Saloons and grills ring in 2025 with Craft Cocktail Contest and Dine Out Santa Maria Style

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Working under a certain constraint ended up paying off for Naughty Oak Brewing Company in 2024, when the Orcutt staple took home a top award for its first-time entry in Santa Maria Valley’s annual Craft Cocktail Contest.

“Since our license doesn’t allow us to have any spirits, I had to come up with something to substitute the bitter element of Aperol,” Naughty Oak co-owner Emily Kitts said in an email interview. 

Kitts was inspired to enter a seltzer cocktail—specifically something along the lines of an Aperol spritz, minus the Aperol—into the contest last year partly to help “spread the word that we have non-beer options at our place,” she explained.

“We’ve been serving up a variety of seltzer cocktails for at least a couple years now, but I think new customers are often pleasantly surprised to see that we offer some pretty delicious drinks for people who don’t necessarily want beer,” said Kitts, who opened Naughty Oak with her husband, Steve, in 2015.

This year marks Naughty Oak’s second time competing in the Craft Cocktail Contest—which commenced on Jan. 10 and runs through Feb. 9—among several participating businesses.

In early 2024, the brewery’s Strawberry HOPerol Spritz won Judge’s Choice. 

“We’ll have to bring that one back for a seasonal drink,” said Kitts, who set her sights on hops while seeking a worthy substitute for Aperol and the bitter notes it’s known for. 

“Luckily hops are one of the most bitter things I can think of, and the brewery happens to have plenty,” she said. “So, I made a simple syrup of hops, orange, and grapefruit rind. We combined it with strawberry syrup and our house-made hard seltzer and candied the orange rind for a garnish.”

The outcome of 2024’s contest results was a refreshing surprise to the Naughty Oak team, Kitts recalled.

“We were super stoked, … I definitely wasn’t expecting to win,” she said. “But I was really pleased to see that a seltzer cocktail could stand up to cocktails made with traditional spirits.”

This year, Naughty Oak has a different kind of seltzer cocktail up its sleeve for the 2025 competition, in the form of the brewery’s Après Pickle.

“I’ve been really loving pickle margaritas and pickleback-inspired cocktails lately,” Kitts said, “and Steve’s new favorite hobby is pickleball. So it seemed like a good fit.”

The Après Pickle will compete against cocktail entries from Cielito Lindo Mexican Grill (Jalapeño Wine Margarita), Maya Mexican Restaurant (original Michelada), Huckleberry’s (Gator Juice), and Cool Hand Luke’s (Vaquera Fresa Sour). 

Unlike Naughty Oak though, these four businesses are simultaneously participating in the 2025 Dine Out Santa Maria Style program—in which various venues across the Santa Maria Valley feature dinner and other entrée specials on their menus for a limited time.

Cool Hand Luke’s in Santa Maria, for example, is ringing in the new year by offering its bacon jam burger, tumbleweed chicken, and fish and chips plates for $25 each, while also competing in the Craft Cocktail Contest with its Vaquera Fresa Sour.

“When thinking about what attributes our cocktail should feature, we always think about our local community and what we represent,” Cool Hand Luke’s general manager, Rebecca Cisneros, told the Sun over email. “We love to feature our local agriculture, so we knew that we wanted our drink to be strawberry flavored.”

Made with Nosotros Tequila, the Vaquera Fresa Sour got its cowgirl-inspired name as a nod to Cool Hand Luke’s Western theme.

“Working that into the cocktail name was a must,” Cisneros said. “We’re so excited to be participating in the Craft Cocktail Contest. It’s an excellent time to really showcase the love and skill that goes into the cocktails we prepare.”

Send strawberry Starbursts and stray pickleballs to Arts Editor Caleb Wiseblood at cwiseblood@santamariasun.com.

This article appears in Jan 16-26, 2025.