Over the past couple of years I have been a big fan of Dear Bushwick and their beverage program. Their out-of-the-box cocktails have always been noteworthy as well as the ingenuity that went into the ingredients.
From the team Dear Bushwick, comes Yours Sincerely, a totally new concept and take on craft cocktail making, launched at New Year’s Eve, brought to by Darren Grenia and Julian Mohamed. Recently, the bar made news again thanks to the presence of a certified public accountant at the bar who will help you do your taxes while you’re enjoying a delicious craft cocktail.
I attended one of Your Sincerely’s pre-opening parties and their cocktail-making techniques increased my curiosity levels to the point that I sat down with Darren Grenia and got all the details on the place.
“The concept [of Yours Sincerely] is really about consistency, quality and cost at the speed of a night club or dive bar,” Darren told us. “We really wanted to bridge the gap between a dive and a craft cocktail bar.”
The three years of running Dear Bushwick proved to be a good market research because Darren says that they were really able to figure out what the neighborhood wanted.
“I came from the nightclub industry where it’s all based on volume and speed,” Darren explained. “As a bartender you are just pumping out drinks and raking in the money. We wanted to be able to do the same thing but with craft cocktails.”
A trip to London where the owners visited White Lyan bar gave them the final dose of inspiration. The popular East London bar features ready made cocktails mixing the beverages in bulk. That’s exactly what Yours Sincerely does with great results.
Currently, Yours Sincerely is all about sustainability and making sure that everything gets used to its fullest capacity, and in turn it is able to offer cocktails at unbeatable $4 to $9 prices (check out their site for the full menu).
“Since we don’t use fruit juices–just the peels–we needed to figure out where to use the juice,” Darren explained. “All of the juice from the fruit we peel funnels through dear Bushwicks bar program.”
Don’t expect any lavish garnishing or ice in your drinks. Yours Sincerely uses only aromatics as garnish. Similarly, shaking, stirring and straining cocktails into a glass with fresh ice for every drink is a large waste of water over the years. “We pour our already chilled cocktails straight into the glass of ice, we cut out a major part of water waste,” Darren added.
The decor of Yours Sincerely is cohesive with the looks of Dear Bushwick, only more refined and elegant. Additionally you will love the chemical lab glassware, which plays into the cocktail laboratory idea. “Everything we are doing there is very much based on science and chemistry,” Darren concluded.
Yours Sincerely is located in 41 Wilson Avenue between Melrose and George Streets in Bushwick. The hours are Monday to Saturday 5pm–2am; and Sunday 5pm–12am.
