We recently celebrated Watermelon Week at Tap House Grill Palatine! Besides offering drink specials and daily specials for food, we learned a whole lot about the wonderful watermelon.
It turns out, everyone’s favorite summer fruit can be enjoyed as way more than just a pool-side snack for kids. Its sweet and iconic taste is perfect for summer cocktails, too! Watermelons have special properties beyond their bright pink color that make it an extra special ingredient for preparing food and beverages.
Watermelon – Secret super food
Did you know that watermelons are both a fruit and a vegetable? Related to cucumbers, squash and pumpkins, the watermelon is high in fiber and low in cholesterol. The signature pink color marks the fruit’s high level of vitamin A, which is essential for eye health and vitamin retention. Watermelons are also a great source of vitamins C, B1 and B6, in addition to potassium and manganese.
This awesome fruit even has a higher content of lycopene than tomatoes, which were originally the No. 1 recommended food for lycopene consumption. Lycopene is a key antioxidant with anti-inflammatory properties shown to reduce the risk of stroke. It’s also shown to decrease blood pressure and increase virility. You do need to eat the fruit to get the benefits, so even though our bar specials included watermelon juice, it probably wasn’t enough for a vitamin infusion.
Soaking up flavor
Watermelons are naturally engineered to retain high amounts of water and liquid. This makes them a popular choice for canteens and emergency supplies for explorers, both in the past and today. The bright pink insides have amazing absorption powers that allow the fruit to be roughly 92% water. This also makes the watermelon the perfect cocktail ingredient, which is why our Palatine bartenders mixed up so many drink specials with it.
You may have noticed the recent Drunk Watermelon trend blowing up on social media. Cocktail enthusiasts will cut a hole in the rind and let an entire bottle of vodka empty itself into the melon. This works because the rich pink flesh of watermelons will absorb anything they are soaked in.
Flavor-infused watermelon is the perfect accent for cocktails, slushes, appetizers and entrees. Additionally, the sweet summer favorite makes an excellent beer, and we have some on tap at our sports bar in Des Plaines, our sports bar in Lemont
and all Tap House Grill locations.
Sweet sauces and lush salads
Beyond blending and soaking, watermelons are also amazing for summertime barbecues. Similar to using a watermelon in a powerful pink smoothie, watermelons can be blended into different sweet and refreshing sauces for your favorite grilled meat. The Palatine location served up watermelon wings as a food special during Watermelon Week. The fruit goes especially well with chicken, and that’s why Palatine also had a food special featuring a barbecue chicken and watermelon melt. Guests who enjoyed the watermelon salad food special got to experience how great the cool fruit tastes mixed with vegetables and more.
Visit Tap House Grill for bar specials
Tap House Grill locations feature daily specials, in addition to regular drink specials and food specials. Visit any one of our gastro-pub restaurants for a taste of something different!