The news is out that the new Mike DeCamp-led kitchen at Hotel Ivy will be known as Monello, a coastal Italian seafood spot. And we now know that the downstairs bar will be known as Constantine.
When you walk into the new entrance, you'll be able to choose either one door for the restaurant, or another one leading downstairs to the bar. Named for the Roman emperor, Constantine will be a wholly separate concept from Monello, no crossover in menu or style (no, you won't be able to order stuff from upstairs if you're downstairs, so get used to that now). Monello will have it's own bar, with limoncello on tap thank you very much, and there will be an additional lobby bar for the hotel that will focus on classic drinks. The menu at Constantine will be bar food, also created by DeCamp.
Constantine will have a large horseshoe shaped bar that will be far from classic: think more like wickedly tricked out. "This is the most well-thought out plan we've ever had. We really have learned from what we've already built so that we can make this something great" remarked Jesse Held, lead barman for Jester. The bar will be like a lab, with kitchen prep areas, sink hoses, burners, centrifuges . . . roto vapors? Whut?
All the fancy hardware will allow the kids to get creative and work with different ingredients, such will be the task of Liquid Chef Jeff Erkkila, a guy who came out from the kitchen during the Town Talk days and is now the master of flavors for all of Jester. Held said, "If Ms. Ralena and I start concepting a menu for Coup d'Etat, we might decide to bring blueberries into the summer drinks, then we'll talk to Jeff and he'll come up with tinctures and sprays and liqueur that fit the bill."
So they're going to take all this forward thinking and creative creating, and look back . . . but not too far back: to the '80s. Thriller vinyl album screech, right? "Sex on the Beach, Fuzzy Navel, Madras are all fun party drinks, why wouldn't we want them?" But better, right? "We're going to reinvent them in a way that involves the modern skill set. It's going to be fun!"
There will also be a whiskey room that can be booked privately, seating for about 12 people, featuring a daring and expansive list of whiskies from all over the world. In fact, there will be many areas of the bar that will be able to be converted to private rooms when needed. And there will be bottle service, but of a different kind: imagine not a douchey bottle of Kristal, but a magnum bottle full of crafted batch cocktail.
The bar will be fully staffed with bartenders, who will be the ones doing all the service, much like the service style of Travail. "There will be a lot of tableside execution for drinks, and I think it's great to teach the people who are doing the technical stuff how to serve directly to the guest. It all rolls back to the guest, we never lose sight of the fact that we are in a hotel and that we will be serving all kinds of people from all over the country. That's what drives us."
If you're interested in joining the team, they're holding a job fair at Marche on Monday–Wednesday next week from 10 a.m.-3 p.m.
