End of the road: MG Road’s Libation Migration pop-up series draws to a close

CLASSIC CREATIONS: Bartender Miles Macquarrie of Atlanta's Kimball House will offer his own interpretations of classic midcentury cocktails like the Rob Roy and the Americano during the final installment of MG Road's Libation Migration pop-up series. Photo courtesy of MG Road

After spreading it’s wings for a good two-month stretch, MG Road’s Libation Migration pop-up cocktail and dinner series comes to an end on Monday, Oct. 26. The bar, whose name has by now become synonymous in Asheville with the concept of pop-up restaurants, has hosted guest bartenders from all over the U.S. — and some from other countries as well — every Monday night this fall.

Travis St. Germaine and Brad Farran, of New York’s Clover Club and Death + Company, respectively, have made appearances, as has Fabien Maillard, founder, owner and mixologist of Montreal’s Le Lab. The libations are always accompanied by dinner menus featuring guest chefs from the Asheville area.

To celebrate the end of the great migration, MG Road will host a Midcentury Cocktail Party featuring “reinvigorated cocktail classics that were in fashion in the ’50s and ’60s, incorporating ingredients that aren’t traditionally used,” according to an announcement from the bar. Miles Macquarrie, bartender and partner at Atlanta’s, beloved Kimball House, will be slinging the drinks.

Macquarrie will offer a spread of classic cocktails with a twist. His Americano, for instance, strays from its typical rendition of vermouth, Campari and soda, to include muscadine and acid phosphate. His interpretation of a Rob Roy features banana and honey, and his Manhattan is finished with coffee bitters.

SOUTHERN EXPOSURE: Chef Chris Hathcock of Asheville's Gan Shan Station will offer a menu of tweaked Southern classics to complement Atlanta bartender Miles Macquarrie's cocktail menu at the last Libation Migration pop-up dinner. Photo courtesy of MG Road
Chef Chris Hathcock of Asheville’s Gan Shan Station

If you’re feeling peckish after a cocktail or two, fear not. Gan Shan Station‘s Chris Hathcock will be there serving a special menu. Hathcock, who relocated to Asheville last year from Atlanta via Charleston, S.C., was the only North Carolina chef to make Eater’s Young Guns list this year.

Hathcock’s menu for the night also features twists on old classics: oysters and caviar with pineapple vinegar and puffed rice; chicken liver pâté honey-cider gelée; aged beef tartare with Georgia apple and puffed beef tendon; boiled peanuts and Mexican Coke; and baked beans with hot dogs and Charleston rice.

Doors open for the last night of Libation Migration at 5 p.m. on Monday, Oct. 26. MG Road is at 19 Wall St. 

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About Jonathan Ammons
Native Asheville writer, eater, drinker, bartender and musician. Proprietor of www.dirty-spoon.com Follow me @jonathanammons

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