September 8, 2008
Red Hook's bar Botanica to add food by this weekend
Red Hook’s new high-end cocktail emporium Botanica will start serving food as soon as this weekend, pairing small meat and cheese plates with its all-top-shelf liquors and organic infusions - including some grown on the roof.
 Some other things you may need to know about the place: many of the drinks’ herbs are grown in the roof garden, the shower in the restroom is only temporary, the “Real World” cast is prohibited from filming there, they’re building a dance floor downstairs, and oh, and the chandelier was made-to-order in Murano.
Botanica is indeed infused with Red Hook - what it was and what it is becoming. The 1846 building at the corner of Conover and Coffey, map, was first used as an armaments factory, then a grocer and finally a longshoremen’s bar before it was abandoned in the 1970s and its floors collapsed into itself, according to Daniel Preston, the engineer who bought the building 11 years ago.
He fixed the building and opened up his parachute factory there. But when it outgrew the space, he expanded next door from scratch (but with old bricks so it’s hard to tell only the corner building is old.)
 As for the cocktails, there’s only top-shelf brands behind the bar, and the drinks are unique. Botanica makes their own cacao infusion, fresh squeezes the juices behind the bar, grow their herbs on the roof, and they’ve even hit up a number of neighbors for backyard edibles — including grapes and figs that grow on Ferris Street, calendula from “Karen” (as they couldn’t remember her last name) as well as Japanese miniature cucumbers. The signature drink, the Botanica, is made with vodka, raspberries and cacao beans. The prices on the fancy beers have come down slightly since the July opening. Now the most expensive bottles are the $30 Chocarrubica and a $27 Baluba Malthus. Marshall Hansen, (pictured with the beer and basil plants,) Preston’s partner in Botanica, said he also likes their $10 Grut Bier.
Coming soon: the Aztec, a cocktail made with hot chilli Australian wine, and chocolate.
As for the food, it will start small - mostly meats and cheeses delivered from two different (and still secret) local chefs until Botanica builds out its full kitchen. The food will be Northern Italian in the $5 to $30 price point, similar to what you’d see at nearby Good Fork, Hansen said, and acknowledged is slightly pricey for the neighborhood.
But despite the remote neighborhood, it’s drawing crowds not just from the neighborhood but also some of the Park Slope bike contingent, as well as Brooklyn Heights, Carroll Gardens, the Lower East Side, Bay Ridge and a few regulars who make the trip from the Upper East Side, Hansen said. They’re even getting a some Ikea shoppers looking for a drink.
But not the cast of MTV’s “Real World.”
“They walked in and Marshall threw them out.” Preston said.
“Real World isn’t quite our taste” Hansen said.
What is? Christain Dior’s people were allowed in - to shoot a TV commercial for Jupe perfume.
Also see Time Out NY’s snapshots of the other new bars and restaurants opening up in Red Hook.
Picture credits: Amy Langfield/NewYorkology.
Earlier: Red Hook August update: Cheyenne and full ferries
September 8, 2008 3:04 PM in Architecture, Drinkology, Foodology, Out of Manhattan
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