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Tanner Gillett
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Oyster Catcher was inspired by Gillett’s favorite oyster companies.
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The Kingfisher cocktail, crafted by Gillett in 2026, is garnished with a bay laurel leaf.
The way an establishment creates its menus reveals the staff’s creative instincts, service style and approach to teamwork. Reading a well-wrought menu gives a sense that a place is special, and an exquisite example is at downtown cafe and oyster bar Birdie’s. Avian-inspired titles catch the eye, while credits noting the maker of each drink and its year of development are both an act of respect and an invitation for guests to connect. Director of Operations Trisha Welsh and Beverage Director Tanner Gillett share their insights on the menu creation process.
Trisha Welsh
Trisha Welsh: “A great cocktail bar starts in the kitchen and with a connection to the culinary team. They are symbiotic. We make everything we can in-house: purees, syrups, shrubs. We boil down fruit and infuse herbs. One of the ways we keep our team engaged is by letting them have the freedom to develop their own drinks.”
Tanner Gillett: “Birdie’s is very much about giving credit where credit is due, and the bartender’s name who created the drink appears on the menu even if they’ve moved on. Bartenders control the narrative of their drink, whether it’s ingredients or inspiration, color and feeling. Our menu meetings are a lot of fun. We make each cocktail, drink together, take notes and tweak. We decide on the brand of liquor, proportions, syrup … chipping away, together, one cocktail at a time. With many hands on each drink, it creates natural [menu] cohesion.
“For March and the upcoming season, we are looking at ingredients like Swiss chard, beets and strawberries. We are also exploring fresh flowers, such as begonias, which have flavor profiles similar to rhubarb. Recently, books like ‘The Drunken Botanist’ and ‘Garden to Glass’ have been brought to meetings to spark inspiration.”
