Cocktails with Personality
By Jessica Tzikas
If you love the vibe and atmosphere of Sweetwater, you’ll be delighted to hear that there is more to enjoy within the New York style cocktail club. What was once known as Saxon, a European spirits hideout, has been reimagined post-pandemic as La Yuma, a conceptual cocktail bar focused on Tequila, Mezcal and Rum.
“La Yuma is an opportunity for my team to express some real creativity in the menu, focused on conceptual and presentational cocktails,” said Sean Iglehart, Sweetwater’s founder. “This dives into the vessels, the garnish, the unique ingredients from micro regions all around the world. Its purpose is ultimately to provide an experience other than the NY cocktail bar that Sweetwater has famously nailed down.”
At La Yuma, each and every cocktail comes from personal experience and is perfected over a three-week process. “We have about a week of inspiration, a week of putting ‘pen to glass,’ then the final week everyone is sharing and tweaking. We present it to staff then it gets placed live a few days later,” said Sean. While some concoctions have a focus on food pairings, others are unique iterations of what the staff feels complements their current menu of spirits. But no matter how the idea came about, each cocktail has its own personality. “Depending on the cocktail, some are designed to consume fast, slow, some with sensory experiences like smoke, fire, heat, scent etc.”
Currently, La Yuma has been creating menus focused on seasons, but to stay true to Florida and our lack of seasonal change, the team is working to re-design future menus around concepts. “Maybe the menu is focused on artists of the 20th century and inspirations are drawn from that, another menu could focus solely on South American flavors, ingredients and cultures. It leaves a lot of creativity and inspiration for the team to dig in.”
1507 S. Federal Highway, Boynton Beach
@sweetwater33
