March 09, 2024
Wandering Barman
Ever wait too long for a fussy cocktail at a bar on a busy Saturday night, wishing you had ordered a beer instead? Enter: the kegged cocktail. This methodology means that you can get a drink with the same level of complexity, in the time it takes to pull a lever. Brooklyn hospitality veterans Roxane Mollichi, Darren Grenia, and Julian Mohamed opened their Bushwick bar, Wandering Barman, with the intention of bringing the taproom experience to the cocktail world. The team uses their deep botanical knowledge, as well as cutting edge bartending techniques, to create cocktails that can maintain their freshness and vibrancy in the keg — and now, in the bottle.
What are they making?
Some of you may be fans of the Wandering Barman bottled cocktails we’ve had in the shop for a while now: Iron Lady, a rose gin drink with grapefruit and a backbone of hoppy bitterness; Socialite, a gin old-fashioned with elderflower and cucumber; and FOMO, a spicy pineapple vodka sling with hatch chile.
We’ve just brought in two new stunners from the team that we’re thrilled about. First, Ghosted, a white Negroni with a hint of juniper that is just screaming to be your spring staple. Second (and my current personal favorite), Boomerang, a hickory smoked old fashioned. Drool!
Why do we love them?
Wandering Barman makes some of the best canned (or in their case, bottled) cocktails in the game. Making a great ready-to-drink cocktail is tough. Citrus juice, which provides the make-or-break acidity in most cocktails, loses its freshness about twenty minutes after being squeezed. It takes both creative ingredient use, as well as strong scientific acumen, to be able to create a shelf-stable drink that tastes as good as the day it was bottled. Wandering Barman excels on both these fronts.
Wandering Barman makes some of the best canned (or in their case, bottled) cocktails in the game. Making a great ready-to-drink cocktail is tough. Citrus juice, which provides the make-or-break acidity in most cocktails, loses its freshness about twenty minutes after being squeezed. It takes both creative ingredient use, as well as strong scientific acumen, to be able to create a shelf-stable drink that tastes as good as the day it was bottled. Wandering Barman excels on both these fronts.
-Sara-
