Drinking Wyoming: Sweet Melissa, The Secret Cocktail At Miners and Stockmen’s

HARTVILLE — Miner’s and Stockmen’s Steakhouse is famous for being Wyoming’s oldest continuously operating bar, and the go-to spot for a really great steak.

What many may not know, however, is that there’s a secret cocktail that’s not listed on the high-end steakhouse’s menu.

The unusual cocktail is called the Sweet Melissa. It’s made from a mixture of cream and chokecherry-infused vodka, which the restaurant refers to as brandy, then finished off with a splash of 7-Up and amaretto, a liquor known for its almond flavor and slightly bitter but sweet caramelized sugars.

Creamy, bubbly and sweet, the Sweet Melissa is perfect for sipping and chilling, or it makes a particularly nice dessert cocktail after dinner.

“We don’t advertise the drink on the menu because we only have so much of the chokecherry brandy,” waiter Michael Thompson told Cowboy State Daily, holding up a half-full gallon jug of the chokecherry-infused liquor and swirling it around a bit. “Once this is gone, that’s it.”

Then there won’t be any more of the secret Sweet Melissa cocktail — at least until chokecherry season returns to Hartville again.

Not Named For The Song

From the name of the cocktail, many people could assume the drink is named after the song, “Melissa,” by the Allman Brothers Band.

But the drink actually takes its name from a former coworker, the late Melissa Anderson, who was the restaurant’s front of the house manager.

The cocktail was something Anderson was working on right before she died, but hadn’t quite finished.

She’d paired homemade chokecherry “brandy” with cream and a splash of 7-Up, but the drink still needed something more before she could add it to the cocktail menu.

Thompson was reminded of Anderson and her unfinished cocktail one fall day after her death.

“The chokecherries were starting to ripen,” he told Cowboy State Daily. “And I just started thinking about her.”

At work, he mentioned the unfinished cocktail, lamenting that he didn’t know how to make her brandy. But his coworker Jessica Walker recalled that Anderson had actually used Walker’s own recipe for the chokecherry brandy. 

Chokecherries have always been a favorite of Walker’s, and she knows how to make a lot of things from it.

“Chokecherries are a very Wyoming and a very Hartville thing,” Walker said, recalling how her grandmother used to drive her to town in a buggy so they could pick chokecherries together.

With the right recipe in hand, there was no question that a brand-new batch of chokecherry brandy would get made.

Owner Scott Harmon took on that task, then Thompson used the special batch of chokecherry brandy to work out the cocktail’s final ingredient. Ultimately, Thompson settled on a splash of amaretto. The Italian liquor is often thought of as sweet, but even though it has those caramelized sugars, it also has a bitterness that helps prevent a sweet drink from becoming too cloying.

Thompson topped the finished Sweet Melissa with a Bordeaux cherry — like a maraschino cherry, but so dark it’s almost black.

The dark cherry is a nice contrast to the creamy white drink, which is served on the rocks.

And with that, Thompson felt Anderson would have been very proud of his finish to her drink.

Melissa’s Touch

Anderson’s presence is still missed at Miners and Stockmen’s Steakhouse by coworkers and regular customers, who remember her as a force.

“She was something else,” Walker told Cowboy State Daily. “She was special.”

Anderson had a way of making customers immediately feel welcome, with a smile that could light up a room and an easy manner that made people feel like they’d come home, she said.

She was also calm under pressure and did a lot to help the new owners of Miners and Stockmen’s Steakhouse when they took it over 10 years ago.

Scott and Christine Harmon were very new to the restaurant business at that time, but Anderson had a lot of experience in food service. She used that experience to put in place front-of-the-house procedures that are still in use.

One of Walker’s clearest memories of Anderson is her standing by one of the restaurant’s windows, sweat pouring down her face.

“And she had this big smile on her face,” Walker said. “She always had a way of smiling through the chaos. She was just amazing.”

Unique Cocktails Thanks To Anderson’s Infusions

Many of the drinks on the Miners and Stockmen’s cocktail menu are Anderson’s creations, using infused liquors that she made herself.

“All of our infused liquors were her idea,” Walker said.

There’s the Wyoming Tropics Pina Colada, for example, which uses toasted coconut-infused rum with pineapple juice and cream served over ice.

The Bloody Mary uses a cucumber- and dill-infused vodka, while Stockmen’s Mule uses a fruity-infused vodka of the week. The mule includes the traditional ginger beer, but is topped off with a red wine float.

The Hartville Jalapeno Margarita uses a jalapeno- and lime-infused tequila. Its other twist is that the drink is poured into a glass with a spicy sweet and salty rim. 

There’s a Winter Cosmo with vanilla beans and cranberry-infused vodka, and a mulled whiskey with coffee and Amarula liquor, which are all Anderson’s creations.

Thompson has created an old fashioned that uses toasted pecan-infused vodka, and a cherry-infused Canadian whiskey for the Bordello Haze, a tribute to Hartville’s Wild West past when there were 12 saloons in the town, not to mention a bordello or two full of what were then referred to as the town’s “sporty” women.

There’s no wrong choice on Anderson’s cocktail menu. Every drink pairs well with the high-end steaks or the shrimp dinners served at Miners and Stockmen’s Steakhouse.

Renée Jean can be reached at renee@cowboystatedaily.com.