Give Your Mouth A Present At Bishop Arts’ Inventive Krio This Holiday Season And Try This Classic New Orleans-Style Brunch Cocktail Served Up The Texas Way.

Welcome to The Cocktease, the weekly feature in which we present you a tasteful preview and review of a cocktail in the Dallas-Fort Worth region that deserves your attention, your mouth and your monetary support. Looking for a good time? Here’s something that might fit your personal tastes — because when I sip, you sip, we sip.

Name: Milk Punch.

Where to get it: Krio. (233 W 7th Street, Suite 100, in Bishop Arts).

Cost: $10.

When to order: dairy cheat day.

Ingredients: Oak Cliff Whiskey, milk, vanilla and nutmeg.

Pairs well with: Santa’s funny cookies.

A little more to sip on: Krio in Bishop Arts is truly taking over for the ’99 and the 2000s.

If it’s not the affordability of a great new restaurant that’s worth talking about here, it’s definitely how the place manages to bring in such an eclectic crowd of people from all social Dallas circles into one collective place. Seriously: When we walked through the door this week, we were greeted with a diversity we hadn’t seen since the halcyon Beauty Bar days.

Granted, people here were much more socially distant than they ever were in tiny building on Henderson — and for the better. Such is 2020!

Once inside, we ordered up the Milk Punch at the behest of the bar staff. Maybe it’s because dairy isn’t much of a staple of my diet and because this cocktail is truly as creamy as it gets, but it immediately gave me Mexican atole vibes. Turns out, I wasn’t alone in this line of thinking: My Caribbean-sprung lady date on this trip compared the offering to a frozen Puerto Rican coquito.

Truth is, the Milk Punch is similar to but actual neither of those things — a testament I’d say to the fact that, no matter how different our cultures are, we can still find common ground through food.

As for this drink’s actual inspiration, Milk Punch is a super popular brunch drink down in New Orleans — one that has, by now, become just as much a classic to the area as any Cash Money Records tape.

Which is fitting because when you step foot into Krio, it immediately makes you want to mix and mingle just given the blending of cultures the eatery prides itself on. Beyond being one of the few places in town — if not the only one — that offers Asian-inspired Cajun food, it also boasts an impressive cocktail menu curated by esteemed bartender-about-town Jesse Powell.

So, rest assured: Krio is an almost guaranteed good time.

“We wanted to continue to bring New Orleans to Krio even with our holiday cocktail menu,” says Powell of this drink’s addition to his menu. “[Co-owner] Connie [Cheng] and I were super inspired by the Milk Punch we had at Bourbon House in New Orleans, and we wanted to recreate that recipe here.”

With a twist, of course. A traditional Milk Punch is served hot or iced, but those options are far too easy for a barman of Powell’s experience. And so, in the town that mastered the art of freezing cocktails many moons ago, his version comes appropriately frozen. As if you needed further selling on this libation, it also comes in a cute milk jar.

The Milk Punch at Krio: It really does do a body good.

Photos by Stephanie Saenz.

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