Meet Your Mixologist: Eric Alperin of Varnish Bar
You have to be sleeping under a sober rock to not know the absolute influence of the seemingly understated Eric Alperin, who would sooner cut to the cocktail and let the pours speak for themselves.
Alperin is largely responsible for the classic cocktail resurgence that has taken So Cal by storm in recent years. A leader in L.A.’s liquid landscape, he hails from New York where he cut his cocktail teeth working with the Batali/Bastianich family of restaurants and with the iconic classic cocktail God Sasha Petraske of New York’s Milk and Honey.
This New York transplant has packed a punch in his three short years in Los Angeles. After designing and running Batali’s bar menu at Osteria Mozza, he partnered with Petraske to open up Varnish Bar in Downtown L.A. The rest is liquid history.
Varnish is often compared to a speakeasy styled bar, which he’s not a fan of since, “it’s legal to drink now." Yet one can’t help but conjure up an image of yesteryear as you sneak in to the back of old Cole’s restaurant in to what is now the ambient Varnish.
Varnish is all about the classics, “I don’t think you can do any of this work without continuing to regard the classics. It will never go out of fashion.” In regards to Varnish, “We are not reinventing the wheel here. We are just helping it turn.”
My last visit with Eric, it was all about the jazzy gin cocktails. He whipped me in to frenzy with a Poet’s Dream, an Eagle’s Dream and the Gin Fix, all carefully crafted and served in beautiful glassware. Asked if gin is still his thing, “With classic cocktails, it’s always a gin thing. For us we work with agave based distillates, because we love it, but with the classics it’s always rum, whisky and gin. And cognac of course.”
Alperin and his trusted crew may riff on a classic and throw in the proverbial twist, but all of their methods and madness are tried and true. For this trained thespian it is as much about the “experience” and “being of service’ as it is about the spirit and the drink at hand.
A night at Varnish is a seamless production of music, ambiance and a brilliant cast of characters on both sides of the bar. “The bar is live theater to me. That’s what I love about it. Anything can happen with live theater”
After a recent appearance in Bourdain’s new show, Layover I asked the hip Hollywood thespian what’s next and what’s up on the acting front? “Slow and steady wins the race.”
Perhaps, but his liquid empire seems to be full speed ahead. Alperin is busy consulting and is currently looking to expand his bar business as they have a formula that works. “The bar and the business are in a really good place.” It appears as though he is as well. Bravo!
You can drink to Eric’s success with a Fairbanks from the Varnish menu. Cheers!
