Since opening in 2020, NOTO (5105 Westwood, St. Peters) has gained a reputation for its incredible Neapolitan pizza, attentive service, and expressive cocktails. General manager London Rodgers recently shared more about the process, inspiration, and challenges of running the popular restaurant’s highly focused bar program.
How do you ensure the beverage program feels like a natural extension of the kitchen’s Italian flavors? I like to believe the culture at Noto is the leading factor in curating a cocktail menu that’s cohesive and complementary to our seasonal dinner menus. Bartender Dylan Seehusen and I work closely with our back-of-house team to see what seasonal produce we’ll be getting. For instance, on our winter/spring menu, we feature a citrus salad with roasted beets, quark cheese, sumac, and crispy brown rice. We took that plate and created a cocktail that can playfully pair with it. The Verdura is a smoky mezcal-based cocktail with a perfectly earthy, just-acidic-enough beet shrub, tied together by Cynar, a popular amari from Veneto that’s known for its bittersweet artichoke flavor. We keep the same school of thought that you see in wine pairing—“if it grows together, it goes together”—while still offering a unique experience, whether it’s in a glass or on a plate. We always value the significance of the culture while having our own creative, fun take on the flavors.
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Many Italian programs lean heavily on spritzes, though you’ve pushed into more complex territory. What’s the riskiest cocktail that ended up being a guest favorite? Much like everyone else, we understand and appreciate the simplistic splendor that a crisp spritz can bring to the table. It has its rightful spot in every Italian restaurant. At Noto, we are constantly challenging ourselves to bring thoughtful, adventurous, well-executed cocktails to our guests, and challenging our clientele to try something outside the bounds of the familiarity comfort zone. A successful example of this was our Saint Valentine, which was initially designed to be a special for the week of Valentine’s Day. It was such a smashing success, it earned its place as one of our seasonal cocktails for spring/summer. Coined the Fragola, it’s a cheeky take on a whiskey sour with bourbon, Dolin Chamberyzette Strawberry, balsamic vinegar shrub, lemon, and plum bitters. A sour is approachable, strawberry is a signature summertime flavor, and adding that balsamic shrub dials the cocktail up another notch. It has complexity, richness, and this lovely, lingering savory tang that beckons you back for another sip.
When you’re developing a new cocktail, do you start with a specific spirit, a seasonal ingredient, or a feeling that you want the guest to have? With a menu of seven seasonal cocktails, we start by assessing our core spirits for each cocktail. From there, the fun begins. We make it a whole conversation, throwing in two cents from our travels, experiences at other restaurants, flavors that provoke a fond memory for us. Maybe it is brought to us by an ingredient native to Italy that “just feels right” for the season. Or maybe it’s taking a cocktail I drank every day in France and figuring out how we can make it Italian. There is sentimentality and intentionality with each cocktail we create, rooting from many different muses. Ultimately, the goal is to bring something that can be as simple as a cocktail to life, giving it legs and a story and connecting with our guests to hopefully, in turn, leave them with a fond flavor memory as well.
How do you educate guests about the more challenging profiles of amari and Italian spirits without being intimidating? We have a couple approaches that we’ve found to be effective. The first is we include an Italian spirit in every cocktail we create. Oftentimes, you’ll see amari or aperitif as a listed component. This builds exposure and begins the conversation. Another resource we provide for guests is a list of our digestif selection, located on the right-hand side of our dessert menu. Not only does it list every amari we stock on the shelves, but it also indicates the region, as well as a couple of tasting notes. We offer individual pours or a flight of three. Our servers are not only excellent at explaining amari to our guests, but they are also genuinely enthusiastic to bring a new experience to the table. Our guests trust us to take them on a venture outside of their usual realm of enjoyment. We make it interactive. We’ll make ranking sheets for the table that ordered a couple of flights; we’ll bring the bottles over and give more context. Or maybe the guests didn’t order it—we had a really awesome table and gifted a flight one night. Now, that couple comes in and tries a different amari at the end of every visit. Where there is intimidation, on the other side is the thrill of surprise. We try to keep our people surprised.
How do you maintain elevated cocktail standards, such as specific ice programs or delicate garnishes, during a busy Friday night? We try not to overcomplicate it. We source our ice from Good Ice. Those beautiful, slow-to-melt, crystal-clear cubes branded with our logo make our lives eons easier than when we were making our own large cubes in house. We use a lot of aromatic herbs as garnish. (Keep them in water.) We cross-utilize a prepped garnish in different ways for different cocktails. The garnish is a functional accessory that contributes something, rather than a component that’s just adding visual appeal. With that being said, we do always have a seasonal cocktail with a flavor-blaster bubble as the garnish. During summertime, with the ceiling fans on, a journey across the dining room always makes for dinner and a show.
What does that “test kitchen” process look like when a new drink is being vetted for the menu? We believe there is more than enough room for every team member’s suggestions, input, and feedback. Cocktails and the process of creation is meant to be fun. Oftentimes, I will throw a whimsical idea out there with Dylan, and we will put our minds together to create a special. For instance, a toasted focaccia bread–infused vodka, with freshly processed tomato water, a little whey, dry vermouth, and basil to garnish—we’ve just turned bruschetta into a drink. Or Abby, a lead server who fills in at the bar during Dylan’s travels, will bring in a cocktail book and select what she would take pride in modifying and featuring. For us, it’s just as important to have a passionate, hands-on team as it is to provide a beverage experience to our guests. Our servers collect feedback, and we go from there. Is it practical? Does this make sense for the menu? How can we tweak this to better appeal to guests? We always find the sweet spot.
What is one part of the business side of managing a beverage program that you’ve grown to love as much as the creative side? I feel immense gratitude for all of our sales representatives and the relationships that have been built through tasting, discussing, and learning from one another. We have a very curated portfolio of Italian spirits and wines. Our reps know how important the curation is to us and arrive with well-suited, thought-out potential placements. I have thoroughly enjoyed coming to a deeper understanding of the history, processes, and people who contribute to the creation of every product on our shelves. Having those connections and context further deepens the significance of everything that is shaken, mixed, or poured into our glasses.
As a woman leading one of the region’s top programs, what is a change you’ve noticed in the industry over the past few years that gives you optimism? I’m grateful to work in a place with a powerhouse woman as my leader, Kendele Noto Sieve. There is no position she can’t work with grace, no task too short or too tall for her, and no ceiling of limitation for what she may be inspired to do next. To see a woman own and operate a restaurant that has been her dream is a constant inspiration. Additionally, I have been immersed in the world of wine in recent years—planning tastings, meeting the winemakers, hearing their stories. I have come to notice the increased spotlight on women in wine. The tradition of winemaking has been dominated by men for centuries. Seeing that tide turn even incrementally is exciting. There are so many deeply brilliant, talented, and tenacious women who contribute to the success and sustainability of this industry.
What is the most important trait you look for when hiring behind the bar? We are incredibly fortunate to have Dylan as our lead bartender for four years now. Dylan and I both were hired as servers at NOTO in fall 2021. By summer 2022, he was behind the bar, and I began training for the general manager role. We have always strived to promote within. We encourage our front-of-house team to know how to work every role. As a four-day-a-week operation, we keep our team rather concise. This model works incredibly well when introducing new team members to our operation or seasoned team members into a new role. For instance, Abby, one of our lead servers, covers the bar for extended periods of time while Dylan is traveling. Abby has her own appeal when she steps behind the bar. She is graceful, speedy, and brings dining room formalities to the 10-seat bar. Each front-of-house member has their own approach and versatile set of skills. I am proud to manage a team of people who not only uphold our values, integrity, and hospitality, but also have their own personal passions and flair. The ability to love your work, teammates, and guests is the most important “why” of all. That is what we search for in any current or potential team members.
What are some of your other favorite St. Louis cocktail spots? No Ordinary Rabbit lead bartender Zoe Duncan is continuously pushing the envelope when it comes to how deeply one can conceptualize a cocktail, as well as making it sustainable for herself and her team members. General manager and sommelier Carmen Estrada curates the most beautiful, fun wine list in town, highlighting women winemakers or her favorite varietal through different winemaking regions. Both my glass and heart are always full there. I also frequently visit Olive + Oak in Webster Groves, as well as Frazer’s in Benton Park. Both have their own appeal, but the commonality is the integrity, creativity, and beautiful execution of their rotating cocktails. I love to sit at the bar, observe, and ask questions. Yellowbelly is a summertime favorite. I can’t resist a tiki drink when the sun is shining and the mood strikes. If I want an Old World pub feel, I love to sit in a wooden stool at Annie Gunn’s and appreciate a perfect dirty martini, perhaps with a dozen oysters. A spot at the bar is the best spot in the house. I love to go out to taste and experience. But at the right bar, you’re never alone and never short of entertainment and insight.
What cocktail on NOTO’s spring/summer menu are you most excited about? I am thrilled to debut all seven of our seasonal cocktails. The Sole Siciliano, however, is the perfect embodiment of what I’d like to be sipping all summer. A Rhum Agricole–based cocktail, it’s accompanied by Amaro Averna, passion fruit purée, lime, saline, and celery bitters, and it’s smoked to finish. While it may seem rather straightforward, the vegetal, peppery, herbaceous funk of the agricole dances perfectly with the snappy tartness of the passion fruit. The flavor complexity is deepened by the bittersweet warm spices and citrus notes from the Sicilian amari, Averna. A little saline makes all of those flavors pop. Smoke to aromatize, and you have a spirit-forward, tropical expression of a hot summer’s day in Sicily.
Recipe: Sole Siciliano
London shared the recipe for the popular NOTO cocktail—though there’s nothing like cozying up to the 10-seat bar and watching the expert team make it.
INGREDIENTS
- 1.5 oz. rhum agricole
- .5 oz. Amaro Averna
- .75 oz. passion fruit liqueur
- .75 oz. lime juice
- 2 dashes of celery bitters
- 2 drops of saline
- 6 dashes of Fee Foam bitters
- Mint for garnish
INSTRUCTIONS
- Combine all ingredients except the Fee Foam bitters and mint in a shaking tin with ice.
- Shake until well-chilled or the shaker has a layer of frost.
- Pull apart tins, and strain out the ice. Dry shake with six dashes of Fee Foam bitters. Pour into a snifter.
- Using a smoke topper or smoking gun, add cherrywood chips, and smoke the cocktail inside the snifter.
- Garnish with fresh expressed mint.
