Serious Cocktails: Are the Speakeasy Bars Getting Old?
"Secret passwords and exclusive policies be damned."
[Photograph: Robyn Lee]
In yesterday's Diner's Journal, Pete Wells writes that Pegu Club co-owner and bartender extraordinaire Audrey Saunders is opening a new place, the Tar Pit, with chef Mark Peel in Los Angeles next month.
With this move, Saunders—one of the most talented and influential bartenders in the ongoing cocktail renaissance—becomes the latest New York bartender to spread the craft west of Weehawken. Sasha Petraske, whose New York bars Milk & Honey and Little Branch (among others) helped spur the trend of the now ubiquitous speakeasy-style cocktail bars, played a hand in opening The Varnish in Los Angeles earlier this year, as well as taking his skills to the nation's capitol, working as a consultant on the Rooftop Bar at the W Hotel.
Toby Maloney, who came up through the bartending ranks at Pegu Club and Milk & Honey, took his talents on the road several years ago, opening The Violet Hour in Chicago and, more recently, consulting on The Patterson House in Nashville and Bradstreet Craftshouse in Minneapolis.
But what's even more interesting is the approach Saunders is taking with the Tar Pit. Wells writes that she rejected the idea of opening yet another pre-Prohibition themed bar, describing that concept as being played out. Instead, the approach will be that of a 1940s-era supper club, with an emphasis on vintage Hollywood style. "'We need to get back to a point where things are fun again,' she said of the cocktail culture. 'We kind of got really heavy.'"
It's only been a few months since William Grimes wrote of the popularity of speakeasy-style bars in the New York Times, but if the mixed reactions bars such as the Prohibition-themed Tavern Law in Seattle has received in local media are any indication, the intensely serious style of craft cocktail bars may be on the wane.
Instead, as Saunders indicated and as cocktail historian David Wondrich suggested in his review of Brooklyn's Clover Club in a recent issue of Esquire, the emphasis is swinging back to a very simple concept: fun places that serve good drinks—secret passwords and exclusive policies be damned.
While enjoying an immaculately prepared cocktail used to require a visit to an exclusive bar, increasingly quality drinks are popping up at neighborhood bars and upscale restaurants—a good indication of how the craft of quality mixology is spreading.
I still love visiting places like Bourbon & Branch in San Francisco, but it's also refreshing to order a drink at a place like Feedback Lounge in Seattle, where the pool tables and rock and roll vibe are countered by quality craft cocktails being served at the bar.
Have you noticed this gradual spread of quality mixology out of the exclusive joints and into your neighborhood bars and restaurants? Lets hear about a few of your favorites.
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8 Comments:
Sorry, this is going the opposite direction from your request, but a quick rant. Speakeasy's: Getting mighty sick of'em. Particularly in NY/Brooklyn. I went on a pub crawl down Washington in Crown Heights/Prospect Heights that took us to Weather-Up (or something like that). As soon as we stepped foot in the unmarked door and saw the throng of hipsters and mustachio'd, vested bartenders, I couldn't help but roll my eyes and give a "damn - not another one" under my breath.
The difference is that now that it's down to a formula, the new places don't even try that hard. Sure, it looked like all the prototypes (many of which are great), but the bartenders weren't that fantastic, and the service left something to be desired (as in, the bartenders were joking around, throwing stuff at each other, and generally not acting as a speakeasy bartender should, I.E., well-trained, respectful, and attentive).
There's room for more, but only if they are as good as they should be, and not just another bar with a speakeasy shellac.
J. Kenji Lopez-Alt at 6:28PM on 11/11/09
It was a great idea starting out, and that the bars and bartenders that really put a lot of thought and effort into researching old recipes and original ingredients did a wonderful thing. But yes, unfortunately, it's heading towards trend-dom, and the people who jump onto the bandwagon to get trendsters and the B&T crowd (no offense intended, I'm B&T myself) are going to ignore quality and just speakeasy labels on crappy cocktails (Aviator with HypnotiQ, anyone?). It's hard to protect integrity if people don't really care or don't know. Ah well, another excuse for buying ingredients and doing some private entertaining ; )
gingerngin at 7:44PM on 11/11/09
All those places make me roll my eyes.
chanterelle at 9:30PM on 11/11/09
If I see one more hipster in an old-fashioned bartender outfit with the dopey mustache selling me $14 brown cocktails, I'm gonna puke.
justcook at 10:41PM on 11/11/09
what's the password?
swordfish.
god, i love me some groucho.
gastronomeg at 12:41PM on 11/12/09
Sorry for my ignorance, but what is the difference between a bar, club, speakeasy, and pub? Are today's speakeasies just a 1920s look and recipes? I probably won't walk into one since I do not drink alcohol at all, but I'm curious.
Cassaendra at 12:48PM on 11/12/09
In my experience it is still hard to find quality cocktails outside of the "exclusive joints." Its not uncommon to find a house-made something or a tincture of whatever listed as an ingredient on a menu, but it is hard to find a good drink. It is a sad thing, indeed.
In general, I think it is time the speakeasies move on. There is too much snobbishness in the craft cocktail world. If you can make an amazing cocktail, you are only half-way to being a bartender. If you can make an amazing cocktail as well as make a customer feel welcome--even if he or she orders a dirty vodka martini--then you are a bartender. As a craft bartender in a small city far away from the cocktail renaissance, I have learned a lot from mustachioed bartenders like those at Death and Co., Milk and Honey and Bourbon and Branch. Nonetheless, I would rather my customers feel welcome than feel exclusive. And while I may suggest they try a Corpse Reviver, I'm not going to flinch when I make their cosmos.
modernbartender at 4:52AM on 11/13/09
I think Drink in Boston and the Drawing Room here in Chicago -- both places where the emphasis is on combining creative mixology with mixological education -- are doing a lot to spread quality cocktail crafting. While both bars still have something of the neo-speakeasy vibe, the emphasis is less on secrecy or elite cocktail hipness than on understanding what goes into making a good drink and, most of all, enjoying the drinking experience. This seems to me like the optimal bridge into spreading, even democratizing, craft cocktail culture.
sidecar at 3:23PM on 12/17/09