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Ever wanted to know what it's like on the other side of the bar? We asked some of New York's finest bartenders to get the inside word on the industry—and ended up hearing some pretty wild stories along the way.
Each of the bartenders we interviewed for this series are from venues who were featured in the prestigious Time Out Bar Awards in 2018. You can check out the full list of winners and runners up here.
This time, we got David Powell from Flor de Cana to chat with the crew from Mace, which came runner-up for Bar of the Year and Most Creative Drinks.
Why we love Mace
Raiding the spice cabinet is a rite of passage usually reserved for budding chefs, but French bartender Nico de Soto—who has worked at all three locations of the Experimental Cocktail Club—heartily adopted the culinary practice for his Alphabet City cocktail haunt with Greg Boehm (Boilermaker) and Zach Sharaga (Louis 649). The menu’s 12 quaffs are each inspired by and titled after an exotic spice, such as spearmint, sorrel and shiso, with each seasoning showcased apothecary-style in jars lining the exposed-brick walls. The Mace, the bar’s namesake cocktail ($14)—referencing not pepper spray but the outer shell of the nutmeg seed—features a mace mist spritzed over a mixture of Aperol, aquavit, beet juice, orange acid and Thai coconut cordial. And as if what’s in the cups isn’t thrilling enough, De Soto’s been known to serve drinks out of odd containers like plastic boba-tea cups and coffee mugs.