This week, I’m all about the billion dollar dream cocktail at Seven Saints in Downtown Champaign. I like pretty much every drink on the restaurant’s cocktail menu (especially the Flight of Icarus), but when I ordered the billion dollar dream ($12), it was love at first sip. For a simply concocted cocktail, it was deliciously complex. Made with rye whiskey, lemon juice, and a housemade cranberry shrub, the billion dollar dream had an orange peel steeping in booze, so the taste was a familiar combination of whiskey and orange like an old-fashioned cocktail. The housemade shrub (drinking vinegar)’s strong cranberry flavor combined nicely with lemon and orange for a tart, fruity overlay to the rye.
Arguably, the coolest part was the absinthe wash. Not a full pour of absinthe, dear heavens, no. Just a lick of it, a little absinthe glaze on the glass to whet the whiskey. This cocktail has limited availability, so check with your server to see if it’s even a possibility before getting your hopes up — which kind of tracks with dreams of a billion dollars.
Seven Saints
Champaign
Su-Th 11 a.m. to 11 p.m.
F+Sa 11 a.m. to midnight
