The Drawing Room Pop-Up Bakery and Bar
Intricate, original desserts and cocktails at a different NYC location every month
From Black Tap’s colossal milkshakes and Dominique Ansel’s milk and cookie shots to Crown Heights’ new bar/bakery Butter & Scotch, there’s no shortage of creative, hyped-up sweet treats in NYC. But if you’re looking for something beyond a quick transaction at the end of an hour-long wait, there’s a new pop-up for you. Taking place at a new, undisclosed location each month, Drawing Room is using unusual desserts (and unlimited cocktails) to facilitate conversations and connections. The menu at the inaugural event, this Saturday 18 June from 8:30PM to midnight, features three recipes that sound very complex and time-consuming (pecan labneh cheesecake bars, chocolate olive oil torte, pistachio bundt cake) and craft cocktails to match—plus a partnership with Cafe Grumpy. “All recipes for desserts and cocktails are originals that we’ve come up with through testing and trying,” co-founder Mahima Chawla tells CH. “We’re looking to showcase desserts that have unique flavor profiles and are a lot more intricate than what you would find at a typical bakery. We take a base concept and add our own twists, often pulling influences from our cultural heritage or countries we’ve lived in whether that’s Indian, Croatian, Thai, Australian, Middle Eastern.”
There’s a point to the pop-up besides assuaging your inner sweet-toothed beast. “I don’t have anything against bars—it’s more that when you go to those types of places you usually go with a group of friends you already know and stick with those people. The atmosphere isn’t very conducive to fostering conversations between people who don’t know each other. The motivation behind starting Drawing Room was really to create a space where people can enter either as individuals or in groups with the expectation to meet and interact with new people,” continues Chawla. She and co-founder Dora Jericevic—though working the NYC grind (Chawla at a fintech start-up, Jericevic soon starting med school)—impressively do all of the baking themselves. “All desserts are freshly plated on the spot and cocktails are mixed on the spot,” she adds. It’s $20 for one dessert and unlimited cocktails; sign up online for an email invitation with the location.
Images courtesy of MJ Batson
