“Hot Tadashi”, hot toddy Credit. / Photo by: Tom Arena
Courtesy of Graham Fuze, for Two Ten Jack, Nashville; this drink appears in Barantined: Recipes, Tips & Stories to Enjoy at Home, by Mike Wolf (Turner, 2021)
This play on the hot toddy created for a Nashville izakaya and ramen house came about as a clever way to use the restaurant’s hot saké machine.
“We’d never done anything with [hot saké] other than putting it into a cup,” says Graham Fuze, the bartender who invented it. “Building a hot toddy with the hot saké was surprisingly awesome. It popped in a nice way when the bitters and lemon were added to it. ”
As a dividend, Fuze would also leave a carafe of saké in front of guests, so they could replenish the drink as they sipped or build a second, lower-alcohol version with just the lemon peel steeped in the hot saké. “It creates an incredibly bright citrus flavor that’s so nice,” says Fuze.
