Latest / Into The Barchive / Sasha Petraske — The Architect of the Modern Cocktail Bar
Transcript
- ITB: And two. comes alive forgotten drinks will revive ⁓ we thrive sip the tails let them die welcome to the bark welcome back bark of this to into the bark hive the podcast where we explore history culture and the craft behind the world's most influential cocktails And bartenders. Yeah, and today's episode is a little different. Instead of focusing on a single drink, we're going to talk about a person. And who is that? You know, it's someone whose per whose influence on modern cocktail culture is hard to overstate. That person is Sasha Petrovsky. And tell me more about Sasha Petrovsky. Well, if you've ever enjoyed a cocktail in a dimly lit bar, If you set somewhere that serves drinks with fresh citrus, clear ice, and a bartender measuring their spirits with quiet precision, then there's a good chance that you're experiencing the ripple effects of Petrovsky's work. If the cocktail renaissance had architects, Sasha Petrovsky would be the quiet designer behind much of that blueprint. All right, so where did this start? Well, in the late 1990s, Petrovski opened a small bar in New York City called Milk and Honey. And that bar helped redefine what modern cocktail culture could be. So today we're going to talk about how Petrovski entered the bar world, how milk and honey reshaped the industry, and how his mentorship created an entire generation of bartenders who carried that philosophy around the world. All right, so typically at this time. We go to make two cocktails. What are those two cocktails? So we're gonna make two drinks connected to the milk and honey lineage. The business and the cosmonaut. I'm about to show you the business and rock your world. All right, let's get shaking. For our first cocktail, we've got the business. It's actually a rift off the bee's knees, which was one of our first viral videos back from like, I don't know, episode two. ⁓ but again, a rift off of that. What are we gonna do? In our tin, we're gonna take gin, just like we would in the bee's knees. Two ounces. The difference now is instead of using lemon juice, we've swapped it out for lime juice. We're going for a full ounce of lime juice. And keeping the same, we're doing our honey syrup. This is a three to one honey syrup. ⁓ Easy thing to do is just use one of those teddy bear bottles like I do right here. Take out just enough up to about the ear, maybe just below the earline. Maybe if you go too low to the neck, it's more of a two to one. But ⁓ and now we're gonna do three quarters of an ounce. ⁓ what you were while we're doing this is ⁓ just straight honey would seize up. into the glass so by taking and adding some hot water or warm warm water and just adding it to the top of it, giving it shake, and it will add that dilution and now it mixes very well with the cocktail and won't seize up. That's all the ingredients. Let's put some ice in our tin to get shaken. Again, in your large shaking tin, about halfway full of ice. ⁓ don't go under that. Don't want under dilution, don't want under chilling. And if you go more than that, then that's just wasting ice, but that's on you. And now shake. We've got the nice frost as I'm always talking about. So I'm done by shaking. Break the seal. Give it little roll. And now grab a chilled coop. Place her up. Grab my hot one trainer. Maybe I won't. And double string. I think for the bees' knees, we actually used a ⁓ a lemon ⁓ a lemon pill with some expressed oils. But for the business, no garnish on this one, no espressed oils. Let the cocktails ⁓ speak for itself. The business. Cheers. For our next cocktail, ⁓ we're gonna do the cosmonaut or Sasha Petrowski's answer to the cosmopolitan. Of course, he's open milk and honey in the midst of the whole sex in the city, cosmopolitan zeitgeist. And so this is his response in a bar that typically isn't gonna make vodka drinks. So we're gonna start with two ounces of a London dry gin. I'm using Tancrey here. So instead of like an absolute citron vodka, that would be in your classic cosmopolitan. We're getting more complexity from the gin. We're gonna add that here. There is no triple sack orange liqueur here. And we're instead of lime juice and cranberry, we're using lemon juice. Three quarters of an ounce of fresh squeeze lemon juice. Add that to our small tin. And then what gives the drink its pink hue instead of cranberry juice is a bar spoon of raspberry preserves. And here on this one, you want to make sure to get a high-quality preserves. Like this one is just raspberries, cane sugar, pectin, citric acid. So something with very few ingredients. Get my bar spoon of raspberry preserves, drop it into my small tin. To kind of start mixing it up, I'm gonna stir it a little to help dissolve some of the sugars in the cocktail before I shake so it's a little more evenly distributed. And as a nice side effect, it helps rinse the spoon. So from there, we'll ice up our large tin. And again, as always, about halfway up your tin. And then pour the ingredients of the small tin into the big tin, shake 10 to 15 seconds. All right. And then once you've shaken, break the seal. And you know, I got a good shake on that. I was trying to shake a little extra hard, maybe a little more to break up more of the raspberry preserves. Grab a frozen coop. And then because of the seeds and the raspberry preserves, you're gonna wanna double strain this cocktail. And so you've got a nice pink color here. Just like a cosmopolitan. But again, a little more complexity from using gin instead of vodka and the raspberry preserves instead of the cranberry juice. And I give you the cosmonaut. Cheers. Now that we've built the cocktails, let's build the context. What's the world before Sasha? Well, to understand the legacy of Sasha Petrovsky, we've got to look at late 1990s, New York. And even though New York we think about as the city of like the lady light of cocktail making now, ⁓ by this time, largely the city had forgotten to make a proper cocktail. It's had fallen a long way from its golden age. Bars were loud, neon lit places where drinks were made with sour mix, bottled juices, and flavored vodka. Yeah, it's booze you, get you out the door. It's turn and burn. Yeah, well, and you think about the word martini itself had been stretched to cover almost anything in a V shaped glass, like we discuss in our Martinis That Aren't Martinis episode. You could order an apple teeny, a chocolate martini, or any number of candy-like concoctions that bore little resemblance to the drinks that bartenders were making before Prohibition. But I mean, before him there were some sparks of ⁓ a cocktail renaissance, right? Sure. I mean, obviously the most influential figure here is Dale de Groff. Whose work at the Rainbow Room in the late 1980s and early 1990s reintroduced fresh ingredients, so fresh juice instead of sour mix, and those classic pre-prohibition recipes to American bartending. But for the most part, outside of de Groff and a few other isolated pockets, the craft of cocktail making had largely faded. So again. Bartenders were literally individuals that were back behind the bar doing a few pours. You make in certain pockets there were crafts and people doing some good stuff, but few and far between. Yeah, bartending wasn't widely seen as like a profession. Yeah. It was just a job, ⁓ and kind of like a nightlife utility job. But what Sasha Petrowski would do differently. was not just revive old recipes or even create riffs like our two drinks based on those recipes. He would reimagine the entire environment of the bar. Okay. So we've got this individual that is entering into this bar space, realizing that it is a shell of what it was and should be. Mm-hmm. And Sasha Petrotsky enters and starts making changes. Yeah, so Sasha was born in Manhattan in 1973. He and although he was considered like highly intelligent, a savant of sorts, he dropped out of one of the most prestigious high schools in New York City at 17 years old. He joined the army and served. Three years as an army ranger before he got out of the service and started working behind bars. I did not know that and did not see this story coming. Yeah. Well, of course, what's funny is part of the way he was able to get out of the service was claiming he was gay. Okay. And so he got out of the military, ⁓ started working in bars. But that military experience kind of contributed to that sense of discipline behind the bar. ⁓ he had very like very structured habits. Like he read The Economists magazine cover to cover each week. And I remember like back in COVID, I'm a big fan of The Economists. I would subscribe and read, and it would, I got to the point where I could not. Keep up reading the Economist cover to cover like during a school year because the analysis was so in depth. So you being the probably most studious individual that I have ever met, that once you pick up something to read, it is your job. Like it is the task of all task that you're going to be damned if you don't finish. And he is able to. Do something that you could not keep up with? Yeah, I mean, he's an impressive man. Like, I mean, it was a good habit I developed during COVID where, you know, I had time every morning to read, but once life began to get back to normal, I couldn't do it. So, I mean, if you think about people who work behind the bar, you work late at nights, but then you have like your early days. Different hours. Yeah. Very different hours. Okay. Then no jab there, but still. It it's impressive. Yeah, definitely impressive. That a reading feat that I consider you should be able to tackle fairly I mean, not easily, but definitely easier than I could. Well, and beyond The Economist, Sasha was known for studying old cocktail books and historic recipes. And he was also inspired by the Japanese bartending techniques found at Angel Share, another New York bar at the time. Where they focus on precision, professionalism, and just general respect for the craft. I know the timing doesn't line up on the rest of this story, but are you sure you're not the reincarnate of him? No, I am not. Okay. So what's interesting is on New Year's Eve, 1999, so like Y2K. Yes. Okay. Petrosky opens milk and honey on the lower east side of New York City. And at First glance the bar seemed almost secretive. There's no sign out sign. You had to know the phone number to get in. So this is like again, like the first modern speakeasy. The interior is quiet, dimly lit, deliberately intimate. When people when the servers would bring your round of drinks round, it would come on ⁓ a tray with a little candle on top. ⁓ I I love the speakeasy feel because some of those that are ⁓ that have I guess evolved or come around since this ⁓ red door here in Nashville, right? Knowing the phone number to get in. Yeah, through the red phone booth, right? Yeah, ph ⁓ yeah, the red phone booth, that's what yeah. I I like the nod to that. So w let's go a little bit deeper then. Well Although Milk and Honey is considered the first of this new wave of speakeasy style bars, ironically, that was never Petrovsky's intent. In the lease for his space, he agreed to run the bar in such a way so that residents would not notice a bar was there or complain about the noise. And so this unique setting led to one of Milk and Honey's Most lasting contribution to the world of cocktail bars. It's the rules. It's the rules. I I love this part about it because I did not know it was part of that leaf. So it makes sense as you start to know the rules. There was ⁓ eight of ⁓ right? There was the the the eight rules. So ⁓ I do have them in front of me so I don't mess them up, but slightly from memory it was and Earmuffs from some of those that don't like cursing because the first one you're gonna get it right off the bat. ⁓ rule number one, no name dropping, no star fucking. Rule number two, no hooting, hollering, shouting, or other loud behavior. I guess I'm out. number three, no fighting, no play fighting, no talking about fighting. Rule number four, gentlemen will remove their hats. Hooks are provided. Number five, gentlemen will not introduce themselves to ladies. Ladies, feel free to start a conversation or ask the bartender to introduce you. If a man you don't don't speaks, excuse me, if a man you don't know speaks to you, please lift your chin and slightly ignore him. Rule number six. Do not linger outside the front door. Makes sense on that lease now. Mm-hmm. Number seven, do not bring anyone unless you would leave that person alone in your home. You are responsible for the behavior of your guests. And then rule number eight. Exit the bar briskly and silently. People are trying to sleep across the street. Please make all your travel plans and say all farewells inside before leaving. So, like these rules weren't about being cheeky and trying to like create like a theme park, like, ⁓ we're gonna be like the 1920s Prohibition era. No, they were about protecting the atmosphere Petrovsky wanted to create and maintaining the bar in its very cheap location. I mean, at the time he was paying just $800 a month for his lease in New York on the Lower East Side. No way. So again, it was about maintaining the integrity of the bar. In fact, like a year after Milk and Honey opened, a neighbor didn't realize the bar was there. Still for a full year. Yep. And like every night, people coming in and the neighbors didn't know it because Petrosky was so dedicated to the rules. I I l I love the the nod, or maybe even tongue in cheek that some of the bars now have to that. Like ⁓ Patterson House, right? I think they have rules. Like different places have rules, but are they not like trickled down, maybe even family of? ⁓ yeah, and I mean we're gonna talk about Petrovsky's legacy of mentorship and a lot of the places where you see these rules have a direct connection to Sasha Petrovsky. Okay, so he he doesn't go for the speakeasy feel. So, like what was the bar atmosphere like? Like a tire? Like it's is it pro prohibition style? Are we wearing like, you know, the little cuff? The garter or like what's this? Petrovsk himself wore slacks and suspenders, vests and ties, not to create some simulation of the 1920s speakeasy, but he liked to dress that way. That was just his normal attire. I remember reading one anecdote where he hadn't bought a pair of jeans in 15 years, because that's just how he chose to dress. That was what he liked to do. So again, milk and honey, the entire speakeasy aesthetic that we might associate it with it, it was not just some like business ⁓ ploy. It was authentically Petrovski. Okay, so Petrovsky gets established with milk and honey. And from what we already know, when when we've talked about this lineage and these like tr this family tree of affects whether it be the bars or bartenders themselves, mixologists, craftsmen, whatever you want to call, like, let's talk about him and how that evolved, that mentorship. Sure. And what's interesting is despite the importance of milk and honey to the craft cocktail renaissance and the impact Petrovsky made, the bar itself was never really profitable. Petrovsky was a terrible businessman. ⁓ it's funny, his his parents were communists. And although Petrovsky was no communist, he had a deep-seated sense of social justice where he cared deeply about his employees. Like he paid them very well. Like he was like, okay, was it cost a life? He didn't calculate that, ⁓ yeah, they're gonna get tips too. I mean, it was so insane that Petrovsky even fed his cats. Sushi grade tuna. Huh? I I'm not lying here like he's a he's an individual that cares so deeply that even for a pet, sushi grade tuna. Okay, so that leads to then I can understand the detail time intimacy of just education that comes. Afterwards now. That makes sense. Yeah, I mean, Petrovsky was very focused to like this is an era of free pouring and things, cocktails. Like, we're gonna jigger every cocktail. They shook most of their cocktails with one big rock, and this was like before you had the big cleanbell ice machines, they would freeze like hotel pans of ice and then meticulously cut those big two inch cubes. So I mean the ice game was there and things like that. Petrosky invented these simple, easy drinks with some classics, but his greatest impact was probably not the drinks themselves. It was the people he trained. let's as we start to roll down that now. It's he he he set the foundation, he was the keystone. That then passed knowledge and I guess gave individuals the r permission, right? Like it was knowledge but permission to do more, do better. Mm-hmm. So here in Nashville, again, milk and honey is there. Then we get something called attaboy here, but it's actually there first. Yeah. So milk and honey would eventually move to a larger spec. space elsewhere in New York. And two of Petrovsky's proteges, Sam Ross and Michael McElroy, in the original Milk and Honey space, opened a new bar called Attaboy. And then as you mentioned, they have opened a second location here where we're filming in the Nashville area. And so those are two of Petrovsky's most important proteges. But if you look at other branches of Petrosky's family tree, you've got Eric Alperin and the Varnish in Los Angeles. ⁓ Toby Maloney, who opened the Violet Hour in Chicago. And I mean, unfortunately, the Violet Hour within the past several months have had has had to close because of a lease ⁓ issue. But I mean, and I'll I'll just also say Toby Maloney. ⁓ here in Nashville was the beverage director and helped design the original cocktail menu at the Patterson House, which was like the OG craft cocktail bar in the Nashville area. Thus the rules. Yeah. Right. So you had rules at the Varnish, you had rules at the Patterson House, ⁓ another one in New York, ⁓ Richie Bicado opened Dutch Kills, or And even beyond the United States, Michael Madrusen opened the Everly in Mel Melbourne, Australia, yeah. So all of ⁓ Petroski's mentees brought this shared approach, precision and techniques, respect for the ingredients, a style of hospitality that was calm, attentive, and quietly professional. Yeah, each one of the facilities that you have mentioned that we have been to. While unique in what they are, do have a a common vibe. Right? I wouldn't say you're not going into a room and it's brightly lit and all this other stuff. It's I wouldn't say it's also one of those dimly lit that you can't read the menu type places either, but it's you're there to enjoy the company you're with and sip on something that is fantastically crafted. Absolutely. It's to add to your experience, not to deter or to completely overtake. Right? Yeah. Cool. Well, the tragic part of our story. I alluded to this earlier that you are not the reincarnate. Yes, ⁓ Is Petrosky passed away in 2015 at the age of forty-two? ⁓ his influence, of course, by that time had already spread around the cocktail world. And the standards that you champion, fresh ingredients, careful technique, and thoughtful hospitality are widely accepted as the foundation of craft cocktail bartending. Not to take away from this moment, but for the individuals that you have mentioned, when we talk about bartenders, I think you focus in on specifically those individuals that take care, not just of the spirit themselves but the hospital the what can I do as a craftsperson to enhance my patrons experience. Yep. Absolutely. Well and he and and think about like with the rules and all, it's not just like how can I help you through this beverage, but how can I create this environment. where like the people around you like it's all having a great experience, like with the rules about like ⁓ you know, no name dropping, like, well, I know so and so, or it's where every person is treated equally, that gets that great experience along the way. And just trying to craft an environment where people can have those moments of like intimacy, ⁓ good conversation, you know, where the drinks can be in the foreground and we can have a conversation about, ⁓ my God, these drinks are so great. Or we can have a conversation on an entirely different subject as we sip these amazing drinks. But he put this in like this atmosphere, this environment out there where it's now widely accepted for other bars to have this as like Their staple for their establishment and for their craft bartending. Like he he set that standard that just made it, hey guys, it's okay to do this. Absolutely. And I mean, today when you sit down at a well-run craft cocktail bar, you know, think about one that has good ice, using fresh citrus, classic or modern classic cocktails, and a bartender. Who takes the time to get the details right? Again, the importance of jiggering, right? Like being precise with your measurements, not just ⁓ this and this. You're experiencing the legacy of Sasha Petrovsky anytime you're in a bar like that. ⁓ I mean, there is a craft to speed pouring and being able to count speed pouring. Yeah. But there is still a Craft to being precise. Yes. And one of the things about Sasha Petrovsky is he wasn't the only person trying to revive classic cocktails or come up with matt modern classics. Many people contributed to that story. We referenced Gail de Groff earlier in this episode. In a past episode, we talked about Audrey Saunders for Women's History Month. But Sasha Petrovsk helped create. The environment where that sort of cocktail renaissance, that revival would flourish. And perhaps most importantly, he passed that idea on to others. Mentorship. Mentorship. And and this is a profession that is largely built on apprenticeship and shared knowledge. Yeah, you start most of the time you start working in the back bar. You're, you know, you're just running, refilling ice, grabbing bottles from the basement, you know. Yeah. You're just running and then every so often you may have the opportunity to build a ⁓ go get a Jack and Coke. Yeah. Right. So yeah, the apprenticeship piece does and l slowly at times, depending on where you start, that knowledge is transferred. Yeah, and that mentorship has an impact that lasts beyond any single bar. ⁓ a as we are already kind of in this conclusion piece. most crafts bars that we go to now have some sort of nod to what Sasha has put out there in the world. Whether that be from cocktails that have been passed down that are now served at that specific establishment, or if it were bartenders that came through his knowledge that have now passed on different techniques, different ⁓ atmospheres or experience or even the way that a bar menu is laid out. Certain ones that have like where they draw the design of low ⁓ highest the acidity level, the boozy level, those type of things all are kind of go back to a nod of what he established. Absolutely. Well in this episode we paid some homage To an individual that has definitely set the standard and was a keystone of what we consider the modern cocktail ⁓ era. If you like either one of these cocktails or have your favorite milk and honey ⁓ recipe, go ahead and share those with us on Instagram, TikTok, or I guess now we are on podcasts for Apple and Spotify. And our YouTube channel. Hopefully you will like and subscribe. ⁓ we were right now, it seems like we are now officially set. Every Thursday we are releasing episodes, something that we haven't mentioned before, but we're now officially thinking we've got this weekly thing going. So every Thursday, tune in for maybe a thirsty Thursday for yourself. Like, subscribe, hit that bell button, maybe get a notification. ⁓ 8 a.m. Central is when this now posts on. ⁓ on YouTube. So be one of those first ones that hits that premiere ⁓ and get some feedback to us. Again, we as soon as we hear these, we respond fairly quickly. I would say within 24-ish hours. Or if you want to send a larger format, send us an email at podcast at Intothebarkive.com. And next time we will return to focusing on a single cocktail and exploring the story behind one of the most famous highballs in the Rum world. ⁓ my goodness. The dark and stormy. So we're going to explore the origins? Yep. We're gonna look, go to Bermuda, think about the origins of the drink and how that simple combination of rum and ginger beer became one of the most recognizable tropical cocktails in the world. Alrighty. So until next time, keep exploring the past, one drink at a time as we dive deeper. Into the bark hive. Cheers.