Employees Only is a cocktail bar with a speakeasy aesthetic and art deco decor in the New York City neighborhood of Greenwich Village. Opened in 2004, it was an early entry in the city’s then-aborning craft cocktail scene. See craft cocktail. The bar was founded by five partners—Billy Gilroy, Igor Hadzismajlovic, Jason Kosmas, Henry LaFargue, and Dushan Zaric—all of whom had worked at Pravda or Schiller’s Liquor Bar, Manhattan bars run by restaurateur Keith McNally. Employees Only stood apart from other early New York cocktail bars in several respects. The hierarchical bartender apprentice system, in which bar employees slowly move up the company ladder; the formal, white bartender jackets; and the overwhelmingly male bartending staff were all throwbacks to Old World service traditions. While other serious cocktail bars used jiggers, Employees Only continued to free-pour their drinks. See jigger and free pouring. Also in contrast to other cocktail bars, food was served, including a famous chicken soup ladled out free each night at closing time. Cocktails were largely frothy, fruit, and shaken, using simple infusions and not eschewing vodka, as other New York cocktails bars of that era did. The bartenders’ sense of fun and camaraderie attracted a young and lively clientele, and the bar quickly established itself as a party spot. Zaric and Kosmas were among the first of the modern breed of mixologists to publish a cocktail book, Speakeasy, released in 2010. Beginning in 2016, the bar began to expand its brand, opening branches in Miami and Singapore.
See also speakeasy (new).
Simonson, Robert. A Proper Drink: How a Band of Bartenders Saved the Civilized World. New York: Ten Speed, 2016.
By: Robert Simonson