Chef Drew Brown makes orange bitters for Durham's Piedmont Restaurant. Bar manager Shannon Healy makes lime bitters at Crook's Corner in Chapel Hill. Scott Luetgenau, beverage director for Frazier's and several other restaurants owned by the Urban Food Group, makes orange bitters and will soon be concocting ginger-lemongrass and grapefruit bitters.

Bitters, a mix of medicinal herbs and citrus steeped in alcohol, were initially billed as a health tonic. Somehow, bitters became one of the original ingredients in a cocktail, which always also included spirits, water and sugar. They are a staple ingredient in a Manhattan and a Sazerac.

I sat down recently to drink a Spring Creek, a cocktail at Frazier's that includes Luetgenau's homemade orange bitters. The drink is made with muddled lemon quarters, mint, simple syrup, Knob Creek bourbon whiskey and a few dashes of bitters. Luetgenau served me a version of the drink with bitters and one without bitters. The bitters version was better. It mellowed the bourbon and gave the Spring Creek a spicy aroma.

So why the recent upsurge in homemade bitters at Triangle's restaurants? With more restaurants focusing on serving seasonal and local food, the same philosophy is transforming the cocktail menu.

"Anytime you can control the product, the better," Luetgenau says. Imbibers at Urban Food Group's other restaurants, Porter's City Tavern, Vivace and South, will soon be able to get drinks made with his homemade bitters as well.

Luetgenau's ginger-lemongrass bitters will be used in a Ginger Tom, which contains Hendrick's gin, ginger simple syrup and homemade sour mix. Those grapefruit bitters will infuse a sugar cube dropped in a glass of Prosecco.

I'll be stopping by to try those cocktails. For those home-based mixologists who want to try making their own bitters, Luetgenau shares a recipe.

Recipes

Orange Bitters