Bon Appétit just shared the 19 Best New Restaurants in America, something our team has been working on for the past year. Multiple editors traveled across the country, trying countless dishes and drinks, some of which were so memorable, we had to ask for the recipe. Case in point: Agnes and Sherman’s Cheeseburger Fried Rice. Also, a cocktail named The Cry Baby made with Nerds candy.
Yes, Nerds, the crunchy sweets akin to technicolored aquarium gravel. The joyful sipper was dreamed up by bartender Bradleigh Mobley of Bayonet restaurant in Birmingham, Alabama. I chatted with her to see how her mixologist mind wandered to such a playful place, and to see if she has any advice for infusing other types of candies into cocktails. (Spoiler: She does.)
Jesse Szewczyk: A Nerds cocktail is wild.
How did you come up with it? Have you added candy to cocktails in the past? Bradleigh Mobley: The Cry Baby was actually my first time using candy in a cocktail. The inspiration came from my love of candy and early-2000s pop culture. I wanted to capture that very specific nostalgia—blow-up chairs, magazine cutouts covering the walls, Lisa Frank designs and a bubblegum-pink CD player—but turn it into a grown-up cocktail.
Nerds felt like a natural fit because they
Nerds felt like a natural fit because they bring that playful color and tangy flavor. Originally, I was thinking about infusing the tequila with Airheads, but eventually landed on the Nerds syrup. What was the development process like? Did you run into any challenges infusing the Nerds into the drink? It was pretty straightforward. Nerds are mostly sugar, so they melt right down into simple syrup.
In my original version, I added a little citric acid to give it more of that sour-candy quality. Once I had the syrup where I wanted it, I paired it with Volcan Blanco and fresh lemon to balance the sweetness, then added Italicus for another layer of citrus and complexity. The goal was for it to still feel like a balanced cocktail and not just a sweet candy drink. How have diners responded to the cocktail?
Do they like fun? Absolutely. It has been one of our most popular cocktails. I think the nostalgia and Nerds Gummy Cluster garnish immediately make people smile, but then the drink itself delivers. It’s tangy, juicy and balanced, so there’s something playful about it without it feeling gimmicky. Do you have any advice for other types of candies you could cocktail-ify? I’m thinking back to my college days with Skittles and gummy bears.
I think it would be really fun to do something explosive with Pop Rocks. I actually wanted to incorporate them into the Cry Baby originally, but they got a little tricky. I still think there’s something really cool we could do with them, though. With a little more time to experiment, I’d love to figure it out. This interview has been edited for clarity and length. Make the recipe
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