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Written by RICH MANNING /// Photo provided by JANUARY SPIRITS
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artenders play a key role in promoting a spirit. Get a bottle of liquid deliciousness in the hands of a barkeep who is passionate about flavor complexity, curious about new cocktail builds, and eager to share their discoveries with guests, and brand awareness can organically grow. Their work is the reason why getting bottles into on-premise accounts is so crucial for a new brand. This promotional work usually ends when the bartender clocks out. However, when the bartender happens to be the person behind the distilled spirit, it amplifies beyond last call. It's a unique hustle, but it can be rewarding if the juice is well-received. Such is the case with January Spirits. Co-founded by longtime New York City barmen Lucky Pretsko and Jon Langley, their expressions have been turning heads and gathering acclaim since the first bottles hit 104
New York shelves in Spring 2023. Their background justifiably generated some of the initial buzz, there is something inherently cool about bartenders making their own juice. But the attention has stayed strong, not only because what they make is delicious, but also because of what they’re making. In addition to gin, they’re producing amaro and genepy, two cult expressions well-known for being “bartender’s handshakes” in the industry.
a long time COMING On one hand, January Spirits is a project that was years in the making. Langley and Prestko first started working together in 2009 at Daniel Boloud’s slightly punky Lower Manhattan restaurant DBGB. The former was behind the stick, while the latter was a server. A solid friendship quickly formed. So did an appreciation
for each other’s penchant for tinkering and experimentation as both were prone to making their own in-house liquids like vermouths, cordials, and amaro at their own bars. Collaborations quickly ensued. At the same time, the creation of January Spirits represents a pivot of sorts. After jointly working on a few successful bar pop-up concepts, Prestko and Langley intended to open their own permanent venue and further their creative efforts in the drink space (as much as they thought they could get away with, of course). Then the pandemic arrived. “We really didn’t want to try to open a bar when there were so many people dying,” Pretsko said. Rather than sit on the bar idea until the pandemic ended, they pushed forward in a different direction. They acquired a still and began creating elixirs outside of the bar — in Langley’s
kitchen, to be precise — which took them down intriguing if not somewhat esoteric pathways. “We were messing around with making brandies and eau de vies,” Langley said. “Then one day, we decided, ‘Let’s make Chartreuse.’” Eventually, their Chartreuse ambitions turned into them creating genepy, which wasn’t as sweet and sugary as the hard-tofind herbal liqueur traditionally made by Carthusian monks. They also created an amaro by deconstructing Langley’s original amaro formula. According to Langley, it was a surprising process. “As we were tweaking the formula, we’d take away certain flavors to make it leaner,” he said. “That led to some great discoveries.” With the gin, Pretsko and Langley didn’t want to do a light botanical or a London gin or, as Pretsko put it, “a gin that smelled like your grandma.” W W W . ARTISANSPIRITMAG . C O M