Inside the venue making New York fall in love with cane spirits again.
I hit New York for a bar crawl last week, and the spot on many bartenders’ lips was Echo Lake, the new Williamsburg rum bar from cocktail super couple Chloe Frechette (former spirits journalist) and Paul McGee (formerly of Chicago’s renowned Lost Lake bar). The airy warehouse space they’ve created has tropical touches – rattan lampshades, a fish tank and a plant-filled patio – but it keeps Tiki kitsch at arms’ length.
Instead you can expect cool, clean twists on classic rum drinks that really showcase the spirit: a flinty Seaweed Daiquiri, a grown-up Pina Colada with sherry and lime, and their own take on the Rhum Arrangée, a traditional French Caribbean infusion of spices and fruit, served over pebble ice. The whole thing is stylish and fresh – and conspired to make me fall in love with cane spirits all over again. “Everyone who’s anyone can be spotted on the back patio at Echo Lake,” declared the New York Times this week.
Possibly even more exciting than Echo Lake, though, is Undercurrent, their candle-lit speakeasy in the cellar, which houses an array of vintage and rare bottlings from the couple’s vast spirits collection. Furnished in burnt-orange chenille and red marble, this by-appointment, 20-seat drinking den lends itself to the spiritous deep-dive, and offers a chance to taste with, and learn from, two of the most personable experts in cocktails and cane spirits.
“The exciting thing for me is the diversity of rum; it’s made in a huge variety of styles all around the world from Jamaica, Barbados and Cuba, to South Africa and Sicily,» says McGee. «People are using different types of stills, molasses and sugar cane juice, and even heritage sugar cane varieties as they do at Clairin, a collection of rhum agricoles made by a group of micro-distilleries in Haiti.”
Storied bottles in their vintage rum collection include a 1935 Bacardi Carta Oro, distilled in the days before the Bacardi family was exiled from Cuba by Fidel Castro (worth around $1,200 today). There’s also a 1963 Trader Vic Mai Tai rum, a custom blend created by Tiki godfather Trader Vic for his signature cocktail recipe.
One of the most spine-tingly moments for me was tasting a British Royal Navy rum bottled in 1955, an era when British sailors were still being issued with a daily ‘tot’ of the stuff. Housed in its original wicker-encased flagon, this treacly blend of Guyanese, Trinidadian, and Barbados rums was rich and savoury, with notes of dark molasses, bitter coffee, mushroom, and cinder toffee.
Undercurrent also serves a range of vintage amari, which I find often age pretty well (and even those that don’t are worth enjoying for their beautiful old labels). I particularly enjoyed a weathered bottle of the Italian artichoke amaro Cynar from 1970.
Given the specialness – and often fragile nature – of these spirits, sipping neat is often advised. But there is also the chance to taste some of them mixed in superannuated classics. McGee shook me a Daiquiri with a 1974 bottling of the Puerto Rican rum Don Q (sweetened with golden caster sugar, rather than plain sugar syrup, as is his preference). Or you can have an Old Pal made with 1960s Canadian Club Whiskey, dry vermouth and 1970s Campari.
For ballast, bar snacks include oysters, bread with crab butter and snapper crudo.
Back in the present day, meanwhile, rum continues to evolve – McGee is particularly excited about those now coming out of Oaxaca, a part of Mexico more commonly associated with mezcal. And he sees real cross-over potential between traditional rhum agricole and Mexican spirits. “We get a lot of people asking for unaged cane juice rhums from places like Martinique, Reunion Island, Gaudaloupe and Haiti. And a lot of rums from Mexico are also distilled from cane juice [rather than molasses].”
“Rum is often pigeonholed into being a vehicle for escapism – it’s often thought of as ‘exotic’,” adds Frechette, “and we hope to showcase rum in a different context by sharing the real stories of where these spirits come from [because] good rum, like wine, is an agricultural product that reflects the land where the sugar cane is grown, how it’s harvested, how it’s fermented, how and where it’s aged, and more than anything the hard work and expertise of the people who produce it.”
Whether you’re simply after the ultimate Daiquiri, or a spirited step back in time, this is the place to come.
Undercurrent and Echo Lake are both located at 357 Grand St., Brooklyn, NY, 11211.
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