The Red Room at Pardini’s is pouring seven game-inspired drinks, from Red Dead Redemption to Final Fantasy, with more on the way
The Red Room at Pardini’s is serving seven video game drinks inspired by award-winning games and classic hits like Expedition 33, Resident Evil and PaRappa the Rapper.
The menu has no end date and will get new additions in coming months, a batch the bar calls “the expansion pack,” The Red Room’s bar director
The bar can also make video game-inspired drinks off-menu, based on a customer’s favorite game. The bartender improvises a cocktail that best represents it.
“We like to curveball or two,” Metcalf said. “You know, especially on a mellow night when we can take our time and talk to you about why you like that game and what it meant to you.”
A menu built by video game nerds
The menu grew out of the bartenders themselves.
“We’re a bunch of goofballs who are like video game nerds, and we love movies and books and that’s what we would talk about when we’re [bartending],” Metcalf said. “That’s how we pass the time.”
Building the menu was a team effort — tasting the drinks, tweaking them and picking favorites — and it included soliciting feedback from customers.
“Because even though we may think they’re perfect, we ultimately rely on everybody out here as the real needle mover,” Metcalf said.
The Dead Eye is an interactive cocktail. It comes with a Lucky Lights cigarette candy dipped in angostura bitters to give it a Marlboro Red look. The touch is a nod to Red Dead Redemption’s mechanics, in which cigarettes restore the player’s “dead eye” — an ability to slow down time — and herbs are used to craft tonics, weapons and food for the journey.
A cocktail that plays like the game
“How can we include as many video game aspects into one drink as possible and kind of paint a picture through a cocktail, or remind you of your favorite time that you’ve ever played the game,” Metcalf said.
Adrian Mendoza, a Fresno resident who has visited The Red Room for roughly two years, tried the Dead Eye and has played Red Dead Redemption II.
“I remember [there] was a candy cigarette. It makes sense for Red Dead,” Mendoza said. “I remember it was good. It was tasty.”
Ryian Herrera, a bartender at The Red Room, said his favorite is the First Aid Spray, which he created for the menu. He said the drink took some finesse — it had to appeal to Resident Evil fans who might be put off by a cocktail tied to a zombie horror plot.
“You can’t make the cocktails scary because then people are going to be like, ‘I don’t want to drink that,’” Herrera said.
A trading card with every drink
The menu also includes six more drinks that aren’t all game-inspired. One, the “Gotta Catch ‘Em All,” comes with a Pokémon card. Inspired by Pokémon, it mixes vodka, gin, strawberry, ginger, gentian and citrus for $16, and it’s the current best seller. The cards come from the staff’s own collections — repeats or ones they don’t want to keep.
Herrera, a trading card collector like Metcalf, said handing one out with every drink is part of the fun.
Metcalf said one in every seven or eight drinks comes with a rare Pokémon card, marked by a star in a bottom corner. The staff also hands out full-art cards.
“Something that we like to be able to share is really cool,” Herrera said.
The video game menu
- Elixir (Final Fantasy) — vodka, almond, ginger, vanilla, baking spice, lemon, bubbles, foam. $16
- First Aid Spray (Resident Evil) — gin, amaro, black tea, bergamot, lemon, bubbles, rosemary. $16
- PaRappa the Rapper (Kick! Punch!) — white rum, blood orange, lime, honey, ginger, clarified. $15
- Out of Mana! (Skyrim) — gin, baiju, strawberry, elderflower, curaçao, lime. $15
- Eye of a Witcher (The Witcher 3) — pisco, amaro, pineapple, turmeric, strawberry, absinthe. $15
- Certified Badass (Borderlands) — blanco tequila, pox, kumquat, vanilla, baking spice, celery root, corn. $15
- Color Theory (Expedition 33) — gin, apalogue aronia, vanilla, violette, claret, bitters. $17
- Dead Eye (Red Dead Redemption) — rye, sarsaparilla, rosemary, tobacco, bitters. $15
- Gotta Catch ‘Em All (Pokémon) — vodka, gin, strawberry, ginger, gentian, citrus. $16
If you go
- The Red Room at Pardini’s, 2257 W. Shaw Ave., next to The Annex Kitchen
- Hours: Wednesday-Thursday, 5-10:30 p.m.; Friday-Saturday, 5-11:30 p.m.; Sunday (open, hours per website)
- Aperitivo (happy) hour: 5-7 p.m., $3 off cocktails, $2 off wine by the glass
- Aperitivo special: two cocktails plus a charcuterie board or sandwich, $35
- Can be reserved for private events
