The Schmucks Take Manhattan

(Bill Hader voice): New York’s hottest bar is…only here for another month. And then you gotta wait until fall.

I’d been hearing about the Schmuck team for years. We all have, I’m sure. About how they created incredibly sophisticated, high-concept cocktails (PectinX! Foam! Drinks with cheese!) in what they called their “five-star dive bars” in Barcelona. How the flagship concept, Two Schmucks, was awarded the seventh-place spot on the 50 Best list in 2022—and just one day later, the team famously imploded, resulting in founder and creative director Moe Aljaff departing and nearly the entire bar team leaving along with him.

“Damn,” I thought at the time. “I’d really been hoping to check out that bar.”

I kept a moderately curious eye out as Moe and Juliette Larouy, the former bar manager at Two Schmucks, hopped around the world, doing popups and residencies in Miami, Dubai, Austin, seemingly everywhere.

And then last October, they announced a permanent home—in NYC!—and an upcoming bar. Not long after, I heard they would be doing a two-month-long residency in the city, in the “hidden bar” within Back Bar at the Hotel Eventi, as a sort of preview of their bar-in-progress.

I wasn’t sure, at first, just how excited to be about this residency. I’ve been to plenty of pop-ups and bar takeovers before, and they always felt like a tease: It’s cool to experience the drinks a visiting bartender makes, but it always feels clear to me that they’re merely inhabiting someone else’s space for a night or two, with the décor, music, even the glassware not their own. I’m always left still wondering, What is it like to actually be at your bar, though?

I postponed my visit.

A very mild degree of arm-twisting got me to the fourth week (of eight) of the Schmuck takeover. And I can’t believe I’d hesitated.

It’s been a while since I’d had drinks that truly knocked my socks off. These did. Each one of the four I tried (there are eight on the menu) was spectacular in its own way. One was an old favorite from Two Schmucks, the others were new creations. “They represent where our head is at right now in terms of flavors,” Moe said. They’re nearly all of a culinary bent, with many incorporating savory elements.

• The Banané (rum, banana juice made with PectinX, and toasted-rice cordial), served ungarnished in a white-wine glass, was simply the concentrated essence of pure banana, more banana-flavored than any banana I’ve had in the U.S.

• A drink whimsically titled “That Scene from Ratatouille with Strawberry & Cheese” (tequila, strawberry, parmesan, CO2) was impossibly light-bodied and -colored for something so rich in flavor. Its gentle effervescence brought strawberry Pop Rocks to mind, underpinned by savory, umami notes of parmesan cheese. No wonder Remy went nuts over this flavor combination.

• Melon, Cheese & Pepper is a cocktail that formerly appeared on the menu at Two Schmucks. “We didn’t think this drink had enough time in the spotlight,” Moe said, explaining that the team felt it was so good that it deserved to be experienced by a larger audience. (I concur, btw.) It’s inspired by a snack common to the part of France where Juliette grew up, and is presented in two layers: The bottom half is a thrown cocktail of gin, dry vermouth, and cantaloupe, which is topped by mozzarella foam from a canister and dusted with ground black pepper. It’s a remarkable drink.

• The Tarte Tatin (and, yes, you may have noted it’s possible to essentially drink a multicourse meal here) is in the style of a flip, with butter-washed cognac, cooked apple juice, amontillado, cinnamon syrup, crème fraiche, an egg yolk, and a bit of sparkling wine to cut the thickness. The resulting drink, as you might guess, tastes exactly like a tarte tatin. But it’s the texture that’s notable: It’s impossibly light and fluffy, like sipping an apple-pastry cloud. I’ve never had anything like it.

It was delightful to experience the team’s drinks, finally. But more than that, they’ve been able to make the space into a true (albeit temporary) home. The duo moved behind the bar with an ease I don’t often see at bar takeovers. The snug, two-level Hidden Bar is perhaps a touch more luxe than the team’s usual scruffy, punk aesthetic. But they’ve made it theirs by adding louche, vaguely ‘70s-leaning touches, strewing the space with dozens of photographs they’ve taken around NYC, adding a longboard above a stairwell and a sheet tacked up behind the bar with “Schmuck.” painted on it, even an easel functioning as a mood board for the upcoming permanent space, hinting at what’s to come.

What can we expect there? Details are still sparse. The team has secured a location, at 97 1^st Ave. on the Lower East Side, which formerly held two restaurants, and the Schmuck team is completely redoing both the interior and the façade. It’s a massive space, larger than anything the team has done before, and will have about 100 seats initially, Moe says, with 50 outdoor seats to come the following summer. Will this be the first of a New York City empire for the two, as they had in Barcelona? No, says Moe, adding that he doesn’t want to have more than one bar at a time ever again. “I want to have one place and show it love.”

But that won’t be until sometime in autumn, if all goes as planned. In the meantime, you have four more weeks, until the end of March, to catch the Schmuck team at Hidden Bar, located within Back Bar at the Hotel Eventi. The residency is Thursdays and Fridays only, from 6pm-9pm. I’m sure I’ll see you there.

The Sidecar:

What’s up next at Back Bar: Chris Lauber, the senior director of operations at LTH, declined to give specifics, but offered a hint. He’s looking to represent the past, present, and future within the space, he said. Angel’s Share, which the space hosted between when it departed its original location and when it got settled into its new permanent home, represented the present. The Schmuck residency represents the future. That leaves the past, he said, naming, as examples, some OGs of the modern cocktail era (think Death & Co, Employees Only, and the like). Pegu Club? I guessed. He wouldn’t say just yet, but said an announcement should come in about three weeks.

The bar will keep hosting additional one-off pop-ups from huge industry names, too. We’ve seen Meghan Dorman and Dale DeGroff already, with Joaquin Simo upcoming, and more to be announced. Stay tuned!

Another notable upcoming opening: NYC is eagerly anticipating Bar Contra, from the Contra team plus, holy hell, Dave Arnold, the mad cocktail scientist of Booker & Dax and Existing Conditions. Few details are available as of yet, but I’m told the restaurant expects to open in about five or six weeks, and the drink menu may include some old favorites from his previous (and now-shuttered) spots. I can’t wait to see what he has in store.