Minneapolis musician Dessa, cocktail creator Marco Zappia turn music into cocktails

CATHY WURZER: Now, this is the day before the election. And maybe to calm those nerves ahead of tomorrow, you're someone who might like to have an adult beverage. We have the perfect thing for you.

Dessa is coming out with a cocktail book titled after her last album, Bury the Lede, with a cocktail named after each track. The recipes were created by Marco Zappia, the beverage director of Minneapolis restaurants Martina and Colita. Dessa and Marco are on the line right now. Thanks for taking the time.

DESSA: Hello. Thanks for having us.

CATHY WURZER: Marco, I screwed up your last name. It's Marco Zappia. Is that right?

MARCO ZAPPIA: Oh, you're groovy. Everyone does it.

CATHY WURZER: Well, I'm sorry. So thank you. I appreciate your time--

MARCO ZAPPIA: No worries.

CATHY WURZER: --both of you. So, Dessa, my friend, singer, writer, record company executive. Let me see-- lecturer, radio show host. Good Lord, woman. What can't you do?

DESSA: Oh, well, man. After listening to that Jeremy-- it's so good, that Jeremy Messersmith song. I--

CATHY WURZER: Right?

DESSA: And I'm staring into the middle distance--

MARCO ZAPPIA: It's so addictive.

DESSA: --dreaming of an opium den, not of a promotional interview, but really, really good.

[LAUGHTER]

MARCO ZAPPIA: Oh.

DESSA: Well, I would say, I tend to maneuver, gravitate, and reside in the world of words. But I'm always really stoked to see someone who's excellent in their field and to try to drag our Venn diagrams together.

And so when I first worked with Marco, I was just so blown away by what he was able to do in kind of liquid form. And so he's responsible for all the recipes in the book. And then I've accompanied each one with an essay on art and collaboration.

CATHY WURZER: Oh. Marco, I hear that you are an artist behind the--

MARCO ZAPPIA: I'm blushing right now.

CATHY WURZER: [LAUGHS]

You truly do create some wonderful cocktails. So you used Dessa's music to inspire the recipes? Is that right?

MARCO ZAPPIA: Yeah. Yeah, I've been in love with Dessa since False Hopes, Doomtree crew. And we've known each other throughout the years. And yeah, our first collab was when Dessa was working with the Minnesota Orchestra 2017, 2018. And it was such a delight. I've been trying to collab again. And when the latest record came out, yeah, we started a little convo on what it would look like to do cocktail book with it.

CATHY WURZER: OK, what's your idea of the perfect cocktail? Marco, I'm curious.

MARCO ZAPPIA: It was pretty organic. Personally, my palate lends towards clear spirits, gin in particular, while Dessa has a very sophisticated palate geared towards--

[AIR HISSING]

--sorry, air-- well, whiskey, amari, deep, dark, rustic mahogany. And between the two of us, I think we have a pretty well-rounded beverage program that was based off the record.

CATHY WURZER: And Dessa, your idea of the perfect cocktail might be?

DESSA: I think some of it's context dependent, right? So in the same way that you build a playlist around an event, you probably approach cocktailing similarly. So some of the lighter, lower ABV, lower alcohol content might be good for a hang with friends before dinner, right? And then, like you mentioned earlier, Cathy, election night's going to be a haul. So I will probably have a few of the bottles on the bar open, just in case.

But yeah, I do tend to like-- I like things that combine flavors ambitiously. Unexpected pairings, I think, are always exciting for me in art, yeah, and probably on the palate, too, stuff that you didn't anticipate would go well and that seems to alchemically create something new and unexpected. And Marco did that several times in the book. Yeah.

CATHY WURZER: Glad to hear, Marco, that you and I share the love of clear liquids. I do like that.

MARCO ZAPPIA: Oh, yeah. I'd marry the martini. My mistress would be--

CATHY WURZER: Yes.

MARCO ZAPPIA: --the Negroni. And I would kill the old fashioned.

[LAUGHTER]

CATHY WURZER: Nice. I like that. We're going to play some of the songs and talk about the cocktails. Now we're going to-- this is a favorite from the album. This is "Hurricane Party." Let's hit that.

[DESSA, "HURRICANE PARTY"]

(SINGING) Fill the kiddie pool

Up with Prosecco

Get the LEDs on

Need the spectacle

Gotta beat the one last week

Let's get a record

If you tryna be a go-getter

You gotta go and get it

Desperate times

Call for desperate measures

Some legitimate headlines

Mostly cries for attention

The camera speeds

Copy ready to read

CATHY WURZER: I'm there for this, Dessa. Absolutely. Prosecco, one of the favorite things that I like to consume. This is the cocktail called the Hurricane, Marco? Is that right? What's the recipe?

MARCO ZAPPIA: Yeah. "Hurricane Party," Hurricane is a classic NOLA cocktail. And then with the lyric, "pool of Prosecco," we kind of did a hybridized version of a Hurricane meets a French 75. So traditionally, it was made with cognac-- switched it over to gin. Fresh lemon, a little bit of Prosecco to top.

We swapped out with rum, which is the spirit in the Hurricane. A little bit of Curacao, and then almost like a Fassionola syrup with passion fruit and a little kiss of grenadine. And it's the color of the album cover.

CATHY WURZER: Oh.

MARCO ZAPPIA: Score. Checked all of the boxes.

CATHY WURZER: [LAUGHS] I love that. Dessa, what do you think?

DESSA: I thought it was so clever. I mean, there's a couple of moments in the book where Marco flexes on, hey, let me just casually create this new combination of ingredients that references historical and cultural trends that are relevant to the lyric. And let me make it like a particular pan tone. I mean, it was really, really cool.

I think for the "Hurricane Party," it's the first song on the record. And I think in some ways, this was the tune that helped set the collaborative tenor between me and Marco and Lazerbeak, who was a big part of the record and the book, too, in that Marco is really-- there's some scholarship at play.

So he interviewed me and Beak separately about the kind of influences that we brought to each track. And both Lazerbeak and I love New Orleans. And so he was able to incorporate some of those liquid trends in the book, too.

CATHY WURZER: See, I want to know because I love "Bury the Lede," L-E-D-E, which is a total journalistic term. So is there a cocktail "Bury the Lede" in the book somewhere? Please say yes.

DESSA: Aw, I want to say yes, Cathy, but I'm such a--

CATHY WURZER: No.

DESSA: I'm such an aspiring-- I know, I'm such a journalism fan, right, that I think actually naming a track might be a step too far. But yeah, I named the record, lifting that phrase from your world for sure, so.

CATHY WURZER: Yes. And Marco, there's got to be a cocktail of something along the line "Bury the Lede." We'll have to talk about it, you and I. How does that sound? Say--

MARCO ZAPPIA: Oh, yeah. It's our secret menu. It's for the--

CATHY WURZER: There you go.

MARCO ZAPPIA: --down low.

CATHY WURZER: Exactly. Marco, do you have a favorite cocktail in this book?

MARCO ZAPPIA: Rothko is one of my favorites. Yeah, a combination of coffee and Campari. Two very, very loud flavor profiles come together in a unanimous, really beautiful flavor profile. Bitter, light, low ABV. Yeah, and then the Pantone on that, the black and the red, I think that's one of my personal favorites.

And for us gin lovers, The Crash is the freezer batch martini, which we're trying to demonstrate you can pre-batch stirred cocktails ahead of time and throw them in your freezer and pour them over ice. Real easy.

CATHY WURZER: Mm! I'm there for that.

MARCO ZAPPIA: My grandma always thinks that I want to bartend during our family reunions. And I do not want to do that, so I bring the freezer batches over, and everyone can help themselves.

CATHY WURZER: Good, I like that. And Dessa, same question to you. Do you have a favorite cocktail in the book?

DESSA: I do. I think I do. It's new enough that I'm still rotating my favorites. But I'll also just say, I think it's awesome that Marco's grandmother insists on an expert bartender at their family reunions. That's the hope. I like your grandma.

MARCO ZAPPIA: You don't mess with Grandma Zappia.

DESSA: I would--

CATHY WURZER: No.

DESSA: I never would.

MARCO ZAPPIA: Yeah.

DESSA: "Decoy," I think is one of my easy favorites. Like Marco said, I usually gravitate towards darker spirits. This one works with mezcal. So for me, it was kind of an interesting stretch. But it also has Benedictine, which I love the flavor. That's exactly in my lane and wheelhouse.

And so it also has kind of like a-- it leans into a little bit of spectacle and ritual and presentation, which a few of the drinks do. So if you take a dried rosemary sprig and set it in your glass and then essentially extinguish it with the ice before you pour, it creates this really-- yeah, herbal, smoky undercurrent that I thought was so clever. Yeah.

CATHY WURZER: Mm, you two. Wow, what a combination you two are. I appreciate the time. Love the book. And best of luck to you both. Thanks so much.

MARCO ZAPPIA: Thanks for having us.

DESSA: Thanks, Cathy.

CATHY WURZER: Minnesota musician Dessa has been with us. Local beverage director Marco Zappia. They're behind a new cocktail book called Bury the Lede. You can preorder it now before it releases later this month.