From Behind the Bar with Harrison Snow of Lullaby
Harrison Snow photo credit Cocktail Life Creative
Rising bar star Harrison Snow is co-owner and beverage director of Lullaby. He began bartending at the tender age of 18 and after spending a few years in Boston he opened the stylish Lullaby in a former dive bar location just last year at the age of 23. Located on the Lower East Side, the bar launched with a menu he created along with legendary Boston bartender and DJ, Brother Cleve, who also served as creative inspiration for the space.
How would you describe Lullaby?
A neighborhood bar that combines music and cocktails in an unpretentious atmosphere.
What drink have you added to the menu recently?
I really love our “Caviar Service” Polish vodka, infused with dill, fennel, green peppercorn, cucumber, and mustard seeds. Served undiluted, extremely cold, with a side of smoked trout roe on a cracker. The flavor profile mimics that of a NY Lox Bagel.
Caviar Service photo credit Cocktail Life Creative
Caviar Service
Lullaby serves this drink with a cracker with .5 oz market caviar, lemon zest and dill
2 oz infused vodka
4 drops saline solution
Sprig of dill
Pour the infused vodka from freezer to a miniature coupe glass and add 4 drops saline solution. Garnish with sprig of dill.
Which new to you spirits brands have you been using lately and why?
Ten to One’s two flagship rums are masterfully blended, excellent value, and incredibly versatile products. Even more notably, however, their new 26 year old release and their Black History Month Bottling (their regular dark rum, proofed at 43% ABV instead of 40%) show that this brand has incredible potential. Aside from making fantastic rum, they are distinctly focused on supporting their community, using their platform and resources to inspire and uplift local artists, creatives, and industry folk alike.
As we start working on cocktails for the spring season, time and again I’ve found myself reaching for Ette, a brand new Ette Flora Rosa vodka on the market that’s macerated with Moroccan rose petals. I feel like the category of flavored “botanical” vodkas has become rather saturated recently, but these guys are actually putting out a quality spirit with a unique flavor profile. Rose is such an appealing flavor, but it can be challenging to work with in cocktails due to its potency of flavor. Ette seems to be the only product I’ve found that can deliver a clean Rose flavor in cocktails without totally throwing the cocktail out of balance. Not to mention — the owner David has a similar philosophy as the aforementioned brand, constantly running around making sure that the local businesses in his community are supported. In an industry that’s very much still feeling the effects of a post-covid world, these kinds of gestures go a long way.
What would you change about the industry if you could?
I think that there’s a level of pretentiousness to the modern cocktail world that I do not like. It all feels very pompous and stuck up sometimes and it’s fairly easy to get sucked into it. It’s important to remind ourselves that we’re not in competition with one another and we should remember that we’re all united behind the same mission - to bring quality food and drink to people in a space where people can share meaningful experiences with one another. It can be rather grueling coming up in this industry - and anybody who pursues a career in hospitality I regard as a family member.
I believe that our industry is about making other people feel good, welcoming them into our home, and embracing them with a warm hug, whether that be a fellow industry person or a random stranger sitting at your bar. Everything else is secondary.
What’s the best thing to happen in your bar lately?
We were just fortunate to be honored in Imbibe 75 for the upcoming year. That meant a lot. Beyond that, not much. Our team is strong, our clientele is amazing, every day is a blessing.
Who’s your favorite bartender or mentor and why? What did you learn from them?
Brother Cleve. I feel like there’s a lot that I can say here, but in a lot of ways the situation speaks for itself. All I’ll say is that Brother Cleve was the walking embodiment of the principles that we hold near and dear at Lullaby. He brought so much creativity and ingenuity to the world of cocktails, but at the same time he saw beyond the cocktail. Cleve taught us that an excellent cocktail was only one facet of what constitutes an amazing bar experience, and that the cocktail must be followed up by engaging hospitality, good music, and personality. Cleve taught us to not only accept the weird & unusual, but rather to embrace and cherish it. And on a personal level, Cleve taught me that a person is made interesting not by how much they already know, but by their desire and willingness to always be learning.
What’s your after-work drink?
What cocktail or spirits book have you read recently?
Le Barman Universel, by P. Dagouret
Any techniques that you’ve been experimenting with?
Lullaby is a relatively low-tech bar compared to other cocktail bars, we rather focus and new and unusual flavor combinations and spirit combinations. Recently we’ve been trying to reevaluate how we use certain spirits and see how we might repurpose them in other ways. For example, using gin as a modifier to add seasoning to a cocktail with a rum base, rather than as a main spirit itself. Or using unusual combinations of spirits to mimic certain familiar flavor profiles.
Aside from this, we’ve been trying our best to minimize the waste that we produce at Lullaby, creating infusions and tinctures with the stems/rinds/and other neglected parts of fruits/veggies/herbs. We experimented with superjuice for a while and found that it was an excellent way to reduce our consumption of citrus and reduce waste. However, the recipes that exist at the moment don’t allow for the level of consistency that we require, so I’m in the process of trying to use some rather minimal “tech” to isolate certain variables so that they can be measured more precisely. For example - rather than blending lime peels of “x” number of limes with the rest of the mixture - using a hydraulic press to extract the oils from the peels of the limes so that it can be measured precisely to the milliliter.
What jigger do you use and why?
Cocktail Kingdom small & large. It’s what I learned with, and I think double jiggering allows for maximum precision and efficiency when building multiple cocktails at the same time.
What’s the best way to build rapport with guests?
Remember people’s names & faces
Treat people as though they were a guest in your home
Be genuinely interested in what’s going on in people’s lives and ask them questions
Give people free shit, go the extra mile, make sure people feel taken care of
If you had to choose a pairing of a song to lull you to sleep, and one cocktail to go with it, what would that pairing be?
Cocktail: Le French Affogato
Created by Brother Cleve at the Paris Seaport Bar & Creperie in Boston
1.5 oz espresso
1.5 oz Bigallet China China Amer
Served over a scoop of vanilla ice cream
How long is a normal shift and how many shifts do you work in a week?
A normal shift is between 9 and 11 hours, depending on the night of the week. I only bartend 1-2 shifts a week currently. The majority of my time is spent doing the less glamorous stuff, like organizing the walk in and managing insubordinate employees! Scoundrels, all of em!