (another half-round) is closed and the square is quickly compressed and melted down into a perfect icy orb. “It’s part of the spectacle, the level of service we want to be able to provide for people,” Brown says.
To go with that artisanal ice, the bar staff at STIR squeezes fresh juices and makes 15 to 20 different syrups, from ginger to hibiscus—not to mention the in-house tonic program, which features a classic and a new elderberry hibiscus tonic. In December, look for a special wassail cocktail, akin to a hot, mulled apple cider spiked with bourbon.
STIR’s ice program enables its well-trained bar team to “make sure that every single piece of ice comes out perfect for our guests,” says Washington. As the only restaurant in Greenville with its own in-house artisanal ice program, STIR clearly has the home ice advantage.
Good Shape
Only the best ice will do for STIR’s scratch cocktails, where the shape of the ice is calculated to complement each particular drink.
A long rock is found in an Elderflower Sour, or any drink in a tall collins glass.
The sphere is typically served in an Old Fashioned or a booze-forward cocktail where you don’t want the ice to dilute your drink.
Small cubes go well in Strawberry Moon Sangria or STIR’s signature gin and tonic.
Large cubes are most often paired with cocktails served in a rocks glass.
Pebbled ice is stirred into a 1948 Margarita, while shaved or crushed ice chills a Mule or a Whiskey Bramble.
