Daniel Humm’s Clemente Bar Opens Above Eleven Madison Park

Cocktails could be simply as advanced as meals and have definitely earned a lofty place in at the moment’s drinks tradition — as evidenced by outside-the-box bars, tendencies like studying to make clear drinks at dwelling, and folks’s rising penchant for luxurious spirits. However can a drink be as nuanced as a chunk of artwork?

Clemente Bar, the newest enterprise from Swiss-born chef and restaurateur Daniel Humm, will open on October 10 within the house above his three-Michelin-starred, plant-based wonderful eating restaurant Eleven Madison Park. Alongside its focus — a rigorously developed cocktail menu — the bar will serve upscale finger meals like tempura fries and sake pickles.

The identify of Humm’s new spot isn’t random. Clemente Bar is known as after and impressed by Francesco Clemente, a up to date Italian artist whose work typically evokes shiny colours, anthropomorphic figures, and kooky, dream-like scenes. Artwork by Mr. Clemente, together with two giant murals, might be featured prominently contained in the 701-square-foot bar house. (The venue additionally has an extra 81-square-foot space for a chef’s tasting counter, the place a multi-course menu with cocktail pairings might be served.)

It’s not simply the identify and decor that might be filtered by way of an inventive lens on the 46-seat bar. The drinks menu right here makes use of premium spirits as a base canvas, refined brushstrokes of taste which might be constructed on high of each other, and — extra actually — superbly designed shows to channel the spirit of Mr. Clemente’s work.

Eleven Madison Park’s beverage director, Sebastian Tollius, has been engaged on Clemente Bar’s menu for about eight months. Tollius tells me that “not like the Eleven Madison Park cocktail menu, the choice for Clemente just isn’t strictly pushed by the seasons,” however it is going to be plant-based. The out there choices will begin with about 15 cocktails, however Tollius plans so as to add extra over time — some drinks will stay staples on the institution whereas others rotate by way of.

To provide the menu an overarching construction, drinks are divided into classes that trace at their composition or tasting notes, like “contemporary,” low ABV, carbonated drinks, clarified concoctions, spirit-forward tipples, and whipped drinks (these created within the type of an egg white cocktail). As Tollius notes, amongst these diversified sections “one through-line is that every cocktail is kind of easy and refined in its presentation, however extremely technical in its composition and complicated in taste.”

The fifth Leaf, a pisco- and vodka-based beverage from the contemporary part of the lineup, exhibits the extent of element that Tollius has infused into every seemingly easy drink. It’s shiny and refreshing — as you’d count on one thing dubbed “contemporary” to be — and tastes like crisp pears, due to pear brandy and aromas from a fragile circle of punched-out pear resting on high. 

However there are layers past that preliminary contemporary, fruity taste; the pisco is infused with shiso for refined natural notes, and a smoked sunchoke spirit from Matchbook Distilling provides the cocktail an sudden earthy spine. That is the form of mild and thought-provoking drink I’d need to begin the night with.

As you sip your method by way of the artistic, nuanced choices that Tollius has crafted, you’ll discover a couple of clear themes showing all through the entire classes. Time is referenced in additional methods than one; components are fermented and aged in-house, like a pistachio miso that’s utilized in one in all Clemente Bar’s highball cocktails (Tollius appears to have perfected the artwork of creating miso out of something). 

One other providing from the contemporary part of the menu, the Apples to Oranges, will instantly make you nostalgic for an orange creamsicle with its wealthy, citrusy taste. That’s precisely what the beverage director is hoping for, saying “We would like these drinks to move you someplace — possibly to a childhood reminiscence, a well-known place, or a favourite meal.”

Regardless of this reference, it’s not overly candy: Reposado tequila, yuzu, and blood orange amaro maintain the drink tart with a contact of bitterness, whereas Calvados provides a hint of apple (therefore the identify), making the beverage style nuanced sufficient to really feel becoming among the many different cocktails at Clemente Bar. A splash of finely floor dehydrated orange and sarsaparilla salt seems to be prefer it’s virtually been spray-painted onto the surface of the glass — including a pop of salinity whereas referencing the bar’s inventive inspiration.

Amongst all of the tipples that I tasted, my favourite was the Negroni Colada. This neatly developed drink actually adjustments over time; it begins out as a play on a mixture of a White Negroni and a Piña Colada, made with coconut and pineapple rums, and bitter bianco vermouth, earlier than being fat-washed with coconut milk. Nestled atop a big dice of clear ice is a small, deep crimson disk of ice: the frozen parts of a standard Negroni. Because the ice melts, your beverage takes on a slight pink hue and turns into extra paying homage to the traditional cocktail — whereas nonetheless retaining its tropical notes. In case you (like me) love each bitter flavors and coconut, then that is what it is best to order.

To align with the plant-based ethos that Eleven Madison Park famously adopted in 2021, you gained’t discover any animal merchandise on the ingredient checklist for Clemente Bar. Tollius explains that the institution makes lots of its vegan parts in-house, like lotions created with chickpeas or koji. 

For any merchandise which may name for an egg white — which whips up into a fragile white foam that offers physique to and sits on high of a drink — the bar merely subs in aquafaba, the viscous cooking liquid from a can of chickpeas. Aquafaba is a typical alternative for eggs in vegan cooking, and Tollius notes that he thinks it really froths extra successfully than an egg white. 

I tasted one of many aquafaba drinks, a sour-style cocktail titled the Physician’s Orders, and may verify it’s not missing the silky clean and fluffy texture you’d count on. (Darkish rum and peated scotch add aged, smoky components to this tart tipple — and it’s completed with a vivid spritz of orange bitters that will get an extra-intense hue from annatto seeds. It does appear to be a murals.)

One of many boldest and most artistic cocktails among the many Clemente Bar lineup is La Tomatina. This mild and fizzy providing options white chocolate-washed blanco tequila, together with a shio koji marinated tomato water, olive sake, and clarified white chocolate amazake. By some means every of those components manages to subtly come by way of — you do certainly style each tomato and olives, whereas the white chocolate is probably the most predominant tasting be aware. The result’s a barely candy and refreshing drink that will be perfect for after dinner. The very white-chocolate-forward taste may conflict with a savory dish, but it surely’s good for ending a meal; and the acidic, natural tomato water is a pleasant palate cleanser.

Surprisingly, it seems white chocolate and tomatoes do go collectively — and it’s this sort of avant-garde pondering that displays the inventive inspiration on the core of Clemente Bar. Garnishes that appear to be they’re painted on, an evolving Negroni, and the power to persuade me I like both white chocolate or tomatoes (not to mention each in a single glass), are a couple of of the explanations I’ll be returning.