After running a tiki bar in Miami, bartender Ian Kearney moved to Brooklyn with $1200 in his pocket to pursue a career behind the bar. “I lived in a hotel room in Jamaica Queens for three months,” he says. “I ended up working in a bunch of dive bars with likeminded bartenders, and we are all still really great friends and share our ideas and recipes.” Fast forward four years to today: The North Carolina native can be found at agave-focused gastropub The Daisy, where he’s heading up the bar program as beverage director. Here, Kearney shares with us his favorite ingredient of the moment, the Founding Father he’d love to stir drinks for, and his 2016 drinks-related travel lineup.
BoozeMenus: What’s the first thing you do when you start your shift?
Ian Kearney: I get the service bar and rail bar stations arranged the way I like it. I also make sure my inventory is all in order.
BM: How would you describe your approach behind the bar?
IK: My approach behind the bar is fully one of fun, I want people to feel as comfortable sitting at the bar as I do behind it. A lot of personal time with each patron I think helps to achieve this.
BM: What’s an ingredient, tool, or technique that you’ve been loving lately?
IK: My favorite ingredient right now is Amaro di Angostura! Its so versatile and delicious. It’s great with rum, whiskey, tequila. Honestly it has its place in so many variations, I love that stuff.
BM: Who’s someone that you’d love to make a drink for?
IK: This one is tough, but I would have to go with Benjamin Franklin. He seems like he would be a blast to talk to sitting at the bar — super witty, super intelligent and it seems like he likes his drinks stirred.
BM: What should people know about mezcal that they might not already be privy to?
IK: The fact that the spirit has so much character from each region and family that makes it. It is a very personal experience that these distillers are sharing with us and each bottle should be enjoyed knowing that they love mezcal so much that they want everyone else to love it just as much.
BM: If there was a cocktail named after you, what would it be comprised of, and what would it be called?
IK: It would be a whiskey drinker’s rum cocktail. Smith and Cross Plantation 3 Star split base, with Amaro di Angostura, curacao, a little bit of allspice, some woody earthy bitters — the Dead Rabbit’s Orinoco, for example — and obviously a big fat orange twist served up. It would be called the Bel-Air.
BM: How many pages of your passport are full right now — and what stamps are you plotting in the next year?
IK: My passport is not that full at all. I am planning on some trips this year however — Ireland for the whiskey, and Oaxaca for mezcal.
BM: What cocktail on the menu right now most surprised you?
IK: The most surprising cocktail on the menu for me was the South of the Bourbon. I didn’t create this one, but it’s split between bourbon and mezcal and was a smash hit behind the bar. It hurts to have to make a summer whiskey drink, honestly.
BM: Who would play you in a movie?
IK: I’d pick Jeff Goldblum because everyone says I look like him, anyway.
BM: What are you most looking forward to in spring - whether it’s drinks-related (favorite spring ingredient) or otherwise (House of Cards season 4)?
IK: I’m excited for this spring for a couple reasons. First, the weather! Second, I get to make this menu my own and my favorite time of the year calls for my favorite drinks!
By Nicole Schnitzler
(Photos from left: South Of The Bourbon; Interior; Ian Kearney)
