Jim Meehan on ’70s Drinks & the Rise of Cocktail Cool

jim meehan daniel krieger

One of New York’s most iconic and influential bartenders and owners, Jim Meehan of PDT, is also one of the cocktail world’s straightest shooters when it comes to discussing the business of the bar. In a conversation with the Village Voice, Meehan talks about the importance of remaining trendy (“Once you’re not new anymore, you have to find reasons for people to continue to write about you and continue to talk about you.”) and the rise of cocktails as cool (“now that we are sort of en vogue, we have to be careful to not be narcissistic or shortsighted.”) He also warns that the renewed interest in ’70s and ’80s drinks could be a slippery slope, advising we think about how to “articulate [cocktails] in such a way that doesn’t lead to the extinction that we experienced during that era.” Which is to say, the current love affair with Grasshoppers and Golden Cadillacs may be short-lived. [Village Voice] [Photo: Daniel Krieger]