A good read, for sure.
I suppose I’m growing a little wary about over-mythologizing Milk & Honey, though. I was a bit late to visit Milk & Honey—I probably didn’t get there for the first time until some point in mid-to-late 2000. I’d already been spending plenty of time at Audrey’s restaurant bars, Beacon and Tonic, at Julie’s C3 bar, and various DeGroff activities. So, Milk & Honey was a very different atmosphere (but not entirely unlike Angel’s Share), and the drinks and service were quite nice. However, from the customer’s side of the bar, with my particular prior experience, there was nothing shocking to me about Milk & Honey—not even the hassle of getting in, which I’d already encountered at Angel’s Share. Would craft cocktails really not have happened without Milk & Honey? I think they would have happened anyway, just maybe a bit slower, maybe with a somewhat different trajectory and order of progression. We certainly would have been poorer without Sasha and all the personnel and joints he spun off.