As a subterranean extension of Genuine Superette, the AvroKO team has opened a new cocktail bar on Grand Street. But even though it’s helmed by one of the most respected mixologists in the business, Eben Freeman, Genuine Liquorette winks at modern-day cocktail culture.
Freeman has invented something called the “Cha-Chunker,” a machine with a metal point that can be lowered into the mouth of any canned beverage to widen the hole. He then inverts a mini bottle of alcohol into the can, making drinks like a riff on a mojito, with Cruzan White rum, Sprite, lime, and mint. (Customers can also order standard mixed drinks, like gin-and-tonics, to be made with the Cha-Chunker.)
The creativity doesn’t stop there: Through Freeman’s monthly “Cocktail Collective” program, he asks bartenders from around the world to invent drinks using one specific rare spirit, and then adds them onto Genuine Liquorette’s menu. Plus: The space is designed like a bodega-style liquor store, and people can actually drink from all of the bottles lining the walls (the bartenders will charge by the ounce). And to further break down the wall between the staff and the customers, Freeman and his team will host cocktail classes and allow graduates to tend bar anytime. Take a look around:
Menu [PDF]
Genuine Liquorette, 191 Grand St., 646-726-4633
