We love this place.  We especially love it because our good friend and woman of amazing things, Alli, is the bartender and mixologist.  And let me be clear, Alli has a following.  She will “Facebook” that she is working on a certain night and the bar is packed full of people hoping to hang out with her.  I’m not joking.   She is super friendly, warm, and she makes you feel very welcome – even in one of the more upscale and nicest Italian restaurants in town.

We have written about La Tavola before, but we wanted to go back and try some of Alli’s summer drinks.  Alison’s parents, Bob and Judy, were in town for Father’s Day so we headed for dinner there this past Friday night. (Sorry I am so late writing this…busy bee)  We sat on the wonderful back porch area and ordered the Violetta Fiore and Ms. Grants Elixir Mixer.  We all four decided to taste them even though Bob and Judy don’t drink the “hard liquor!”

Don’t forget our ratings scale is between 1 and 5 Olives.  One Olive = waste of my blogging time;  5 Olives = oh my goodness/yummmmmm

The Violetta Fiore consisted of Dry Fly Gin, lavender syrup, and a splash of soda.

Presentation:  2 olives – Clear and light, this drink is served over ice and quite frankly, there is not much that one could do to make it pop in looks.  It had a nice slice of lemon with it.

Taste:  3.5 olives – Really nice summer drink.  Very light and tasty and the lavender was just right. I am not a huge gin drinker and really enjoyed this one.

Creativity: 3 olives – Named after an obvious Italian flower (like a pansy) and found in Florence Italy (or so my research goes) this drink does not have too many ingredients, but it does not need many.

Overall:  3 olives – We enjoyed this very summery drink – and Bob and Judy liked it enough to take more than one sip each!

Our next drink was Ms. Grants Elixir Mixer.  This drink, also served over ice, consisted of vodka, ginger syrup, a dash of bitters, a splash of ginger ale and finished off with a gorgeous and tasty candied piece of ginger.  This was by far our favorite drink of the evening.

Presentation: 2 olives – The candied ginger was excellent and the color of the drink was a clear color full of flavor.

Taste: 3.5 olives – Like I said, a flavorful drink even though you would not think it by looking at it.  We really liked it and the ginger was not too much (sometimes it can be overwhelming!)

Creativity: 4 olives – Good creative drink here – do vodka, ginger, and bitters normally go together so well?

Overall: 3.5 olives  – Again, such a fantastic summer drink and one we shall get again!

If you have not been to La Tavola, you must go – more than their drinks rock – the food is spectacular and by far one of our favorite Fifth Group restaurants.  The only thing we ask is that they bring back their amazing antipasto platter!!! And a Happy Father’s Day to Bob who enjoyed his Father’s Day weekend with us!

So, call us slack.  We just did not go out to one of the many fabulous remaining bars/restaurants for a drink this past week.  We had a lot going on and wanted to hang out with our friends, Matt, Sarah, and their kid – who is quite frankly not old enough to go into a bar (and Alison and I always complain when there are babies in BARS.)

We had delicious meal with them at their home – they fancy themselves amateur chefs and I tend to agree with them.  Matt can certainly grill a pork tenderloin and Sarah makes the best damn desserts ever.  They sound just like a fabulous 1950′s couple…(but really, Sarah wears the pants.)  I digress.

Matt told me he had made this tequila concoction and we were dying to taste it.  I have named the drink “Mr. Baby“  in honor of their precious little boy whose name I just don’t feel like revealing because he is underage I guess. (Yet, he is obviously in my arms in this photo.)  Mr. Baby consists of a nice tequila, fresh squeezed lime (usually one whole lime per drink,) Agave Nectar, and Lemon Thyme simple syrup. Matt and Sarah have a wonderful amount of this lemon thyme herb in their garden and it added great flavor to this drink.  Oh, I forgot, that fresh blueberries can be smashed a bit and then placed in your glass for an extra pop.  YUM.

Don’t forget our ratings scale is between 1 and 5 Olives.  One Olive = waste of my blogging time;  5 Olives = oh my goodness/yummmmmm

Presentation: 3.5 olives.  I think in real life, you could order this either on the rocks or up.  Ours was a combination…probably would like to see it less “rocky” in a martini glass next time, but I was not rude to say this to Matt’s face (just to the world here.)  The added color of the blueberries was wonderful.

Taste: 3.5 olives.  Again, before Abattoir, I would have given this a 4 olive rating.  I will tell you though that the more lemon thyme simple syrup that goes in, the better it is – and again, the blueberries tasted fantastic after sitting in the tequila for a while…

Creativity: 4 olives.  Easy yet nicely different.

Overall: 3.7 olives   Both Alison and I really loved the drink.  We certainly plan on making it at home and we will just have to borrow the lemon thyme from Matt and Sarah’s garden.   Of course, they will be invited too!

We have been meaning to get back to Leon’s in Decatur.  We went like the second week it was open and were not that impressed of the sister restaurant of the famous Brickstore.  Alas, we decided to finally give it another shot and loved loved loved it – especially the cheese plate.  Yummy.  Actually, all our food was just perfection – and not terribly expensive.  The pork chop was divine as well.

But on to the most important part of our meal – the cocktails of course.  We sat at the bar this past Sunday afternoon at like 4:30pm.  (We had not eaten since breakfast and were starving.) Chris and Juliet (pictured) greeted us and were both wonderful bartenders who shook cocktail shakers with such force, we thought their arms would fall off.  Seriously.  The specialty cocktails are concoctions of the famous Miles Macquarrie.

Chris told us to get the Bitter and Stoned and the Eagle and Wolf  – great names.   I ordered the Bitter and Stoned and Alison got the Eagle and Wolf.  We both thought these drinks were good Fall drinks.

Don’t forget our ratings scale is between 1 and 5 Olives.  One Olive = waste of my blogging time;  5 Olives = oh my goodness/yummmmmm

The Bitter and Stoned consisted of  beefeater gin, Leon’s apricot ginger liqueur, cynar, fresh lemon, and house grapefruit bitters. Cynar is a bitter Italian aperitif with 13 herbs and plants (including the artichoke!)

Presentation: 4 olives – The color was gorgeous – served up – with a beautiful perfect small apricot lined across the glass on a small wooden stick.

Taste: 3 olives – After last week’s amazing drinks, we are having to up the anty on this thing.  I would have normally given this drink a 3.5 or 4 – but I just can’t now.  I really liked this drink.  At the end of a sip, the grapefruit bitters came out full force  – but I eventually liked that more than I thought I would.  It was a great tasting drink.

Creativity: 3.5 olives -I loved the apricot ginger liqueur and even though I could not taste artichoke in the Cynar, I liked the thought that my drink had 13 special herbs and plants including that artichoke.

Overall: 3.5 olives- Excellent drink that you should certainly try at Leon’s Full Service.  Watching them shake it made it even more fun.

Like I said, Alison got the Eagle and Wolf which consisted of rittenhouse bonded rye whiskey, carpano antica formula (huh?), plymouth sloe gin,  Regan’s orange bitters, and fernet branca (which was in a drink last week)  Lots of stuff in this drink, I tell ya.

Presentation: 3 olives   – Looked yummy

Creativity: 3.5 olives -  Nice mix of ingredients.  I was hoping this blend would cut the strong whiskey taste and lead to something more balanced…alas

Taste: 2.5 olives -  yeah – not balanced enough.  Our pal Frank can mix some excellent bourbon and whiskey cocktails that use ingredients to cut the taste and make them taste nice and smooth.  This particular mixture was too heavy on the whiskey flavor for me.  More of a fall/winter cocktail.

Overall: 3 olives -  I feel bad, but after last week, this is the best I can do.

Regardless, we shall be back to try more cocktails at Leon’s!