Some of The Most Interesting Cocktails in Savannah Live at Garden Square

By Vanessa Lantos Daly (Spicy Melon)

Dec. 16, 2025 – “The inspiration for this cocktail is a Caesar salad,” she says radiantly. “And I wasn’t expecting this, but it is our best seller,” she sheepishly adds.

Blink… blink, blink… I beg your finest pardon?

I sip with fascination as Natasha, affectionately known as Tasha, explains how she achieved this. It truly is a Caesar salad in a martini.

As strange as that sounds, it is delicious and highly satisfying. The luxuriously savory notes are balanced to perfection.

Natasha Conyers and her Cucumber Cloud Mocktail

But let’s rewind a little. I ran into my good friend Candice M. Hobson outside Black Rabbit a few weeks ago. Beyond the excitement of seeing each other after many months, years maybe, she couldn’t contain herself.

“I just became a bartender at Garden Square. You have to come taste everything. I love our menu. I’m proud to serve fresh ‘garden’ cocktails. Lots of work and preparation, but you can taste the care in them.”

Garden Square opened its doors on October 31 at 2400 Bull St., with the entrance on 40th and Bull, sharing a patio with Brochu’s Family Tradition. With tons of teaser photos on Instagram since mid-June, there were colors, cocktails, and people wearing dark shades and having fun in what I can only describe as herbal and floral chic.

Talking with Candice had me curious and intrigued. Sure, any new restaurant has exciting cocktails, but what makes this one so special?

“The Affogato Expression is a fantastic cocktail. Made with Garden Square espresso vodka and an ice cream fat-washed Tito’s topper. Smooth, refreshing, and a pick-me-up if you have another destination to go to.”

Okay… ice cream fat wash? That’s unique…

She goes on. “My favorite dish is the tuna ceviche. Fresh, bright, full of citrus, and house-made chips.”

I mean… I’m a sucker for ceviche, but tell me more about those cocktails too, please…

I come in for a visit to see Candice, but sadly don’t find her. Instead, I find my friends Grayson Stewart and Kasia Standish behind the bar, and Cheyenne Hunt as their Assistant General Manager.

Grayson Stewart, bartender at Garden Square

I’ve known these peeps for years. Kasia and I used to work together at Alligator Soul, and I worked as a server alongside Cheyenne at The Olde Pink House. Cheyenne herself worked there for eleven and a half years.

Upon arrival, Grayson makes me one of their signature cocktails, the Pistachio Matcha, a concoction of coconut rum, pistachio matcha hemp milk, and coconut honey foam. For a matcha lover, this is amazing.

Hemp milk? Foam? Who is coming up with these super elevated recipes?

I’ll be the first to tell you that ordering a basic B-word old fashioned with Woodford or Buffalo Trace anywhere downtown will set you back about $20. This is now typical downtown pricing. I don’t mind paying for a good cocktail, but this cocktail is “rum and coke” level.

No offense intended. If you love this cocktail, you have great taste. It is an excellent classic drink, but it is also a very simple cocktail. And for all you posh old-fashioneds, please, ladies and gents, let’s elevate our expectations a little.

An old fashioned isn’t complicated. It’s a classic, basic drink. Adding a cherry, a splash of sweetness, an orange twist, and two dashes of bitters to bourbon or rye does not make you a mixologist.

But this? Infused ingredients? Foams? Fat-washed liquors?

Yes.

A thousand times yes.

This is very special.

Cheyenne has tons of experience and fine-tuned attention to detail, and she is no stranger to high-quality experiences, so finding her here as AGM is a great sign.

Cheyenne Hunt, Assistant General Manager at Garden Square

She shares, “I got this opportunity and was very excited by the concept. I knew it would be amazing for Savannah, something so unique. There’s really no other place quite like Garden Square. Very fresh, garden-to-table specialties. I sat in the garden patio for my interview and was immediately taken by it. In addition, this is one of the only places in the city with an in-house non-alcoholic program.”

I stop her right there… What do you mean?

She continues, “Our non-alcoholic gin, tequila, and mezcal are made in-house. I was quite blown away by that. Miss Natasha makes them. I knew then this was something very special. She has taken the time to perfect these recipes and provide an amazing and consistent product every time.”

Cheyenne also shares her personal favorite cocktail, the Sangra-Tini. Made with olive oil fat-washed tequila, clarified tomato water, and basil. “The best way I can describe it is if a dirty martini and a Bloody Mary mixed. It is very herbaceous, savory, light, but very flavorful and delicious. And it is so on brand with the garden theme here. It blew me away.”

Sangra-Tini cocktail. Photo credit: Cheyenne Hunt

At this point, I still haven’t spoken to Natasha, but I’m already on high alert. Natasha Conyers is the mastermind behind the cocktail program at Garden Square, a super talented experimental mixologist and a Savannah native. We have about a hundred friends in common. I don’t understand how I have never met her before.

I specifically travel around the world to find interesting bars and cocktails because of people like Natasha. A creative genius. I imagine her in cocktail competitions globally and winning, publishing books, opening her own bar. I have no doubt she will go far, and yet she shies away from the spotlight and takes compliments with humility.

I am instantly in love. Hey Tasha, are you by chance looking for another bestie? I promise to be loyal forever.

Sincerely, visiting a new hip spot in its first few weeks, with all its bells and whistles, is very fun. But I was not expecting this level of craftsmanship and complexity. I hadn’t even experienced the food yet and was already riding the high of those cocktails.

Guest favorites include the smoked salmon toast, with bread from their across-the-street neighbors, Flora and Fauna. Also filled with decadence, their caramelized sweet onion dip with kettle chips.

And then Tasha finally gets a few minutes to share her magic with me, and we go back to the beginning of this article. The Little Caesar Martini. Parmesan and anchovy-infused vodka, oxidized vermouth, and olive brine.

Tasha shares, “First of all, I’m a very savory person. I really don’t like sweet drinks, even though I can execute them. Savory drinks are very near and dear to me, so I put a lot of effort into them.”

She continues, “Little Caesar is a two-part infusion of vodka. Part one is a Parmesan, mustard seed, peppercorn, and garlic infusion. Part two is an anchovy and olive oil infusion. Then adding a touch of brine and some vermouth with oxygen, allowing it to breathe for a bit, adds tangy notes to the cocktail. It also plays with the oils and the cheese. Finally, a dash of freshly cracked pepper tableside completes the experience before the first sip.”

As a bartender, listening to Tasha is like thinking for years that you were a great cook and then meeting a Michelin-star chef. I can’t help but marvel, and inevitably rethink my own level of craft.

“I can’t help but think of you as a mad scientist bartender,” I tell her. She laughs, as others have apparently said the same thing. She also admits this cocktail took many attempts and tons of refinement to perfect. “Always going back to the lab,” she winks. “I conceptualize cocktails in my head, imagining how things will taste. I imagine the ingredients before making them. My prep area is definitely like a lab, and my college career was laboratory science, so I am a scientist at heart.”

I’m a bit starstruck and intimidated… can you tell? Can she tell?

She adds, “I love creating variations of dirty martinis. If you can find something different and unique, it makes it fun. I’ve bartended all over Savannah for the past 20 years, and I’ve also consulted for bars here. I’m native to Savannah. I started young at Red Lobster, and every place after that was more elevated and my curiosity grew.”

She continues, “Being a bar manager is very satisfying because when you create menus, the cocktails are like your babies. You see them grow and see how well they do in the world.”

With this, I inquire about her making non-alcoholic spirits in-house. “I was very lucky when I first got into this project,” she shares. “The owner gave me this amazing recipe book called Zero by Grant Achatz. It has 250 pages full of non-alcoholic cocktails that mimic real spirits.”

Grant Achatz, the author, worked at The French Laundry early in his career and later became one of the most influential chefs in the world, earning multiple James Beard Awards. So I know Natasha is being inspired by some of the best in the world, and those standards show in her non-alcoholic mezcal, tequila, and gin.

“I don’t usually like mocktails because often it feels like you’re just drinking juice. I wanted to make our mocktails as close to cocktails in taste and aesthetic as possible.”

Then she makes me one of her favorites, the Cucumber Cloud. Vegan lemon curd, celery, cucumber, celery bitters, topped with cucumber foam.

I know. What the f…? Making foams from scratch for mocktails? My personal mocktail career has been so ridiculously lazy.

The mocktail is complex, savory, vibrant, and most of all, beautiful. I envision this drink arriving at tables on trays, with nearby guests whispering to their server, “What is that? Can I get one of those?”

We call that the espresso martini effect: When one is ordered, and it travels the dining room, often another 10 get ordered immediately after.

Finally, their very busy GM, Allie Hoskins, generously sat with me for a couple of minutes. All smiles and charm, she expressed her love for her staff and the creativity of the offerings. “I never thought of myself as a garden person, but I have fallen in love with tending this garden and all the fresh ingredients that go into our food and drinks.”

I also asked about sharing a patio space with Brochu’s. “They are amazing neighbors. We have very different concepts, so I feel like we add to one another. Many times guests have dinner there and stop here for a cocktail on their way out.” She also shares that their menu features Cotton and Reed Rum, and no other restaurant in the city serves this rum.

This is different. Cotton and Reed is Washington’s first rum distillery, and the owners are investors in it, providing an award-winning rum you can’t get anywhere else in Savannah.

Insider tip: After 9 p.m., their late-night special is half-off drafts and $3 shots of this high-quality rum. Highly recommended.

They also started brunch service on November 21st, offering it Friday, Saturday, and Sunday starting at 11 a.m. One of their brunch best sellers so far is the French toast and berries. Flora and Fauna sourdough bread, Maldon salt, black pepper, and perfectly creamy agave whipped cream with a sprinkle of powdered sugar. If you love sweets, this is for you.

French Toast and Berries for brunch at Garden Square

As I sit here writing this article sometime after my visits to Garden Square, I have a surprisingly acute craving for that Caesar salad martini.

I’m not even a martini girl. I usually sip neat high-quality tequila. I’m not even a cocktail girl either, but that cocktail shook me to the core and created a craving I didn’t know existed. Suddenly, I feel the urge to taste more of Tasha’s creations, because with her, it is love at first sip.

Treat yourself to an elevated cocktail and a luxuriously fresh bite at Garden Square if you want something truly special, and please say hi to all my friends.

Love always,

Vanessa

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