Snyder Made a Memory and the Blue Ridge cocktails from the new Punch Room menu. Kristen Wile/Unpretentious Palate

Ryan Nolen, the new lead mixologist at The Ritz-Carlton’s 15th-floor bar The Punch Room, has only been in Charlotte for two months, but he’s already overhauled the bar’s menu. Nolen comes to Charlotte from Austin and Chicago. In those cities, he’s worked with some well-known chefs, including Stephanie Izard, Top Chef winner and owner of The Goat & The Girl, and Austin chef Max Snyder. Snyder even inspired the name of a cocktail at The Punch Room, called Snyder Made a Memory.

An avid cook, Nolen seems to have picked up cooking tips from these chefs and translated that knowledge to crafting cocktails. He often uses less traditional, savory elements in his cocktails.

Ryan Nolen, the new lead mixologist at The Punch Room. Photo courtesy of The Punch Room.

“[I learned] from these chefs how to incorporate a full flavor profile, and use that in all of the cocktails,” he says of his cocktail style. “So my approach is generally to layer and execute sweet, sour, salt, bitter, umami, and fat.”

The Punch Room was closed when Nolen arrived, giving him time to come up with the new drinks and reformat the menu.

There’s now no longer a punch-only menu; however, signature shaken cocktails can be served as a punch as well as an individual cocktail. The Blue Ridge ($20), for example, is made with charred blueberry, roasted chicory root, maple, and Queen Charlotte’s rum. Disclosure: I sampled cocktails for free while interviewing Nolen.

When he slid an Ants Marching ($45) cocktail across the bar, I was surprised to see actual ants on a piece of coconut meat. The dried Brazilian black ants are also blended into the cocktail, with coconut, pineapple sage, lime, and cachaça, a twist on a traditional caipirinha. The ants added that savory note Nolen weaves into his cocktails, and I even ate the dried ants on the coconut flesh. They added a really interesting flavor, a little bit of bitterness and a lot of crunch. We posted a photo of that drink on our Instagram.

Snyder Made a Memory ($22), a stunning cocktail in a long-stemmed coup glass, is made with sweet potato, peach jam, burnt shallot, chanterelle mushrooms, and Topo gin.  The savory additions to Nolen’s cocktails add serious complexity, but also seem to tone down the heat of alcohol with their earthiness.

With cocktails averaging about $20-$25, The Punch Room is still going to be a special occasion spot for most of us. But Nolen’s drinks are so unexpected they’re a must try. —Kristen Wile