Sasha Petraske

Pastai Opens in Chelsea; Barn Joo Serves Korean Fried Chicken in Flatiron

Pastai, the second venture from chef/restaurateur Melissa Daka, will open in Chelsea on Thursday. The restaurant specializes in handmade pasta dishes, but the menu also offers an antipasti bar and small dishes like octopus salad and crostini. For breakfast, there's organic stone-ground polenta with ... More >>

Where to Get Fancy Grilled Cheese and Strawberry Rhubarb Pie Near Long Island City

Welcome to Drinks, Dinner, and Dessert, in which we share three picks in one neighborhood, keeping an eye out for deals, off-the-menu items, and new stuff to check out. This week, get off the M train at 36th Street and use these suggestions to guide you through Long Island City.

Jason Littrell and JBird Cocktails' Prescription Julep

Derby Day may be over, but luckily for us juleps are still on the menu. Today we bring you the recipe for the classic Prescription Julep, which dates back to the 1800s. It was first printed in an 1857 issue of Harper's Monthly and since then, has been modified and tweaked into various variations. ... More >>

Orient Express' Sam Ziar on Romantic Cocktails

​ Sam Ziar tends the bar at Orient Express, one of the West Village's most romantic spots. Today, on Valentine's Day, he expects to be one busy man, but he took some time out to talk to Fork in the Road about his favorite winter ingredients and what makes a great Valentine's Day drink.  

Our 10 Best Cocktails to Drink Now

Keith WagstaffNice shot​ For the past couple of years, The Daily Shot, FitR's inappropriately named weekly cocktail feature, has scoured the city for the tastiest cocktails it could find. Straight up, on the rocks, with a twist, rimmed, and even on fire. You name it: We've knocked it back. Now ... More >>

What to Drink at Silver Lining: The Blue Collar

Each week in The Daily Shot, we have ourselves a drink that we think you should try, too. After a hard day's work.​​​​The drink: Blue Collar The bar: Silver Lining (75 Murray Street, Tribeca, 212-513-1234) The price: $14 The ingredients: Rye, amaro, sweet vermouth, dash of maraschino, ... More >>

Dutch Kills Begets an Artisanal Ice Company: Introducing Hundredweight Ice and Cocktails

Richard Boccato, ice king.​Richard Boccato and Ian Present, owners along with Sasha Petraske of Dutch Kills in Long Island City, have partnered with longtime employee Zachary Gelnaw-Rubin to launch an artisanal ice company and cocktail consultancy adjacent to the bar called Hundredweight Ice a ... More >>

Kurve's Neighbors Aren't Buying This 'Craft Beer' Thing

​The Kurve space's curious saga continues today, courtesy of the East Fifth Street Block Association.

Peels' Jim Kearns Talks Famous Tippers, the Rum Renaissance & Why Rick's Café from Casablanca Is the Silver Screen's Best Bar

photo by Atisha PaulsonJim Kearns​Peels has gotten its fair share of praise this week. Most of that has been for the food -- or at least the infinitely cool environment in which the food is served -- and a few words were dedicated to the cocktails. The drinks list, designed by Yana Volfson, is ... More >>

The Lambs Club's Lily Cho Talks Training with Sasha Petraske, the Ubiquitous Prohibition Theme & the Life of a Cocktail

photo by Jeanna BellizziLily Cho at the Lambs Club​The Lambs Club is now up and running with its cocktail list curated by Sasha Petraske and priced at a ballsy $18 per drink. Bar Manager Lily Cho reveals just what it's like to develop a beverage program with the Cocktail Kid himself. Tell me ... More >>

Posts of the Week

Here we sit at the end of this truncated week, casting an eye back over the news of the last four days: We ranked Our 9 Best Kid-Friendly Restaurants in NYC (and one in New Jersey). Fat Witch and Amy's Bread squared off in a Battle of the Chelsea Market Walnut Brownies. The Atlantic Grill's Mike ... More >>

Open & Closed: Say Hello Le Comptoir, Goodbye to Mantao

Restaurants and bars, they come and they go. Here are a few making their debuts and bowing out this week. It looks like Mantao, the Chinese sandwich shop that Sarah DiGregorio was happy to see open in Midtown last year, has closed. [Midtown Lunch]​ Breuckelen, a new restaurant in Cobble Hill ... More >>

Jim Power, the East Village Mosaic Man, Teams Up With 23-Year-Old Apprentice to "Keep the Arts Alive"

Mosaic Man Jim Power and his dog, Jessie Jane​"Wake up, New York! Are we kidding? I will be the #1 tourist attraction in this place, and that includes the Brooklyn Bridge and the Statue of Liberty," boasts Jim Power -- a/k/a, New York's Mosaic Man (so dubbed in a 1988 Voice article) -- who has ... More >>

The Museum of Natural History Becomes...the Museum of Contempo Mixology?

Not owned by Sasha Petraske yet. Photo via Museum of Natural History​Not long ago, the American Museum of Natural History was a place to learn about the lives of dinosaurs and Neanderthals, with a possible tidbit gleaned here and there about what these creatures ate. Yet the museum has increas ... More >>

Sasha Petraske Consulting on Cocktail Lounge Attached to Stephen Starr's New El Rey

Ben Rose PhotographyPetraske does Philly.​Sasha Petraske is proving himself something of a ramblin' man, lending his name to projects as far afield as Atlanta, Los Angeles, Boston, and Washington, D.C. Now, he's heading down to Philadelphia to work his black magic on Stephen Starr's newest ven ... More >>

Introducing Edward III, New York's Second Homegrown Absinthe

Edward III: a not-so-green fairy.​Mark Maurice was one of those "crazy Limelight club kids," as he puts it. One night at the club, he met a man carrying these mysterious green vials. The man told him the vials contained absinthe, and proceeded to write down a formula for Maurice, as well as th ... More >>

Sasha Petraske to Add Wine & Food at White Star

eater.comWhite Star targets foodies, winos.​Sasha Petraske has some news about his Lower East Side bar, White Star. The drink den will no longer just cater to cocktail enthusiasts.

Behind the Bar: Jason Littrell Talks Insider Bars, Rare Booze & Pickle Juice Shots

Pickle back, anyone?​On a Tuesday night at The Randolph on Broome Street, you're likely to find that bartenders, booze bloggers, and spirits brand employees make up a healthy cross-section of the crowd. It's hard to pinpoint when or why a place becomes an insider bar, but when it does, you can ... More >>

Mercury Dime to Become Barbershop, Possibly Restaurant

Snackish.com​The former home of the Mercury Dime, which has been shuttered since Sasha Petraske pulled the plug on the embattled coffee shop last June, has been showing signs of life for the past couple of months. This morning, a worker standing in the storefront's threshold revealed what's go ... More >>

Fork in the Road on the Road: Sipping Sasha Petraske Cocktails in the Capital

culturemedc.com​Ever wonder what Sasha Petraske gets up to when he's not preaching the Milk & Honey doctrine of good ice and fresh citrus to New Yorkers? Well, as it turns out, he's off preaching it to Atlantans, Washingtonians, and Bostonians. Petraske's POV Bar in D.C. is his second effort t ... More >>

Back from the Classic: Tales from Manhattan's Cocktail Convention

​For those who couldn't wait until next July to hightail it down to New Orleans for Tales of the Cocktail, Manhattan had its own cocktail extravaganza this past weekend. Bartenders and drinks enthusiasts from the country congregated at the Astor Center for seminars on everything from the histo ... More >>

Let Bols Genever Introduce You to a John Collins

​The Tom Collins might be what you grandmother likes to drink, but that's no excuse to knock it. Especially when the gin-and-hard lemonade cocktail might originally have been made with the Dutch version of gin: genever. Only you're not supposed to call it that. Bols Genever, which launched la ... More >>

At Tonight's CB3 SLA and DCA Licensing Committee Meeting...

As anyone who's attended Community Board 3's SLA/DCA Licensing Committee meetings over the last few months knows, these things tend to have less in common with actual meetings than Pay-Per-View cage matches. Tonight's event, scheduled to kick off at 6:30 at the Jasa/Green Residence on East 5th Stree ... More >>

New York Gets Its Own Cocktail Convention

Those of you who enjoyed Chantal's excellent coverage of NOLA's Tales of the Cocktail (read her posts here, here and here) will be happy to know that New York will host its own cocktail extravaganza next year. The Manhattan Cocktail Classic will be held next May, with a preview this October 3-4 at A ... More >>

Booze News--Sasha Petraske Does D.C.; Boxed Wine Is Better, Says Study

Big beer companies and small craft brewers are teaming up to change a range of federal tax laws. Associations representing both groups have joined forces to introduce the Brewers Excise and Economic Relief Act (yes, the BEER Act), which would return federal excise taxes on beer to pre-1991 levels, f ... More >>

Open & Closed--Say Hello to Table 8; Goodbye to Atria

The long-awaited New York debut of Govind Armstrong has arrived in the form of Table 8 at The Cooper Square Hotel. The California chef will focus on local, seasonal products, and feature in-house cured meats, rare salts and custom-blended teas. Entwine has opened with its small bar that seats se ... More >>

One Good Reason to go to Kurve

Rhong-Tiam, the good siblingBack in September, I wrote about the curious case of Rhong-Tiam and Kurve. Although they're owned by the same guy, the restaurants could not be more different. Kurve is an epic fail--opening and then closing and then opening again, a crazy menu of trendy stuff, most of wh ... More >>

Dirty Blonde: A-Trak's Unibros and the Box's Woes

Plenty of incestuous DJ action to partake in, but enjoy the clubs while you can

Weather Up: Shmancy Cocktails in Prospect Heights