In the bar world, the address 134 Eldridge Street has long been a bit of a legend. A quarter-century ago, it was the original location for Sasha Petraske’s Milk & Honey, the neo-speakeasy that launched a million hidden bars. For the past 12 years, it’s been Attaboy, run by Petraske’s friends and former employees Michael McIlroy and Sam Ross. The dark, narrow room can still command a three-hour wait for new arrivals, and, between its two iterations, the space has now been around long enough so that regulars are able to bring in kids who were born after Milk & Honey opened. One of those regulars is a guy named Guy — Guy Finkman — whose roughly two decades of loyalty to the bar (he has his own key) are more or less unmatched: “He now brings his daughters,” says McIlroy. “They both had their first drinks at Attaboy. I fucking love that.”
Finkman is also one of two namesake Guys — the other is Ross’s godson, who lives in Mexico City — at Attaboy’s new sister establishment, which is even closer than right next door. Good Guy’s, as it’s called, soft-opened in the same building the other week and makes its official debut tonight, June 5. So far, they’ve mostly been telling friends about it. Haley Traub, who is also the GM at Attaboy, will run the show. “She’s essentially the mayor of the 134 Eldridge Street complex,” Ross says.
It’s the next piece in Ross and McIlroy’s ever-growing empire, which includes Temple Bar and a trio of spots in Nashville. They hadn’t necessarily been looking for another space, though they had discussed what they’d do if it did become available. When it happened, the duo knew what they didn’t want: to expand Attaboy. “It’s so special in that room, and doing anything bigger and larger,” Ross says, “could really have changed the vibe and the atmosphere.”
Instead, they went in the opposite direction and opened a space they say was inspired by the tapas bars of Barcelona and wine bars of Paris. It’s practically glowing, with a honey onyx bar that extends at the end for standing customers, and there are a few tables in the back. There’s a big bay window up front and a painting by the mother of Matthew Maddy, who worked on the project with designer Melissa Brasier. “Got to Give It Up” and “Strawberry Letter 23” play (from vinyl!) out of crisp OMA speakers that, Ross says, embody the ethos of their design: “piling on things” they love, like an espresso machine that matches the engineering prowess of the sound system. “We’re not trying to open bars just for the sake of it,” McIlroy says. “This is what we wanted to do: things that a lot of people won’t know or care about, but we do.”
The drink menu leans heavy into wine and spritzes, like a Como Spritz made with Cynar, passion fruit, lemon, and prosecco. The Wimbledon is cooked up with housemade Pimm’s, based on a recipe from Milk & Honey, and a couple of drinks are made with Lambrusco. The menu’s sleeper is the Picon Bière, a sort of French shandy made by mixing beer (in this case, Threes Brewing’s pilsner) with the bitter-orange aperitif Amer Picon. (The product isn’t available in the U.S., so they’re making their own.) “Whenever we’d go to Paris, we would drink a lot of Picon Bière, and all these old French men would be like, ‘Why are you drinking this?’” McIlroy says. “‘Because it’s fucking delicious.’”
To go with those drinks, they’ve got a tight menu of snacks — mostly dips and toasts and tinned fish. (It’s all prepped during the day and assembled in an exceedingly small kitchen that’s at the far end of the bar.) As at Temple Bar, the food comes courtesy of their consulting chef, Jesse Parnell, who has worked at both Russ & Daughters and Russ & Daughters Cafe. There’s smoked trout and labneh; pan con tomate; and boquerones with dill pesto.
It’s probably inevitable that Good Guy’s will become, in part, a waiting room for people who want to try a Penicillin at Attaboy, but that’s not the goal. “We wanted to play some records and make it a place that people could come in for a glass of wine,” McIlroy says. “Before Attaboy, or after, or just as an alternative.”
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Chris Crowley , 2024-06-05 13:00:45
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