Sarah Boisjoli isn’t your average bartender. She’s the co-owner and beverage director of The Springs, a brand-new Brooklyn destination with Palm Springs decor, a lavish backyard, and color-popping cocktail list (the craft beer selection is great, too). She’s also the founder of a new dining pop-up brand, Counter Service, and a photographer. And she hates Manhattans.
One of the splashiest cocktails at the Springs is Aperol Seltzer, a frozen spin on the Aperol Spritz — basically frosé’s brighter, bitterer sister — which adds lemon and Chandon sparkling wine to the original.
The Springs’ slushie-forward menu evokes a carefree style that can be hard to find in New York these days. But when it comes to her personal favorites and last resorts, Boisjoli’s choices are simple and sophisticated: a bottle of rum, perhaps, or somm favorite, Raveneau Chablis.
From slinging milkshakes to stints at high-end haunts like the Staton Social and Cafe Altro Paradiso, Boisjoli has a proven track record — and excellent taste.
1. What’s your desert-island drink?
Probably a bottle of rum in hopes that the desert-island has got a passion fruit or a coconut or something. And then if not, shots of rum it is.
2. What’s the first drink you bought when you turned 21?
A Budweiser and a shot of Fernet-Branca.
3. FMK three cocktails: Negroni, Margarita, Manhattan?
Kill the Manhattan for sure (because they’re not good). Have a short-lived marriage with a Negroni that ends in a bittersweet divorce after a passionate affair with a Margarita on a girls’ trip to Mexico.
4. You’re on death row. What’s your final drink?
Two to one Plymouth Martini with Dolin Dry Vermouth, a twist of lemon, and one olive. Or a bottle of Raveneau.
5. You can only drink at one bar for the rest of your life. What is it?
Bacchanal in New Orleans. Not so much a bar as it is like… an adult summer camp with natty wine, a huge garden, and the perfect shelter from the inevitable afternoon bayou thunderstorm. It’s perfect.
6. What’s the best and worst bottle on your shelf?
Life is too short for bad booze.
7. What cocktail will you never order again?
A Manhattan. Because I killed it. Because it’s gross.
