This Issue Comes in Like a Lion and Out Like...Also Probably a Lion
Why controlled chaos is the vibe for bars; we're still gendering booze and btw it's still only for men; BrewDog is surrendered and rehomed; and more.
Here for the Vibes
Look, if you’re in New York and/or the bar industry and follow its news even a little closely, you do not need me to tell you that Bar Snack is great. It just got named as a James Award semifinalist for best new bar, and that’s only the latest in a long line of accolades (the most prestigious of which I’d argue is “best bar bathroom” in this year’s Inside Hook Spill Awards) and real estate on “best of” lists since the bar opened in late 2024. It’s also got the leg up of being helmed by the creative and accomplished bartender Iain Griffiths. Griffiths is just as much ahead of the game in hospitality as they are in drinks. And that is why I want to throw my hat into the ring of Bar Snack praise published on this here internet.
Bar Snack belongs to the growing “hi-dive” category. As of a few years ago, I felt a little curmudgeonly and cynical toward this trend. Was it just a faux-dive gimmick? But, Bar Snack’s near-neighbor in the East Village, Romeo’s, debunked this—or, at least, demonstrated that if anyone is phoning this approach in, it’s not them. These are not your bars that opened a year ago and are trying to look like a dive your dock-worker granddad drank in on the daily. They’re spots that serve absolutely excellent, intentional cocktails, the kind you’d normally get in a bar you have to book a spot in on Resy and dress up for and spend your entire paycheck—but, they serve them in an exponentially more laid-back, sometimes even delightfully rowdy atmosphere. They dare to ask, why do we have to be all serious and quiet to have a gorgeous martini? Can’t you enjoy an acid-adjusted, clarified, force-carbonated tipple and dance?
The best compliment I can pay to Bar Snack is that every time I go, I stay out much later than I was planning to. Not in an “oh no, what have I done, hangover-hell incoming” way, but in a purely fun, “we are alive, this is New York, gimme that drink, gimme that snack, let’s talk and reminisce for four hours” way. I write about bars for a living, I have been going to bars for none-of-your-business years, I love bars, okay? I have a lot of favorites. But I really only have a few, in all of New York freaking City, that I now consider no-brainer go-to’s. Like, “oh, we’ve got an hour to kill in the East Village? Bar Snack,” “our friends are in town and want to go somewhere fun but with good drinks and they all like different things? Bar Snack,” etc. I get very restless and bored and need to change the scenery up, but this is one of those bars I can just keep going to and I’ve got a few ideas on why—which I think are some good takeaways for any bar.
I realized talking about this recently that what I love about Bar Snack is that it is controlled chaos. It’s fun and feels like anything can happen there, but also not that anything can happen in that scary sense you can get in other bars where the music gets pumping and the lights are low. I would endorse this spot for anyone to enjoy a drink alone and feel safe. You will not even feel irritated by the more free-wheeling spirit of it all—I should know, I am the most easily irritated person I know! Let’s begin with the bouncer: he rules. Recently, our small group waited about 15 minutes or so to get into BS on a Friday night, and the bouncer had me lol-ing with his dry as hell faces in response to oblivious Gen Z-ers who repeatedly walked right past the line to enter. Bars, find yourself a bouncer who can keep crowds totally orderly and calm but do it with humor so everyone’s having a good time.
Once you get into Bar Snack, you see they only allow minimal standing. The bar can’t get two or three or six deep. They’ll let a few parties hang in the space between the door and bar and bring you a drink while you wait for a table. It’s beautifully run. I would trust the staff at Bar Snack with my life, I think?
Then you sit and, well, I don’t think the drinks and food need much more explanation than they’ve already gotten as to why they’re great. They embody the high-low spirit of the place perfectly. The Baked Alaska Martini is a triumph. They do spice bags and Guinness, an Irish revelation. The cheese curds are so good. There are plenty of N/A options. Etc. What’s magic is that the young whippersnappers in the bar are getting their party on, dancing in their chairs and vibing, and the old curmudgeons like your truly are also getting to enjoy that atmosphere without getting elbowed in the face, repeatedly shoved back and forth like a short and angry woman-shaped ping pong ball, or splashed with the various drinks of aggressive crowd-snaker-through-ers. It’s like being young again! Only, without everything that sucks about being young. I want more curated vibes and controlled chaos at bars, please!
Did You Get the Man in Your Life a Nice Whiskey for Valentine’s Day Because Only the Man in Your Life Likes Whiskey?
I had to go into my trash folder, as you can see, to find this example—trash is what these pitches are and so trash is where these pitches shall go. I cannot believe in the year 2026 we are still sending press releases like this but also I obviously can believe it more than anything. I got several of these this year. I’d also gotten them for the holidays but I was so busy screaming into the void I plain forgot to rant about them here. I wish I still had some of those, though, not because they’d be amazing to look at for my blood pressure but because some of the subject lines were more overtly “you know how men like whiskey and silly little ladies don’t??”.
What are we doing? This is not rhetorical, this is me, grabbing society by the shoulders and shaking it, begging for some kind of explanation I can wrap my head around. (I do this a lot about a whole bunch of things lately, hbu?) Are we still seriously gendering spirits? And by the way, in case it doesn’t go without saying, I exclusively get these pitches for “him,” and no one else.
I did ask one publicist why her press release exclusively talked about whiskey as something men liked and something women should give to men and she said she’d just bought a bottle for her brother and must have been thinking about that when she wrote the pitch. I wonder / worry, though, if she was falling on her sword—was this framing really her idea, or had it been messaging passed down to her to broadcast? I’m stumped on whether I think it’s boomer publicists who come up with shit like this, or brand new grads who don’t know we don’t do this and don’t have any of the lived experience around why it’s bad.
It’s wild we’re still doing this, and it feels important to highlight that we’re still doing this lest anyone thought, “surely we at least won that battle.” Apparently, we’ve somehow still got work to do further broadcasting the seemingly rudimentary message that anyone can like to drink anything, and bringing gender into beverage preferences is bizarre.
Equity Punks Indeed Punk’d
I won’t go into the BrewDog news as you can’t throw a rock without hitting coverage of it wherever you get your information. But considering the fact that “BrewDog Biffs It” was basically a regular feature in the earlier iteration of this newsletter, I’d be remiss not to call out two of the most brain-bonking details in all of this. One, this headline from BBC: “Brewdog founder admits ‘many mistakes’ as hundreds lose jobs in sale.” Oh, Jimmy Watt-an-ass, ya think? Two, the Equity Punks who participated in BrewDog’s crowdfunding scampaign raised $100 million. Professional glutton for punishment Tilray paid $40 million. (Read more in Jeff Alworth’s coverage over on Beervana.) That’s some stunning mathing of math.
Obsessions From the Past Month
That aforementioned Baked Alaska Martini from Bar Snack. I believe it’s milk- or cream-washed, which gives it a super silky, just creamy enough mouthfeel—gorgeous.
A lychee martini with iichiko’s Shinwa shochu at Katana Kitten, to celebrate Shinwa’s launch. The lychee martini is one of the best examples of cloying, yuck-city ‘90s cocktails being revived today with the revolutionary update of quality ingredients and care. There’s nothing about this drink I should like on paper considering its famed sweetness, and yet I love the lychee martini at Folk and now this Katana Kitten one, which is likely exceptional thanks to Shinwa’s bolder, complex fruit and floral notes.
The King of the North hoppy red ale at Wild East. I encourage you to chant “MORE RED ALE MORE RED ALE MORE RED ALE” at your local breweries, but, you know, nicely.
The Atheras Spirits Partita Amari Collection. This is a lineup of five amaros each inspired by the movements of Johann Sebastian Bach’s Partita No. 2 in D minor. Atheras feted the launch with a stunning live performance of the partita by violinist Yebin Yoo, in which audience members sipped each corresponding amaro during each movement. I’m obsessed with everything Atheras does; I don’t think anyone else is capturing such unique, of-nature profiles in their liqueurs. Each one of these amaros is like nothing I’ve ever had before, and absoutely gorgeous.
The Nightshade Nightmare at Shinji’s: rye, pisco, Cointreau, sweet vermouth, nightshades, orange peel. Bright, rich, spicy, extraordinary.
The Green Mango Martini at Superbueno. I know, I know, I know. This one is embarrassing—how did it take me so long to try this much fawned-over drink? Maybe I was reticent vis-à-vis the mango (not usually my favorite); maybe I’m a defiant, cantankerous jerk who passed this one over because everyone raved about it. But I finally tried it and, okay, yeah, I get it.
A pairing at the recent James Beard Taste America event: Sierra Nevada’s extremely talented chef Jessie Massie made these irresistibly buttery hoecakes which were next to a bar serving up the brewery’s PILS. A match made in heaven between the bite’s sweet corn and bright, savory toppings and the beer’s subtly sweet grain and supreme crispness and dry finish.
What I’ve Been Up To
I don’t know about you, but I’ve long felt extremely meh (if that’s possible) re: beer cocktails. If I envision beer cocktails as being collected into a book, I’m picking that book up off the dollar rack at a used book store and blowing dust off of its cover. There are a handful of standards that pretty much just involve “add X to Y beer.” I’m not saying some of them aren’t great, but whether they are or aren’t, they’re certainly not exciting. More recently, though, I’ve been seeing cocktail-bar bartenders and brewery taproom bartenders alike building much more creative, grown-up cocktails using beer. Beer itself, beer as a syrup, beer incorporated into the still-strongly-trending Italian spritz format…it makes beer look cool again, and it introduces beer to drinkers who thought they only liked cocktails. Plus, some cocktail bars are further boosting that cool factor for beer by paying homage to it with cocktails that don’t include beer but recreate different styles’ flavor profiles. Neat stuff! I got into it for Inside Hook.
A few years ago, the “listening bar” concept was exciting and novel. Now, it seems like every bar—and even restaurant, or coffee shop—is attaching itself to the hi-fi concept. How much of this is marketing? What makes a real-deal, authentic listening bar? I talked to some of the best examples of just that to find out for Slate.
Are beer drinkers over ABV extremes? Or, at least, looking for something that more wholly defines “moderate”? We’re seeing some growth in “small beers,” or “mid-strength beers” from breweries across the country, in the form of traditional table beers as well as low-ABV lagers and low-booze hoppy ales. It seems that society might be ready to actually balance a cure for the loneliness epidemic with our new heightened awareness of alcohol’s health risks, which could mean an increased demand for beer that’s not boozy but not totally non-alcoholic. I spoke with some breweries taking different approaches to meeting this demand for Brewing Industry Guide.
I’ve been intrigued by tastes of rakija between traveling in Croatia and finding it at industry events like Bar Convent. I got to dig into the spirit of the Balkans for Craft Spirits & Distilling and was so fascinated by how much was there to explore. This drink is so woven into the culture in that part of the world, it’s kind of amazing it hasn’t had its time in the sun in the United States yet—but that could change soon.
As always, I’ve been consulting, consulting, consulting—and it’s so fun! We’re talking media deep dives and Q&A’s for public relations teams, DIY PR strategies for small businesses like bars and breweries—I love this collaborative work and seeing clients get excited and feel empowered to start getting themselves some media coverage more effectively. Check out services here and email me if you have any questions about how we might be able to work together!