Leah & Louise in Charlotte, North Carolina, which is spotlighted in our September/October 2022 issue, makes it a point not to let anything go to waste. So when bar manager Justin Hazelton accidentally burned his smoked brown sugar syrup, he created a whiskey cocktail around its surprising richness and complexity. Amaro Montenegro rounds out the flavors.
“Later someone asked me what color the drink would come out, I replied, ‘Maybe black,’” he said. That inspired the cocktail’s name, which is also the title of a song by Common. “The first line of the song goes ‘I heard a white man’s yes is a Black maybe.’ This line has rung true in so many facets of the Black experience in America,” Hazelton said. “We have come a long way but have so far to go to reach true equality.”
