At the brick-walled Raleigh bar Foundation, tucked below street level, manager and cocktail director Kevin Barrett uses local ingredients such as Cardinal gin, from Kings Mountain, North Carolina, to lend a sense of place to his drinks. His take on the Red Snapper, a gin-based variation on the Bloody Mary, is a smoother quaff than the original but just as flavorful, thanks to homemade tomato water and Barrett’s garnish trifecta of a citrus wedge, an olive, and something pickled. For an added kick, he likes to lightly rim the glass in Old Bay. “But don’t just smash the top of the glass into a pile of seasoning,” he says. “Be a poet, not a gladiator.”