Cocktails & (sepia-hued) Dreams

Schmancy cocktail clubs have a tendency to list drink ingredients, often esoteric in nature, without explaining any of the history or concept behind the hooch. These quick summations work in restaurants—we all know the thought process behind lasagna and braised pork shoulder. But the mysterious mule? Secret swizzle? Confounding Collins? Most of us were neither born in 1890 nor have read David Wondrich’s old-timey cocktail encyclopedia, “Imbibe” (which anybody with a well-worn liver should).

Clover Club owner Julie Reiner recognizes this knowledge gap and wants to educate (and maybe inebriate) patrons at her Victorian-styled lounge in Cobble Hill with thoughtfully written descriptions for each of the nine cocktail categories on her menu. (We learn bucks are traditionally built in highball glasses out of liquor, citrus juice and a healthy squirt of ginger ale; cobblers were the first drinks to feature a straw).  

“After I read David Wondrich’s book I was inspired to separate the menu into categories and educate the public on ‘what is a cobbler?’” says Reiner days before opening her self-described “dream bar.” “I was like, ‘Smart people live in Brooklyn, they can handle it.’”

The menu is flush with options for all moods, be it the refreshingly complex French 75 (gin, lemon, sugar and champagne; $11) or the spicy Clover punch ($42 for four to six ladles), which are served in vintage cups and bowls collected by Reiner over the years. A menu of upscale bar snacks leans classic American with caviar shrimp toast, molasses glazed chicken wings and raw oysters rotating daily. Rainer filled us in on the details.
        
So Clover Club is your dream bar…
I’ve been involved in the opening of two bars, Flatiron Lounge and Pegu Club, so you learn a lot. [Laughing] This is the perfect place, both for front and back of the house. I think the third time’s the charm.

Were you looking for a space long?
 I had moved out to Brooklyn and I realized that there was a sort of gap out there, as far as high-end cocktails in a classy atmosphere. So I expressed this to my partner Michael, who happened to be in real estate, and he called me a couple months later with the space and it was perfect, especially with the front and back rooms.

So you will be taking reservations for the back room?
Yes, it’s going to be my Milk and Honey–style space. It’s going to be small and intimate and you have to be sat back there, so there will be no standing. We will be able to do private parties as well. We’ve been referring to it as the parlor. We wanted it to feel like you were sitting in somebody’s living room in the ‘20s.

Is there going to be a secret number?
No, I’m not really into that. All of my spaces are accessible to the public.

What cocktails would you say are unique to Clover Club?
The Market Street julep (pisco, pineapple and mint) is really different. Clearly pisco and pineapple go together beautifully. The gin blossom (gin, apricot eau de vie, martini bianco and orange bitters) is really smooth and an easy drinking cocktail. The Bermuda swizzle (dark rum, pineapple, lime, velvet falernum, sugar) is delicious. I had one last night, in fact.   

What were you thinking with the food menu?
It’s the American classics that people love. Steak tartare, oysters, there’s this caviar toast that just ridiculous!

You’re known for rehabbing old bars and retrofitting them into spaces. Where did Clover Club’s originate?
We found it in this old mining town called Sugar Notch, Pennsylvania. There’s a guy who finds old bars and matches them up with people—he was the same guy we bought the Flatiron bar from—and he found this bar in an old house that the miners used to live in. So we took it apart and brought it to Brooklyn.

Photo: Sam Horine