Editor’s note: Joe Stinchcomb left Saint Leo and is now the co-owner of Bar Muse in Oxford.
This easy-drinking Strawberry Fizz is one of nearly forty recipes Joe Stinchcomb keeps in his repertoire, ready to bring richer historical context to the cocktail menus he crafts for Oxford, Mississippi’s Saint Leo and its newly opened companion lounge. Sometimes his creations can be provocative—Blood on the Leaves, a blend of rum, citrus, and pecan orgeat he developed last year for Black History Month, takes inspiration from “Strange Fruit,” Billie Holiday’s haunting protest against lynching. Other times, the lessons are lighter.
He developed this effervescent sipper to celebrate Juneteenth, the holiday that marks the day (June 19, 1865) when news of the Emancipation Proclamation finally reached Galveston, Texas—nearly two and a half years after Lincoln issued it—freeing the last of the Confederacy’s enslaved people. “Red is important because it’s for joyous occasions; I wanted to celebrate the memory of those people,” says Stinchcomb, who was born in Germany to a U.S. Air Force family and raised in Mississippi and Georgia.
The red drinks that are customary at Juneteenth festivities usually get their color from sorrel, hibiscus, or Texas-based Big Red soda. Fresh strawberries make Stinchcomb’s version more widely accessible; bourbon adds a layer of caramel sweetness. “If I could sing, I would’ve written a song and sung it,” he says. “I’m not the best writer, so I didn’t write anything. I just use my talent and my platform.”
