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Photo Credit: Jamie Chung
Published August 19, 2008
The cocktail is dead.
Now, do not panic—debauchery is alive and well. But when Sasha Petraske—the
guy who stoked your love affair with the modern-retro cocktail at legendary speakeasies Milk & Honey and
Little Branch—unleashes an anti-cocktail bar, well, the cocktail may be dead. Let us explain...
White Star, opening tonight on the LES/Chinatown blur line, is Petraske's new absinthe, aperitif,
beer and wine pub. No muddling, no infusions, no tinctures, no gooseberry/unicorn hair simple syrups. Just
all of your favorite sipping hooch, neat or on the rocks, collected behind a marble bar.
Which means you'll be dropping in early and often. Be warned: It's a tiny sliver of a bar shoehorned in next
door to a $10 clairvoyant, so you'll want to stake out your territory early or late (or both). Come for a
pre-Allen
& Delancey Pierre Ferrand at the front bar, or settle into Table No. 2 (trust us, it's where
you want to hide out) for a post-Box absinthe comedown.
But maybe best of all, White Star is basically a one-man show. In a Momofuku Ko-type move, you'll see the
man himself step back behind the bar for the first time in years. And he's running the joint British
pub-style: Petraske is the barman, bouncer, waiter and sage storyteller.
And you are the new regular...
White Star
21 Essex
(near Hester)
Lower East Side
New York, NY 10002
212-995-5464
White Star
21 Essex
(near Hester)
Lower East Side
New York, NY 10002
212-995-5464
website