photo by: Mike Yoder

Halfway to Scarborough at Limestone Pizza, 814 Massachusetts St.

Looking to shake up your drink-making repertoire this fall? Try out these recipes for cold-weather libations from local bartenders and restaurateurs at your next get-together.

Or grab a seat at the bar and let someone else do the heavy lifting. You’ll find most of the drinks mentioned here on the eateries’ seasonal cocktail menus, which should all roll out by the end of October.

Halfway to Scarborough

Limestone Pizza, 814 Massachusetts St.

This earthy drink debuted last year on Limestone’s inaugural cocktail menu, which general manager Sarah Soderling says took its inspiration from the “fall bounty and flavors that remind our senses of the changing season.” A playful tribute to Simon and Garfunkel’s hit version of “Scarborough Fair,” Limestone’s cocktail contains half the herbs mentioned in the old-timey ballad (parsley and sage) while leaving out rosemary and thyme — hence the “halfway” aspect. Ginger and pear round out the drink’s autumnal flavors.

Limestone Pizza’s Halfway to Scarborough recipe:

The “Halfway” has multiple fall flavor components, starting with the base of fresh pear-infused vodka. Bosc or Anjou, any available local varietal and any combo works great. Once the pears are peeled, add vodka (2-3 pears per bottle of vodka) to a large mason jar and let rest for at least 72 hours. (A week is better.) The pears will last over a month as long as they are submerged.

We make a house ginger syrup, which adds a nice sweet spice and heat to the drink. Ginger spice lends itself to many fall sweets and this pairing is a perfect example of a fall fruit and spice combination.

Combine fresh grated ginger root and dried ground ginger, add to a simple syrup (1:1 water-sugar ratio) and simmer at low heat for about 30 minutes.

If you don’t have time for an infusion or a ginger simple syrup, here’s a suitable quick cheat: muddle one sugar cube and fresh grated ginger (per drink) and purchase pear-flavored vodka.

The rest of the drink is fresh ingredients — flat leaf parsley, fresh sage leaf and lemon. Easy to mix once the prep work is done!

Directions

In a mixing glass muddle:

2 sage leaves

5 parsley sprigs

1 ounce ginger syrup (or 1 raw sugar cube and one teaspoon fresh grated ginger)

3/4 ounce fresh-squeezed lemon juice

Next, add 1.5 ounces pear vodka, top mixing glass with ice. Shake and strain over 8-ounce rocks glass with ice. Garnish with large parsley sprig and cracked black pepper.

photo by: Joanna Hlavacek

The Mass Street Banshee at Merchants Pub and Plate, 746 Massachusetts St.

Mass Street Banshee

Merchants Pub and Plate, 746 Massachusetts St.

Elsewhere downtown, Merchants Pub and Plate is taking a “different approach” (i.e., expanding beyond the usual suspects — that means you, pumpkin spice) to its seasonal menu, says owner-chef T.K. Peterson. Instead, they’re serving up Alchemy’s cold-press coffee in a bittersweet (but mostly sweet) cocktail that server/front-of-the-house manager Ryan Gaines describes as “chocolate milk for adults.” It’s got all the good stuff (whiskey, amaretto, cherry brandy) to keep you warm on a chilly day.

Mass Street Banshee

Ingredients

1 ounce Jameson Irish Whiskey

1/2 ounce amaretto

1 ounce cherry brandy

3 ounces Alchemy cold-press coffee

1/2 ounce cream

Directions

In a shaker, combine all ingredients and shake with ice. Pour into a rocks glass over ice. Garnish with brandy-soaked cherries.

photo by: Mike Yoder

Cinco Cider at Five Bar and Tables, 947 Massachusetts.

Cinco Cider

Five Bar and Tables, 947 Massachusetts St.

For classic sweater-weather comfort in a mug, look no further than Five Bar and Tables’ Cinco Cider, a perennial fall favorite that has a strong chance of returning to the bar’s seasonal menu this year.

“It’s a nice, hot drink for those cooler days,” says bar manager Lacy Haymes, who makes his cinnamon-infused tequila (“cinco,” of course, means “five” in Spanish) in-house and serves it with up with apple cider and a garnish of cinnamon sticks.

Cinco Cider

Ingredients

Tequila (any brand will do)

Louisburg Cider Mill apple cider

Cinnamon sticks

Directions

Take two cinnamon sticks and store them in a bottle of tequila for two weeks. The tequila will soak up the cinnamon and become much darker — very brown, in fact. Then, pour two ounces of the tequila into a coffee mug filled with hot apple cider and stir to combine. Garnish with a cinnamon stick.

Heart & Soul at 715, 715 Massachusetts St.

Heart & Soul

715 restaurant, 715 Massachusetts St.

Rye whiskey, rich sherry and orange bitters meet quintessentially autumnal flavors (brown sugar, raisin and roasted nuts) in this old standby from 715. It probably won’t appear on this year’s fall menu, says bar manager Katrina Weiss, but you can still order the Heart & Soul whenever your heart desires. This year’s seasonal selections should be available early this month. Expect lots of “port, sesame, brown butter, allspice, banana, absinthe, earl grey tea and green apple,” Weiss teases, but “not all in one cocktail, of course!”

Heart & Soul

Ingredients

2 ounces Dark Horse Distillery Reunion Rye Whiskey

.75 ounce Lustau Pedro Ximenez sherry

.25 ounce Cointreau

2 dashes orange bitters

Directions

Stir to combine, serve in a tumbler glass with a large ice cube and flamed orange peel.