Prospect Heights Cocktail Den Promises Back Garden, Oysters
Weather Up, the new cocktail bar in Prospect Heights, should open in a couple of weeks, says owner Kathryn Weatherup, an original investor in East Side Company Bar. Weather Up’s partner Matthew Maddy, who cut his teeth with a design firm that worked on the Box and Stanton Social, is turning a former storefront church (Google street view, above) into a “jewel box” of sorts by installing an old mahogany bar with a custom-made brass bar top, a tiled vaulted ceiling, stainless-steel and onyx light fixtures, and banquettes of buffalo-skin leather. Add to all that a back garden and you have a drinks temple fit for barkeeps trained by Sasha Petraske. There will be oysters and cheese plates, but obviously the thing that’ll drive people here are the classic cocktails, with the menu changing every couple of months. Soundtrack: jazz, blues, and local cocktailians smacking their lips.
Weather Up, 589 Vanderbilt Ave., nr. Dean St., Prospect Heights, Brooklyn; no phone yet.
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John Hodgman Unlikely Star of Mixologist CalendarIn what will surely become mixology’s version of Yankees Stadium’s Monument Park, Jill DeGroff, wife of “King of Cocktails” Dale, has sketched caricatures of a dozen “cocktailians” and included them in a calendar that’s going for $17.95 (about the price of an overpriced drink!). Some of the local drink-slingers whose recipes and rosy-cheeked mugs are featured: Audrey Saunders from Pegu Club, Julie Rainer from Flatiron Lounge, and Sasha Petraske from Milk and Honey. Our favorite part, though, is the page on which a pants-less John Hodgman gives his preferred synonyms for booze.
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Delete Milk and Honey’s Number From Your Phone; Prepare for New PetraskeA while back we did the unspeakable by releasing Milk and Honey’s number to the masses (sort of). Yesterday a reader wrote in to let us know that the number had been disconnected. Seems the bar is closed while it turns its basement (where it makes its precious ice) into the offices of Cuff and Buttons, the catering service run by former bartenders Christy Pope and Chad Solomon. The good news: A new number is being released today (even more exciting than a new edition of Harry Potter!), and the bar should reopen sometime next week.
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Milk and Honey’s Petraske Going Bi-coastalMilk and Honey owner Sasha Petraske is keeping busy as ever. His planned beer-and-wine bar didn’t go over well with Community Board 3, but he still intends to open it initially as a café. He’s also still searching for a space in Long Island City. As it turns out, Sasha’s empire may extend far beyond even Queens. Responding to a tip we received that he’s going to have an opening on the West Coast, he says, “Yes, either a quiet little wine bar in Laurel Canyon, if we can get permission, or … a very small, maybe eight-room, hotel with a lobby bar. I’d rather do the wine bar, but if we can’t get planning permission, then downtown is the only part of L.A. that gets my heart racing. It’s like Skid Row and Wall Street have collided!” He would’ve dished more, we’re sure, but he was BlackBerrying on the fly.
Earlier:
Neighbors Tell Milk & Honey’s Sasha Petraske, ‘Welcome to the East Village, Now Leave’
Milk and Honey Owner to Do Beer and Wine — and Queens!
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Neighbors Tell Milk & Honey’s Sasha Petraske, ‘Welcome to the
Little Branch and Milk & Honey owner Sasha Petraske may have moved into his East Village bachelor pad a week ago, but last night the community board’s SLA committee said not-so-fast to his plan to turn the two floors below it (formerly Jack’s Luxury Oyster) into a wine and Belgian beer bar called the Mighty Ocelot. (That name, previously reported here, may now change since cat-loving Sasha discovered the bar next door is called Leopard Lounge). Not even Petraske’s two adorable character witnesses — his mother and the mother of his cheese guy, T.J. Segal of Artisanal and Picholine — could save him from the wrath of block association members armed with a petition signed by over 140 noise-fearing neighbors.
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Per Se Mixologist to Light a Flaming Lemon Peel Under Bemelmans’ AssSasha Petraske of Milk and Honey recently put his stamp on the drinks menu at the Carlyle Hotel’s Bemelmans Bar, but let’s face it, the place still isn’t what it was when it was helmed by legends Dale DeGroff and, later, Audrey Saunders. Brian Van Flandern, former head mixologist at Per Se, hopes to change that. Within six weeks, the star stirrer, known for making his own ginger beer and tonic water at Per Se’s stand-up bar, will unveil a revamped menu. Along with holdovers like DeGroff’s Whiskey Smash and Saunders’s Gin Gin Mule, it will include cocktails like a variation of his Flaming Dutchman — a concoction of cognac, sherry, gin, lemon juice, and bitters (finished off with a spectacular shower of lemon juice over an open flame). It’s the same drink that prompted a Dutch company to rank him the No. 2 bartender in the world. And rest assured, the murals by Ludwig Bemelmans aren’t going anywhere, nor are the bartenders who’ve been there for years — some of the drinks may actually be named after them. —Daniel Maurer
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Harold Moore of March to Take Over Grange Hall–Blue Mill SpaceA reliable industry source tells us that the long-vacant Grange Hall–Blue Mill space, which our Daniel Maurer reports was recently considered by Milk and Honey owner Sasha Petraske for his new restaurant, has been snapped up by former March chef de cuisine Harold Moore, a Montrachet veteran who has cooked under both Daniel Boulud and Jean-Georges Vongerichten. The lease hasn’t been signed yet, and there is no word on when Moore, who has the backing of several partners, intends on opening it or what the food will be. But given his track record, it should be pretty good.
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Geoffrey Zakarian Taking On Sasha Petraske in Battle for Blue Mill SpaceEarlier we reported that Sasha Petraske has his eye on the vacant Blue Mill space, which is begging for a Waverly Inn–style revival. Turns out he’s not the only one: We noticed, in the agenda for tonight’s Community Board 4 meeting, that Geoffrey Zakarian of Town and Country has applied for a liquor license at 50 Commerce Street. Zakarian concedes that he and some unnamed partners are looking at several spaces in the West Village and Lower East Side with a small bistro in mind, but he hasn’t signed a lease and needs to crunch more numbers before he’s ready for the community board. “I spoke to the landlord and evidently there’s someone else she’s interested in,” he tells us. The plot thickens … —Daniel Maurer
Earlier: Sasha Petraske to Take on Fine Dining, Too
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Sasha Petraske to Take on Fine Dining, Too
Earlier we reported the Milk and Honey owner-mixologist Sasha Petraske was going into the beer, wine, and cheese business. He’s not stopping there: Petraske is also eyeing the still-vacant Grange Hall and Blue Mill space, a venue he’s loved since he had his eighth-grade graduation party there (he grew up a couple of blocks away). Why hasn’t he snatched it up? The restaurant-world newcomer has yet to click with a chef who shares his vision of serving cocktails before and after dinner rather than simply during. “I’m trying to find some partners who’ll let me do my thing in the front of the space; someone who’s doing something of serious quality.” If anyone fits the bill, you can reach Sasha at the secret number divulged here, though it may change soon. — Daniel Maurer
Earlier:
Milk and Honey Owner to Do Beer and Wine — and Queens!
Zagat Fails to Number-Close Milk and Honey
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Milk and Honey Owner to Do Beer and Wine — and Queens!Sasha Petraske, owner of Milk and Honey and Little Branch, not to mention one of the city’s most revered mixologists, plans on expanding his mini-empire. Shockingly — for those who aren’t aware that Petraske worked at Von before conquering the cocktail world — the new venture will be a wine-and-Belgian-beer bar; he’s calling it the Mighty Ocelot (“I really like cats,” he tells us). Petraske first applied for a beer-and-wine license at 226 Broome Street, around the corner from Milk and Honey, but the rent would’ve busted his “shoe-string budget.” So in January he’ll taking over the former Jack’s Luxury Oyster Bar space in the East Village; come March, he’ll be offering cheese plates and light food. Not only this, but a project in Long Island City is also in the works. —Daniel Maurer