Lincoln Spices Up Its Cocktails With Ice - D.C.

Lincoln spikes its drinks with produce-infused ice

Lincoln's bar menu has put a freeze on summer's best produce.

The Downtown bar is shaking up a new menu of nonalcoholic drinks made with fruit- and vegetable-infused ice cubes, which augment–rather than dilute–the drinks as they melt.

Tart, earthy and crimson-colored, the Old Bob ($6) combines puréed roasted beets, lemonade and spicy ginger syrup enlivened with cardamom and lime. The drink's cubes also hold shreds of crunchy beet microgreens.

The Storyteller ($6) both looks and smells like Belgian wheat beer. The opaque, grapefruit-scented concoction is made with agave syrup, egg whites and orange juice, then topped with a shard of Virginia-peach ice. Bright and summery, the drink tastes like an instant picnic alongside lemongrass-honey-sweetened fried chicken ($16).

Blueberries stud ice cubes in the Summer Cottage ($6), a cooler of kicky cranberry juice, ginger and lemonade. It's a bright companion to August's fried Jersey tomatoes ($7) with smoky bacon marmalade.

The bar isn't limiting its summer produce to juice drinks: Maryland-grown watermelons are infusing house vodka for a cocktail that should debut any day.

Lincoln, 1110 Vermont Ave. NW (at L St.); 202-386-9200 or lincolnrestaurant-dc.com