Add A Star-Spangled Sip To Your Menu

Whether you reach for local craft brews or creative craft cocktails, these drinks are sure to impress.
Cheryl De Leon,
4 Star Spangled Sip

It’s finally here! After a whole year of waiting and buildup, we are ready to celebrate America’s 250th birthday in style—with fireworks, parades and amazing gatherings.

You’re likely already prepared for your backyard cookout. You have the perfect décor and ambiance, a dinner and dessert menu locked in and all your RSVPs sorted out. The finishing touch to ensure you’re hosting a party for the ages? Some seriously impressive sips.

Stocking local brews is a great way to both elevate and individualize your drink offerings (who doesn’t want to show out-of-town family and friend’s Bergen’s best?). You still have time to swing by these Readers’ Choice-winning craft breweries and pick up something special:

  • Five Dimes Brewery. A local favorite for its live music and trivia nights, this brewery offers colorful cans filled with IPAs of all kinds, plus ales, stouts and more.
    *247 Westwood Ave., Westwood, 201.497.8455
  • Gearblock Brewing Company. The lemonade sour here will go great with a hot afternoon in the backyard. Or opt for an IPA, a stout or a dark ale, just to name three.
    *140 Franklin Tpke., # 2, Waldwick, 201.962.2057
  • Hackensack Brewing Company. Offerings at 2025’s winner include a double IPA, a black IPA, an imperial pilsner, a pale lager, a stout and a house-made hard seltzer.
    *78 Johnson Ave., Hackensack, 201.880.1768

More of a cocktail person? Here’s a recipe, courtesy of A Year of Cocktails, for one of our favorite seasonal sips, the firecracker spritzer, as shared in the July issue of BERGEN:

Firecracker Spritzer

Yields 1 serving

Ingredients

  • 1 oz. citrus vodka
  • ½ oz. blue curaçao
  • 1½ oz. lemon-lime soda
  • ½ oz. grenadine

Directions

In a glass, pour in the grenadine. Fill the glass with ice. Pour in the lemon-lime soda. In a shaker, add ice, citrus vodka and blue curaçao. Shake and slowly strain into the glass.

One last tip from Cassidy Brinkman, a bartender in Garfield: “Create a layered drink by muddling raspberries or blackberries at the bottom of the glass. The fruit will pair nicely with the zesty lemon-lime flavor of the soda.”

Are you hosting an incredible Independence Day celebration? Make sure you tag us @bergenmagnj in all your best moments!

 

Categories: Bergen Health & Life