Melisse Ups the Ante with New Cocktails by Steve Livigni and Pablo Moix

Melisse has always been one of the top restaurants in the city, but it lacked a good cocktail program - until now. Chef Josiah Citrin and the team at Melisse recently hired the team behind La Descarga and other great LA bars, Steve Livigni, Pablo Moix, and Lindsay Nader, to come up with a bar program to meet the level of their food.

The result? A fun and sophisticated list of cocktails. There's no physical bar at Melisse, but with a kitchen of this caliber, they can do a lot of fun and ambitious things "table side" that you cannot do at a busy bar, like this deconstructed Zombie.

Watching the setup and action is certainly part of the draw for this drink.

Steve Livigni pouring in frozen nitrogen

The deconstructed zombie consisted of rum jello made with three different rums (Flor de Cana 4 year, Appleton VX, and Smith and Cross Navy Strength), Passion fruit "dippin dots", mint gelee, and passionfruit juice. It's beautiful with the style of a Melisse dessert.


Citrus "air" and vanilla bean "perfume" finish off drinks like the Dauphine and Fessee. The rest of the list boasts classics like Mojito, Vieux Carre, and Sazerac. The Citrine is a nice one to start off the night, made with El Tesoro Plata tequila, Aperol, grapefuit, and lime juice.

Les Restes is sweet and elegant with Death's Door vodka, lychee, crushed grapes and egg white. People loved La Bete with Calvados, orgeat, white cacao, and kumquats, although I wasn't able to try any.

The cocktail list as a whole is very solid and complements the dining experience at Melisse very well. At $18 each they're pricier than most cocktails in LA, but if you're dining at Melisse, you're most likely not worrying about that.

Will they take it up another notch and do a cocktail pairing menu?? I hope so!