Bar Tour

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BY ASHLEY BRAY

GHOST BAR

NEW YORK, NEW YORK

A new haunt in New York City offers up strictly to-go cocktails.

The ghost kitchen concept has gained steam thanks to an increase in demand for takeout during the pandemic, but how about the ghost bar?

The aptly named Ghost Bar in New York City has taken the idea of the ghost kitchen and applied it to the world of cocktails. Launched this past January in Manhattan, the concept delivers freshly made crafted cocktails.

Born out of the pandemic and based in Midtown Manhattan, Ghost Bar meets customers’ needs for instant access to their favorite mixed drinks at an affordable price, with the craftsmanship and convenience comparable to their once-frequented cocktail bars.

Ghost Bar is the brainchild of Ning (Amelie) Kang and Yishu He, who also co-own MáLà Project, a Chinese restaurant in the East Village that specializes in dry pot cuisine.

“Now with respect to social distancing and many bars closing, you can only drink so many whisky on the rocks at home without wanting something more easygoing,” said Amelie Kang, co-founder of Ghost Bar, in a press release. “And making drinks at home, getting a few bottles of liquor, juicing, and preparing the ice...can be quite a commitment. Sometimes I wish there was a quick and easy solution to a nice cocktail, and I think many people want the same.”

The partners decided to create that solution themselves with Ghost Bar, and they reached out to Lee Berger, who has copious bartending experience, including Devon, Subject, and Butter & Scotch, to help develop the menu. “We wanted to create a no-frills bar that can bring a drink to you when you need it, and it should take about the same time as postmating groceries from a bodega,” said Kang, in a press release. “People

don’t need to go through the hassle of searching for the perfect cocktail on multiple restaurant websites anymore. Ghost Bar has a wide enough range to fix your cocktail cravings.”

The drink menu offers a wide range of classic cocktails, such as Last Word and Sazerac, and creative inventions, such as an Espresso Martini and a fresh and juicy Dragon Fruit Daiquiri. The bar also offers a fun twist on a Long Island named the Longest Island, which is a Baijiu-based drink mixed with complex flavors that tastes like a glass of floral iced tea.

“We wanted to have a wide variety of flavors to offer something to all types of drinkers,” says Kang. “We dedicate half of the menu to classic cocktails like Old Fashioned, Penicillin; and the other half to specialty creations that we invented to provide more exciting flavor profiles.”

Kang says the team is also constantly playing with new recipes and creating specials based on holidays and seasons.

“We freshly batch all of our drinks. Depending on the drink itself, some drinks have a long shelf life, like the Negroni, which we batch about a week ahead. With drinks that involve juice and syrups, we make sure to batch closer to sale,” says Kang. “Our bar manager checks the inventory twice a week to ensure the quantity and quality of ingredients are up to standard.”

The cocktails are delivered to customers in bottles with the garnishes also included inside. Instructions are written on the drink labels to pour the cocktail over ice or chill before drinking.

To comply with New York State Liquor Authority (SLA) restrictions, Ghost Bar is required to sell food and snacks with the drinks. To meet this mandate, the bar offers an Asian-inspired food menu featuring items like edamame, dumplings, Sweet and Sour Pork with Pineapple, and Shrimp & Pork Shumai.

“We wanted to provide interesting dishes more than just regular bar foods, especially when many interesting cuisines are hard to access because of the pandemic,” says Kang.

Ghost Bar still operates out of a brickand-mortar location to meet SLA regulations, but Kang says the overhead in staffing and rent is still lower compared to a traditional bar.

One of the biggest challenges of operating an untraditional bar such as Ghost Bar is the lack of customer-facing interactions. However, Kang is still confident that the to-go-only model will remain popular. “Just like a few years ago, when food delivery first started, many were skeptical,” she says. “Now it’s hard to imagine a city without food delivery. People need good restaurant food and drinks at home. If we can make it accessible to customers, I’m sure there will be a market for craft cocktails at home.”

Ghost Bar currently delivers all over Manhattan through ghostbar.us, Grubhub, Postmates, and HungryPanda from 11:30am - 10pm daily with drinks starting at $12. It’s setting its sights on Brooklyn next. “We certainly hope this trend can stick around to make craft cocktails at home more accessible to customers,” says Kang. Amelie Kang CO-FOUNDER OF GHOST BAR

Amelie Kang is co-founder of Ghost Bar and MáLà Project. She is one of Eater Young Guns 2020, Forbes 30 Under 30 2020, and FSR’s Rising Stars 2021. Kang attended the Culinary Institute of America, where she developed a passion for cocktails. Prior to establishing the dry pot eateries in the city, she used to bartend at B Flat in Tribeca and an award-winning speakeasy in Beijing called Apothecary, where she honed her mixology talents.

Ghost Bar delivers bottled cocktails with the garnishes already inside.