Course sits in a Scottsdale strip mall, its 33-seat interior – charcoal walls, natural wood, a single uninterrupted marble bar top – giving little away about what happens inside. The kitchen and bar operate as a single unit, running an eight to ten course tasting menu in which every cocktail is a fully batched and clarified original creation. Nothing on the menu is a riff on a classic, and spirits are not listed unless the guest will absolutely taste them – a deliberate choice to ensure ordering is driven by flavour rather than preconception.

Development starts with flavour. Profiles, dilution method, and technique are established before a spirit is ever considered, with most then further transformed through tinctures, infusions, or fat washes to meet the vision. The clarification method is selected per ingredient rather than applied uniformly – passionfruit juice is freeze-clarified for intensity and clarity, tomato water gravity-clarified using tomato powder and natural pectin, with centrifuge, agar-agar, gelatin, and milk wash each used where they best suit the liquid. Tinctures are made 1:1 dehydrated ingredient to Everclear, rested for a day and vacuum filtered, producing a concentrated extract suited to the ten-litre batches in which every cocktail is prepared. The rotovap preserves aromatic notes that heat would destroy. Ice is hand-cut and clear, stamped where an oil or ingredient is going into the impression.

The same thinking extends to waste. A cocktail built around banana water begins with pectin enzymes added to banana puree to separate the pulp, which is then combined with pineapple juice for acidity and milk-washed to run clear – the leftover banana and pineapple ricotta served as a spread alongside a dehydrated banana chip. The non-alcoholic offering takes the same approach to seriousness: a house-made fernet syrup built using traditional soda fountain techniques rather than a juice-based substitute. Menu themes are chosen for narrative coherence and often humour – cocktail names drawn from specific quotes, the current from Arrested Development, the previous from Bo Burnham’s Inside. The menu itself is hand-sketched by the General Manager, each drink accompanied by an illustration that captures its character.

At the end of each menu cycle, the bar holds a Batch Burning Party for the local hospitality industry, offering signature cocktails at significantly reduced prices to empty the batches and make room for the new menu. Wine pairings change every three months on an entirely separate list from the wine menu, currently running fourteen different wines across regular and reserve pairings – the regular pairing for the Mille-Feuille a 2003 Domaine Huet Vouvray Le Mont Moelleux from the Loire Valley. At the end of their visit, guests leave with a personalised gift bag containing water for the drive home, a copy of the menu with wine pairings, and a breakfast pastry for the following morning.