One of the world’s best bars is coming to Charlotte — but for two nights only
Renowned NYC bar Employees Only is popping up in Charlotte for two nights, and Charlotteans will have a chance to try an award-winning cocktail or two that made the bar one of the World’s 50 Best Bars.
Neighborhood favorite Dilworth Tasting Room will be hosting bartenders Franky Maldonado and Bojan (Boki) Milosevic to shake and stir five of Employee Only’s best-selling, pioneering cocktails. The selections that include The Amelia, the Yankee Notion and the Besos Caliente take standard cocktails to chemistry class.
There will also be a handful of classic cocktails with an Employees Only twist, like the Employees Only Manhattan with Italian Vermouth and an orange liquor.
The bar takeovers will run from 6-10 p.m. on May 8 at DTR SouthPark and May 9 at the Dilworth location.
The bartenders visiting the Queen City are virtuosos; they’re used to a high-volume bar in one of the biggest cities in the world and hope to chat at the bar with curious sippers. Dilworth Tasting Room will still offer its classic food menu during the two-night takeover.
Expect Maldonado and Milosevic to bring cocktail ingredients directly from New York, like premium spirits, syrups, cordials and purees that will hopefully encourage guests to be adventurous.
“There’s a little bit for everybody,”Dilworth Tasting Room bar manager Alejandro Ibanez said. There will be fruity, refreshing and classic options. “I’d say try them all,” he suggested.
Ibanez is a big fan of cross-collaborating with bars. “It helps create better spirits for the guests and better creativity for everyone there,” he said.
This takeover, however, is extra special because Ibanez got his own start in service as a food runner and barback at Employees Only at only 19. After a few years, Ibanez became an apprentice bartender, a principal bartender and, finally, the bar manager at Employees Only.
At the start of the pandemic, which drastically affected the hospitality business, Ibanez took a leap and moved closer to his brother in Charlotte. Exactly one day after the move, he started as the new bar manager at Dilworth Tasting Room.
“We wanted to introduce a little bit of New York to Charlotte,” Ibanez said. “We’ve been thinking about this for a long time … and now, with the third location opening soon, we wanted to showcase that DTR also has good drinks,”Ibanez said. Dilworth Tasting Room recently announced it will be opening a new location in Plaza Midwood.
When he mentions bringing that “bit of New York” for this bar takeover, he’s talking about welcoming global trends that are redefining modern mixology, like clarifying cocktails, for example, which means stripping cocktails of impurities and lactose, and creating an often colorless drink, rich in flavor with a smooth mouthfeel.
One clarified cocktail on the menu for the bar takeover is the Last Leaf, a tequila drink with clarified coconut milk, pumpkin, caramel and spiced pear. The bartenders are using “chemistry tools to enhance flavor and mouthfeel of the drink,” Ibanez said.
“Looks can be deceiving, but once you have a sip, the flavors are really explosive,” he said.
The Amelia will also be on the lineup on May 8 and May 9 — a vodka and elderflower drink shaken with blackberry puree.
This drink is a mainstay on the Employees Only menu in New York. “It’s a No, 1 seller for sure,” Ibanez said. “That drink definitely resembles the break of the cocktail era back in the day,” referring to how drinks like The Amelia shifted bar culture from sodas and sour mixes to something more crafted and refined.
Ibanez, who will be helping behind the bar, hopes that guests explore beyond the typical margarita or old-fashioned and step into the world of elaborate drinks, even if it’s just for two nights.
Dilworth Tasting Room/DTR SouthPark
Location: 300 E Tremont Ave, Charlotte, NC 28203
Location: 4905 Ashley Park Lane Suite J, Charlotte, NC 28210
Location: 1413 Central Ave, Charlotte, NC 28205 (coming in 2024)
Cuisine: global
Instagram: @dilworth_tasting_room
Instagram: @dtr_southpark
