Bee Appetit: This new vacation-themed bar might make the best cocktail ever
Summer is upon us, but travel is more expensive than ever. Thanks to a new spot in midtown, you can take a tiny vacation for less than a twenty spot.
The bar, Day Tripper, is designed to transport you to a tropical destination from the minute you pass through the door.
The entry, a tight hallway lined with real stone and flickering candles in niches, gives Indiana Jones vibes before it opens into the airy bar full of live plants (plus some artificial Bougainvillea) and a massive fountain.
Frank Lloyd Wright called this compression and release. The act of traversing through a constrained space into an expansive one gives the visitor a sense of freedom and relief.
In this way, entering into Day Tripper feels fully transportive. When you pass through that stone hallway, you leave the outside world behind. The front windows are corrugated, so you can’t even see the street. A jaguar head with glowing red eyes hovers over the back bar. You’ve entered a third space.
The bar is the latest venture by Irish Hospitality, the same group that runs The Snug, The Butterscotch Den and Ro Sham Beaux. Co-owners Russell Martin and Trevor Easter took inspiration from their travels exploring boutique spirit brands.
The decor is a composite of countless tropical vacations and excursions, stitched together into a singular fantasy. Even the bathroom is a trip.
“We wanted you to feel like you had landed in Sayulita, or you landed somewhere in Brazil, or you were in Belize City, and you checked into your hotel, you dropped your bag, and you were at the courtyard lobby bar,” Easter said.
They brought more than just visual cues from their travels. They brought their stories.
“We were ending up in these really special places where, like, organic sugar cane was being harvested, not burned, cultivated the old school way, without harming the land. In Oaxaca we got to make mezcal for 10 days and hang out with the Zapotec people. We wanted to be that last chain link in and say, we’ll show you what it’s like if you haven’t been privileged enough to go see it,” he said.
According to Easter, each of the 33 cocktails on the menu leverages a bottle with a story behind it, and the staff is prepared to regale you with their histories.
To drive home the holiday destination motif, Day Tripper’s menu is centered on vacation drinks — but elevated, not the usual tourist trap slop.
“I think originally these drinks were probably very, very good. So we have things as common as a pina colada or a Bahama Mama ($12), which is one of our best-selling drinks, which is nine times out of 10 gonna be the worst drink you’ve ever had somewhere, but it’s absolutely killer here,” he said.
They do their own versions of classics like the caipirinha ($12) and pisco sour ($12), and of course various margaritas. There’s also an entire section of the team’s original concoctions.
“We actually brought back a couple drinks that we had done before, one of them being the Que Rico ($12), which is kind of like a Firing Squad with apple brandy and a touch of mezcal and a little bit of mole bitters. We did a nice little white Negroni riff (tequila Negroni thing, $14) infused with coconut,” Martin said.
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Each ingredient was meticulously considered. For their house margarita ($9), they sampled more than a dozen orange liqueurs, and ultimately decided the right path was to create their own blend of three of them. The tequila is infused with makrut lime leaf to add extra dimension to the lime flavor.
One of the more unusual concoctions is their dirty margarita ($11), which starts out as a classic Tommy’s margarita, but then they blend in nopales and jalapeno pepper brines.
“So it’s mildly spicy, it’s extra salty, and it looks disgusting, because it’s just like this really weird color, like a dirty martini. But it turned out to be one of those things that shocks every time I drop it. People are floored. I have heard a minimum of 10 times, not only is that the best drink of this place, but that it’s the best drink they’ve ever had,” Easter said.
With an endorsement like that, I had to order one. Hand to heart, it may in fact be the best cocktail I’ve ever had. It won’t win any awards on looks, but on the palate it is nicely balanced, citrus and spice and umami notes all dancing in harmony. What’s perhaps most remarkable is that you can actively taste the nopales.
Development of the bar’s recipes took well over a year, and involved more than a few late nights. Sometimes that’s when inspiration would strike. One night, Easter had the idea to riff on the pickleback, a shot of pickle brine served alongside a shot, by draining off the liquid from pico de gallo.
“We are now sourcing pico de gallo water from all the local Mexican markets, and at any restaurant who’s willing to give it to us, and we are flat out pouring a shot of tequila and a little side of pico de gallo water, and it is a smash hit,” he said.
Not everything is so high concept. When considering domestic destinations for the menu, Martin tested the old-school Wisconsin Brandy Old Fashioned ($10), with cherries and orange muddled into the cocktail. It may not be trendy, but it is tasty. (“Of course we bought nice cherries, not the stupid neon red ones,” Easter said.)
For non-cocktailers, the bar offers poolside-friendly wines like Txakolina and crisp beers, and they have a zero-ABV program in partnership with sober bartender Michi Peneyra, who crafted the zero-ABV program at Butterscotch Den.
Day Tripper is strictly a bar, and does not serve any food. However, the bar is smack in the middle of one of the densest clusters of quality restaurants in the entire city. Chu Mai, Hook & Ladder, Bambina’s and Good Neighbor are all within a half block. The bar also encourages guests to bring in their own food if they like.
Importantly, the bar is approachable economically. Most of the cocktails clock in at or under $12.
“I don’t think cocktails need to be for the affluent. I think they should be for everyone. And who would we be if we were trying to honor the incredible laborers and workers of these beautiful things?” Easter said.
