Joe Netherworld-Cocktailian-Mixologist-Party Promoter-Epicurean-Lily Gilder
Joe Netherworld
Cocktailian-Mixologist-Party Promoter-Epicurean-Lily Gilder
I am a fourth generation Booze Hound Gadfly, my great grandfather lost his life in the Five Points NYC in 1906 in the back room of his bar in a shootout over a poker game gone wrong, my Grandfather owned the 808 club and featured fine dining cocktails and a big band orchestra. My father owned a few bars and bartended at the first gay night club in Westchester ny, the Nite Owl which featured a caged tiger cub as part of its décor. As a child I spent many a day helping clean up the bar and amusing myself with virgin cocktails and the thrill of the Wunder-Bar. My dearest Uncle Carmine was a lifelong bartender from the late 50’s through the 90’s I have inherited his old books and notes and his first hand stories of Mobsters and Dames and crooked politicians and illegal casinos on the second floor of old hat factories in Yonkers NY. It helps that I am an old witch at heart and practice, and I love to brew up some “potion” having been making my own Absinthe since 1990 and selling “kits” to friends until it became legal again. I have been the Drink Master at over 100 events both public and private from Frat to Fancy Fifth Ave Townhomes. From dicey dive bars to multi-million dollar Night Clubs. I know how to throw a party and mix the proper drink for the occasion. I am a Wizard in the kitchen and incorporate my families tradition of local farm and home grown ingredients in our cooking into my cocktail special ingredients. I hate fake fancy and intentionally snobbish attitudes as I find it a shabby cover for lack of knowledge and a quality palate. When I met my Lab Partner Peggy Nadramia it was like a meeting of 2 superpowers at an Alcoholic United Nations! Together we play off each other’s extensive knowledge and epicurean palates to finesse and fine tune classic as well as new school cocktails. Like I am prone to be heard saying “Any Olde Time is a good time for a Good Olde Drink” I love the evocation of a good mixed drink and the forgotten class and style that they invoke and the good natured tipsy topsy-turvey world they hail from
