Frankie Solarik’s sources of inspiration range from molecular gastronomist Ferran Adrià to Marco Moreira, the chef of Tocqueville, a fine-dining restaurant in New York City, where he was deemed too scruffy to work in the front of the house and was shunted into the kitchen.
He had been a bartender by trade, funding his professional rock-climbing career, but at Tocqueville he realized that the techniques of the kitchen could be used to transform cocktails, too.
Frankie Solarik | Photo courtesy of BarChef
That realization, and exposure to Adrià on television, got his wheels spinning and eventually helped him build a company that now operates two BarChef locations, in Toronto and New York, as well as Prequel & Co. Apothecary and Compton Ave in Toronto. They’re all high-concept bars with elaborate cocktails and a deep backstory: Prequel & Co. is meant to evoke 19th Century Paris; Compton Ave is inspired by the notion of an underground den in a wealthy part of London.
Solarik also caters and runs corporate events, because cocktail making can be a great team-building exercise.
He's the author of “The Bar Chef: A Modern Approach to Cocktails,” published in 2013, and was a judge on the Netflix series "Drink Masters," whose artistic director, Tim Luke, also developed Prequel.
Solarik recently discussed his career, his approach to mixology, and his advice for operators who want to open in New York.
Menu Talk is a collaboration between Restaurant Business Senior Menu Editor Pat Cobe and Bret Thorn, senior food & beverage editor of Nation’s Restaurant News and Restaurant Hospitality. You can subscribe to it wherever you listen to podcasts.
Members help make our journalism possible. Become a Restaurant Business member today and unlock exclusive benefits, including unlimited access to all of our content. Sign up here.