Rising Star
Sasha Petraske's New LES Absinthe Den

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...