On a recent segment of the Today show, young bartender Jonathan Pogash presented a trio of cocktails themed for festive occasions. For a Mojito, he clapped on a sprig of fresh mint, releasing its essential oils, dropped it into a cocktail shaker, poured in meticulously measured spirits and gave it all a decisive shake. Hosts Kathie Lee Gifford and Hoda Kotb sipped the results and gushed on the airwaves.
Like so many of his colleagues headlining at bars all over New York, Pogash—who calls himself the Cocktail Guru—is a bona fide celebrity, a mixologist with star power. “The cocktail world is skyrocketing right now,” he says, “Instead of ordering their usual, customers are more likely to experiment.”
Long before Mad Men devotees were seduced back to retro spirits by images of the dashing Don Draper downing Canadian Club Whisky neat, there was a cocktail revolution underway. The rise of the powerhouse bartender began more than half a decade ago at venues like Employees Only, which opened in 2004, in New York’s West Village. The faux speakeasy, owned by the bartenders making the drinks, set its sights on reviving the classic cocktail. Jerry Thomas’ 19th-century manual, How to Mix Drinks, became the bartender bible, the launching pad for new variations on all sorts of classic combinations.
EO inspired a generation of barkeeps to open their own bespoke spots. To a growing legion of cocktail groupies, the names Julie Reiner (Flatiron Lounge), Audrey Saunders (Pegu Club), Philip Ward (Death & Co.) and Albert Trummer (Apotheke) ring as loud as Bobby Flay’s or Mario Batali’s.
While these mixology stars seem to have sprung up out of nowhere, they were inspired by the earlier work of Dale DeGroff, the so-called King Cocktail. “It started with Dale at the Rainbow Room in the 1980s,” says Pogash. “He was the first to bring back the great classics.”
Even the city’s most exclusive nightspots, like the Boom Boom Room atop the Standard Hotel, are doing a brisk business with classic combos favored by the Rat Pack crowd (Manhattans, Old Fashioneds, Tom Collinses, at $23 a pop). And the Oak Room at the Plaza has all the Mad Men faves: Bloody Bull, Pimm’s Cup, Greyhound and Ginger Whisky.
While Pogash and others built their reputations as cocktail revivalists, most have moved on to designing their own signature drinks. As the Cocktail Guru, Pogash crafts concoctions for special events. “I created the Wandering Cloud Highball for a bride who was a poet and loved William Wordsworth,” he says.
And where, pray tell, will cocktails head next? Pogash predicts a surge in Peruvian drinks, based on Andean Pisco. Other offbeat spirits, he says, also are surging: mescal, rye, Applejack brandy. But the trend that’s most thrilling is surely the return of the real Champagne cocktail (Pogash uses Möet & Chandon). “For a great cocktail you need top ingredients,” he says. “Light drinks that sparkle are definitely in.”
Brandy Crusta which appeared in the Craft of the Cocktail. Photograph by George Erml.
Cocktails by the Sound
In Connecticut, indulge in some swank retro sipping at L’Escale Restaurant and Bar in Greenwich. Barman Karl Kleinberg’s Old Cuban is an intoxicating blend of Champagne, rum, mint leaves and bitters. Even Hemingway would approve. At Delamar Greenwich Harbor, 500 Steamboat Rd., (203 661-4600).
Champagne cocktail which appeared in The Essential Cocktail Photograph by David Kressler.
Jonathan Pogash’s Thanksgiving Cocktail:
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