Article and photos by Fitz
Josh Seaburg could care less about your favorite color. He doesn’t want to hear your musings on the weather outside either. He definitely doesn’t want to see photos of your kids and he’s not coddling your ego to tease out a bigger tip. You see, Seaburg knows cocktails and spirits. Like really knows them. So he’s concerned with crafting the perfect drink, for you.
At Elixia on Granby street in Norfolk, the newest restaurant Seaburg designed the cocktail program for, he explained his approach to me: “Putting the guest in the right drink for them.[…] I have the knowledge and selection here to talk with the guest and accommodate their taste. For example, we don’t have a vodka focus here but if you come in wanting that, we can put you in the tastes you like.”
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Once you’ve established yourself as one of the leading figures working in spirits in Hampton Roads, as Seaburg recently has, it seems reasonable that he doesn’t feel the compulsion to fall back on forced superficial banter to be a good bartender. His base of knowledge stems most directly from two main sources, first, a formative apprenticeship under mixologist Dushan Zaric, owner of Employees Only in New York, and second, Seaburg’s dedication to private research and study. To date, Seaburg has set up the cocktail program at Twist in Virginia Beach which is nationally competitive. He recently established the program at Balahdi, also in Virginia Beach, which he champions as being most in line with the community development and education dissemination ethos of his cocktail consulting company Model Citizen. And now, at Elixia, he’s created a program featuring tiki cocktails that still drink like spirits.
Above: LunaRoja (left) and the Scorpion Bowl (right) at Elixia
Seaburg’s newest, and possibly most whimsical program to date, is inspired by Ernest Raymond Beaumont Gantt aka Don The Beachcomber and Victor Jules Bergeron aka Trader Vic. These two men were at the forefront of the tiki bar popularity of the 1950’s and 1960’s, which, in part, was characterized by the invention of the Mai Tai and the popularizing of exotic cocktails. Using their legacy as a starting point, Seaburg’s program at Elixia centers around not overly sweet rum drinks, the use of fresh juices, and a great respect for classic cocktails. It’s a program which pays close attention to detail and, early on, is separating itself from the pack like Twist has. It’s a program worth a serious taste headed by a creator whose distinguishing himself as an important player in shaping drinks in local fine dining for the better.
For more on Seaburg and Model Citizen visit facebook.com/ModelCitizenCocktails
For more on Elixia visit them online at elixianorfolk.com
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