NYE at the Franklin Involves a Seven-Course Cocktail Tasting Menu

Big changes at the Franklin Mortgage and Investment Co., as Sara Justice has been named head bartender. She replaces Mike "Juice" Treffehn, who left the position at the end of November in advance of a move to Portland.

A semi-finalist in this year's Eater Young Guns search, Justice is a familiar face behind the bar at the Franklin — she previously did a stint there from 2012 into 2013. More recently, she was running the bar program at Atlanta's Holeman & Finch, during which time Food & Wine named her one of the country's Best New Mixologists. Justice left that post in November to return to Philly. Her resume also includes some time at pioneering speakeasy PDT in New York.

Justice is kicking off the new position and new year with a seven-course cocktail tasting menu for the bar's New Year's Eve event. She's put together seven new drinks for the evening, inspired by Pennsylvania Dutch cuisine.

Resolutions, with green Chartreuse, white chocolate and champagne;
Birch Beer, with Navy Strength gin, birch, licorice and lime;
Plum Pudding, with rum, toasted milk, plum and allspice;
Gingerbread, with Black Strap rum, ginger, brown sugar, lemon, black pepper;
Night Sledding, with rye whiskey, pine, menthol;
...Roasting On an Open Fire, with smoked bourbon and chestnut praline;
Shoo Fly Pie, with molasses, cereal grain, port and cognac

In addition to the cocktails, the ticket cost will include a champagne toast at midnight and passed hors d'oeuvres (tax and tip are also included). Tickets can be purchased here, at $125 per person for table seating (yes, you have to buy the whole table — as this post was published, there was only one two-top left) or $200 per person for bar seating, plus Ticket Leap fees. The night starts at 9 p.m.