A Chicago transplant has found his people amid Savannah's cocktail culture
Bud Green and his beautiful wife Lynn Weddle relocated to Savannah in 2017 and quickly learnt that Savannahians appreciate the art of relaxation while enjoying cocktails.
On a recent Tuesday evening, I visited the exquisite 400-square-foot bar, the Hawthorn Minibar and Lounge, 524 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., to experience Bud’s cocktails for myself. The bar’s mid-19th century stained-glass sparkles in the rays of the 5:30 p.m. sun, which bathes the interior with golden light. Green is the evening’s guest bartender at the invitation of Tyler Routley, one of the very first people he and Weddle met in Savannah. Green is not only shaking and stirring but also keeping track of drink tabs and ringing up sales ― impressive skills for a retired software executive.
Moving from Chicago, Green retired as CEO of WorkHorse Software and Weddle left her marketing career as U.S. Consumer Insights Lead with McDonald’s Corporation to find a city that was “warm, walkable, and historic.” Choosing Savannah, they soon deeply engaged with our cultural offerings and nonprofit community, and neither have looked back.
I first met Green when Peter E. Roberts offered him a solo show at Location Gallery, then situated on the corner of Whitaker and West Taylor. Primarily using a Leica camera, Green is an accomplished black-and-white photographer who employs a keenly spare sense of composition; there is absolutely nothing superfluous in his strikingly beautiful, and often unusual, images. You can follow his delicious photography Instagram feed @_bud_green
Many Savannahians, however, may be more familiar with Green for his regular stints as guest DJ at Savoy Society and Colleagues & Lovers. Loving indie music, he blends different genres together as he curates mixes from his large vinyl collection, and he is excited to have his first gig at Club Bardo on April 27. The DJ-ing invitations came first he tells me…Then came the cocktail pop-ups. This month’s invitation to bartend at The Hawthorn was Green’s second pop-up… An invitation borne from a decade-long passion for mixology “which definitely accelerated when I came to Savannah!”
De rigueur, Green’s cocktail list for that event was topped by his wife’s favorite drink, Lynn’s Cosmo. (Weddle’s Instagram stories are filled with images of her sipping this classic libation around Savannah and around the world.) So particular is she about her Cosmopolitan, that her husband printed up the ingredients on business cards to give to bartenders: 2 ounces vodka, 1 ounce Cointreau, 1 ounce fresh lemon juice (traditionally made with lime juice, Green prefers lemon juice as it’s a little less acidic), and 1 ounce cranberry juice.
Weddle adds, “We did a blind taste test” to determine which vodka was preferable and she has gravitated “away from Tito’s and towards Grey Goose.” The couple laugh about the cards, which, they say, are usually appreciatively received: “They’re all over Chicago! And here, anyone can walk into The Wayward and say they want Lynn’s Cosmo, and they’ll make it.”
From the classic to the bobscure
As for the other drinks on his pop-up cocktail menu, Green tells me he enjoyed “pulling out some obscure classics, such as The Artist’s Special.” Being both an artist and a Bourbon lover, this is the cocktail I ordered and adored. A base of 1 ounce bourbon and 1 ounce dry sherry was shaken over ice with ¾ ounce lime juice and ¾ ounce red currant syrup to create a slightly tart, pink-hued cocktail served in a dainty, egg-cup shaped Nick and Nora glass. Between the World Wars, the Quartier Pigalle was a rather sordid neighborhood, which became known as the Harlem of Paris and was home to artists, writers, poets and musicians. This divinely sippable 1920’s cocktail – a riff on a Whiskey Sour – originated in the neighborhood’s Artists’ Bar.
Green tells me that Nick and Nora glasses, which typically hold 5 or 6 ounces, are demure, petite classics brought back to favor by famed bartender and author of The Craft of the Cocktail, Dale De Groff. They are named after the witty, cocktail-sipping main characters Nick and Nora Charles in Dashiell Hammett’s 1934 novel, The Thin Man.
Green’s favorite drink is a Negroni, which interestingly did not make an appearance on The Hawthorn list. “It’s simple. Equal parts. I don’t have to spend a lot of time prepping. And I also like a dry gin martini," Green explained. "But when you come up with a cocktail menu you want a balance of different types of drinks. Some need to be more spirit-forward like the Monte Carlo; the Vodka Cucumber was a little sweeter; and there’s more fruit in the Cosmo.
"People have different palettes, and you want a different range of base spirits – bourbon, rye, vodka, gin and tequilla. I like to find a balance and then I like to find a classic, because I’m interested in the history of cocktails. I prefer more obscure ones that you only see occasionally – like the Aviation.”
Books, barware and tastings
When entertaining at home, Green makes a batch of two or three different cocktails for a large group but is happiest mixing and shaking to order for a smaller gathering of dinner guests. The couple have, as one might expect, an extensive glassware collection (Weddle says, “We joke that in our freezer we don’t have food; we have cocktail glasses!”) and Green has a library of both classic and more modern, science-focused, cocktail books. The latter books discuss such esoteric and important questions as “shaken or stirred?” and “how long to shake?”
Clearly proud of her multi-talented husband, Weddle tells me, “I think what’s interesting about Bud is that he’s entirely self-taught. He taught himself software and built a business. He endeavors to do things in the best way possible and will study and practice. We had lots of testings and tastings for the cocktails. He’s always crafting, substituting, perfecting. And photography’s the same way – he deeply researches and deeply pursues it.”
The couple’s fascination with cocktails was deepened after visiting Paris’ Bar Hemmingway where, “the drinks are just meticulously made and beautifully presented,” Weddle says, “That was the first time when we were like, ‘Wow! Drinks can be like THIS!’ And then we moved down here, where people really appreciate them!”
Unless you are fortunate enough to score an invitation to the couple’s beautiful East Taylor Street home, keep your eyes on The Hawthorne Minibar and Lounge’s Instagram page for Bud Green’s next pop-up bartending gig. You won’t be disappointed.
This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: Hawthorn Minibar and Lounge features pop up bartender stirring classics
