Drink Mobile: The Excommunicado From Known Associates Social Club Comes With a Stick of Palo Santo. It’s Not a Gimmick.

The sweet-pine flavor really does stay and also heightens the spirits.

By Andrea Damewood

As spring arrives and herd immunity no longer seems like a far-off dream, it's time for an energy cleanse.

Known Associates Social Club, a new bar, restaurant and, someday, music venue across from Loyal Legion on Southeast Alder, has got your chakras covered. Back open for just under a month after a short initial opening in fall 2020, co-owner and bartender Joe Frade is slowly rolling out a new menu of food and drink, including inventive Vietnamese-Mexican fusion he's calling—wait for it—"phozole": a rich bowl of rice noodles with hominy and hunks of stewed beef plus bean sprouts and radish sprinkled on top. It works.

The bar also takes the same creative approach to a set of cocktails to go. The Excommunicado ($15) is a take on an old fashioned via Central America: a stiff blend of Batanga Tequila Reposado, Presidente brandy, Cocchi Americano, Licor 43 and xocolatl mole bitters. Frade takes full advantage of the takeout format by lovingly tying a stick of fragrant palo santo to the glass bottle.

It's not just a gimmick: The cocktail comes with instructions to burn the stick until it has an ember, then put the tip into the bottle, infusing the glass and drink with notes of sweet pine. The flavor really does stay and also heightens the spirits. And when you're done, you still have plenty left to light over your abalone shell full of rose quartz and amethyst. Bless.

ORDER: Known Associates Social Club, 615 SE Alder St Ste. B, 971-334-4997. 5-11 pm Wednesday-Sunday.

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