Boozy News

Hot-shot mixologist Lindsay Heffron in the running for World’s Most InspiredBartender

Lindsay Heffron's Salaam Bombay
Lindsay Heffron of Liberty Station celebrates her Houston win.

Lindsay Heffron of Liberty Station is packing her bags and heading to Las Vegas. It’s not all poolside and casinos, though. Sunday, Heffron will represent Houston against 51 other top mixologists from across the U.S. in Bombay Sapphire gin’s search for the "Most Inspired Bartender."

Heffron earned her spot in the national competition by winning Bombay Sapphire's local contest held last month at Nouveau Antique Art Bar. The United States Bartenders’ Guild (USBG) invited 20 of Houston’s most promising bartenders to create cocktails incorporating the brand-name gin.

While the finished beverage is similar to a Martinez Cocktail, Heffron's spice-inspired drink stands apart with its savory mix of saffron, gin, sweet vermouth, and apricot flavors. You won't find any juices or syrups here. This beverage is made with all alcohol.

After a series of timed sessions and blind tastings, Heffron passed with flying colors as her innovative libation “Salaam Bombay” was deemed the evening’s “Most Inspired” by a panel of judges that included chef Bryan Caswell and Bombay Sapphire Ambassador Gary Hayward.

Heffron built her recipe around saffron tincture, a concentrated alcoholic extract used to draw flavor from the spice. While the finished beverage is similar to a Martinez Cocktail, Heffron's spice-inspired drink stands apart with its savory mix of saffron, gin, sweet vermouth, and apricot flavors. Heffron notes that she took care to “enhance rather than mask the Bombay Sapphire by keeping the recipe boozy.” You won't find any juices or syrups here. This beverage is made with all alcohol.

From Space City to Sin City, the stakes are high at the national challenge in Las Vegas. On the line is the title of USBG Most Inspired Bartender and a profile spot in GQ Magazine's December 2012 issue.

“I’ve been working on my flavor profiles and honing in on my palate to better understand what goes together,” Heffron says. "Being creative is what it’s all about, along with understanding how to layer and mix."

The contest's first elimination, at which Heffrom will present the Salaam Bombay again, will narrow the field to 10 bartenders, then the 10 winning bartenders will be challenged to come up with an inventive cocktail using a secret ingredient and an assigned theme. Last year the secret ingredient was Bombay Sapphire East and competitors were asked to use their hometown as inspiration. The Las Vegas event lasts through Wednesday.

Have gin, will travel. The winner of the USBG Most Inspired Bartender will earn a spot at Bombay Sapphire Gin's second-annual global finals in Morocco. Making it to the grand finale in Africa and vying for international recognition against nine other of the world’s preeminent mixologists will have proven no small feat, considering this whole process began with entries from as many as 1,500 bartenders.

“I feel extremely honored to have the opportunity to be nationally recognized in my field,” says Heffron. “The notion that the national recognition could turn into global recognition is simply surreal.”

Below is the recipe for Heffron’s winning drink. Cheers!

Salaam Bombay
1.5 oz. Bombay Sapphire
.75 oz. Pierre Ferrand Pineau des Charentes cognac
.5 oz Punt E Mes Italian vermouth
.5 oz apricot liqueur
10 drops saffron tincture*

Stir all ingredients in a mixing glass, serve up in a cocktail glass or coupe and garnish with a candied apricot piece.

*To make the saffron tincture you’ll need:
1 spice jar Spanish saffron (available at Whole Foods)
Bombay Sapphire

Mix a small 3:1 solution of Bombay Sapphire to water and add entire contents of spice jar. Let it sit for a few days to draw flavor from the saffron. It'll last for roughly one month.

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New York Times critic awards Houston restaurant 2 stars in glowing review

Courtesy of ChòpnBlọk

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Let’s just call 2025 the year of ChòpnBlọk. In a review published Tuesday, December 16, the New York Times has awarded the Houston restaurant two stars (“very good”).

Written by chief restaurant critic Tejal Rao, the review touts many of the same qualities that the Times already praised when it included ChòpnBlọk on its list of America’s 50 best restaurants.

Rao writes that she usually avoids restaurants that serve food in bowls, but she’s impressed by the way that chef-owner Ope Amosu has put a West African spin on the concept.

“For inspiration, Ope Amosu looked to the kind of chain restaurants that were built to scale, where flavors are often subdued to appeal to the broadest possible audience, focus-grouped to death. But the delight of ChòpnBlok is in its sure sense of self, its lively, multidimensional cooking and clear, delicious vision for modern food from the Black diaspora,” Rao writes.

She singles out specific dishes, including the Nigerian red stew with short rib, the Black Star bowl with shrimp, and the signature Motherland, made with chicken, greens, and plantains. “It’s utterly simple, but draws you in for more with the mouthwatering twang of not-too-much MSG — an international shortcut to building umami that tends to be used carefully, and layered with other forms,” she writes.

The review also touches on the way Amosu switched the restaurant from counter service to full service — described as “warm, informal, and quick with the jokes” — and his time working at Chipotle to learn the basics of the restaurant operations.

A two-star review is only the latest instance of ChòpnBlọk receiving national attention. In addition to the Times 50 best list, Esquire recently named it one of America’s best new restaurants. The Michelin Guide awarded it a Bib Gourmand designation for 2025. Amosu earned a semifinalist nomination for Best Chef: Texas in the 2025 James Beard Awards.

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