By Sam Bygrave
“Basically I opened what I was looking for to go to, because it was lacking and there just wasn’t anything like it.”
That’s how Julie Reiner describes the birth of Brooklyn’s go-to cocktail den, Clover Club.
“I opened Flatiron in 2003 and had been running that for about six years and really, I had moved to Brooklyn and I realised there was just like nothing, no high end cocktail bar there,” she said.
It took Reiner about two years to take the bar from idea to fruition — and she had some knowledgeable help along the way.
“I started talking to some people about opening a spot, and Dave Wondrich lives out here,” she said. “I talked to Dave about locations and I had no idea of where I wanted to put the bar. But he kind of weighed in with Smith Street as the place to be, so after contemplating various neighbourhoods we decided on Smith Street and that was pretty much end of story. We started building, and got the place open in 2008.”
And since 2008 Clover Club has picked up a number of awards. In 2009 it was awarded the title of Best New Cocktail Lounge at Tales of the Cocktail’s Spirited Awards, a success repeated when it won Best American Cocktail Bar at last year’s event.
“I started out cocktail waitressing in Hawaii when I was 18, where I grew up,” said Reiner. “You know, cocktail waitressing in Hawaii is serving people Mai Tais and Blue Hawaiis and stuff for tourists and I was just always in the service industry from that point on. Through high school, into college, and I started really bartending in college, in Tallahasse, Florida. It was like a beer and a shot, kind of scenario, nothing too fancy. But that’s how it started.”
That’s a world away from what Reiner went on to do. After opening Flatiron Lounge in 2003 she opened Pegu Club in 2005 with Audrey Saunders. Reiner also was recognised by the James Beard Foundation, winning Best Spirits Professional in 2009, and was awarded Best Bar Mentor at last year’s Spirited Awards.
“I think it was interesting because the people who have won that award before me are mostly people who travel around the country and do seminars, like the Steve Olson’s and the Dale [DeGroff’s], who travel and teach,” she said.
“You know, it’s a big job. I take it seriously, I try to give people the best advice that I can — you know, things change all the time in our business. And yeah I get a lot of women who don’t even work with me who are like, “Can I have a meeting with you?” Just to ask for advice. So I always try to keep an open door and try to hear everybody and be as helpful as I possibly can.”
It’s that role as a bar mentor which has helped Reiner to retain staff — and the Brooklyn location has helped, too.
“The beautiful thing about Clover is that all of the bartenders live in Brooklyn and they love Brooklyn. It’s been really great. It hasn’t been difficult for me to get talent and people who really want to work in Brooklyn; you know most of them have also worked in Manhattan and it’s like they almost look forward to the kind of laid-back, New York city crowd they get out in Brooklyn,” she said.
Reiner believes the Clover Club team is the strongest it’s ever been, led by Tom Macy as head bartender. “He actually started out with me as a barback just shortly after we opened the bar,” she said, “so he’s been there for five years. He started as a barback, became a bartender, and then became head bartender and has been in that position for a couple of years.”
Behind the bar is also Ivy Mix, who started up Speed Rack, a comp that shines a light on female bartenders and raises money for breast cancer research and prevention. “She’s fantastic, and I always like to have a balance behind the bar of men and women and she’s great,” said Reiner.
Reiner believes in nurturing her team, from barback up to bartender. “I have not had success hiring these hotshot bartenders,” she said, “it’s like they come in, they work for you for a couple of months, but are always looking for the next thing. I would much rather have someone who comes in that is passionate and interested and then spend the time and energy to train them with your team, under your program and have them really grow up in your program, so to speak, so that they want to stay.
“I just find that if you invest in people they invest back in you and your business,” she said.
And being one of the leading New York bar owners — one who happens to be a woman — can lead to some tiring questions from writers.
“It’s tough because this is the number one question that people, writers ask me all the time: “what is it like to be a woman in the bar business?”
“I basically tell them it’s just like being a man except my tits shake when I shake a cocktail!” she said.
“Personally, it’s never been something that I’ve thought about. I love the industry, I love hospitality, I particularly love bars and cocktails and I did from a very young age so I’ve always been in this industry and it was never like: “oh, I’m going to be here with all these men!” And you don’t get into it thinking about that — you know, who cares? Just do your thing.”
So she thinks the idea of best female bartender lists is a double-edged sword.
“It’s a fine line because, you know, you don’t see people saying “these are the best gay bartenders” or whatever.
“But at the same time it has been such a boys’ club for the industry. And I think a lot of the top male bartenders tend to be extremely aggressive, and extremely competitive and let’s just say it’s a different style of bartender than the way a lot of young women are in the business.”
