Episode 245

Hanky Panky: An Unintentional Speakeasy

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Hanky Panky: An Unintentional Speakeasy

Episode 245

What’s shakin, cocktail fans?

Welcome to Episode 245 of The Modern Bar Cart Podcast!

This time around, we have the pleasure of interviewing Walter Meyenberg. He’s a drinks entrepreneur who has his hands in a number of impressive projects in Mexico’s capital, but for the purposes of our conversation today, he’s the founder of Hanky Panky, an award-winning, speakeasy-style cocktail bar in La Juarez neighborhood of Mexico CIty.

In this eye-opening conversation with Walter, some of the topics we discuss include:

Why this bar, which is so famous for being a modern “speakeasy,” wasn’t originally planned that way, and how they evolved from not even charging for drinks to winning international awards for hospitality.
What it’s like to locate, enter, and drink at Hanky Panky, according to our mixological travel correspondent, Adam Bauer (@justhereforthedrinks).
How Walter thinks about developing individual members of his bar team and building a community of international “friends of Hanky Panky,” and why this people-first mentality allowed the program to thrive, even during the pandemic.
We also explore some of Walter’s other projects, like his bar Las Brujas, which places an all-female bar team in the spotlight, and Liquid Show, an educational initiative launched in partnership with other leading bar figures in Mexico City.
Along the way, we cover the books that inspired Walter’s approach to hospitality, the design aesthetic behind throne-like bar stools and mirrored tables, foundational memories of being fed and pampered by his Lebanese mother, and much, much more.

Featured Cocktail: The White Lady

This episode’s featured cocktail is The White Lady. To make it, you’ll need:

1 ½ oz of Dry Gin
¾ oz of Triple Sec – like Cointreau
¾ oz Fresh lemon Juice
And one egg white – or its plant-based equivalent in aqua faba

Combine these ingredients in a cocktail shaker and shake vigorously (but carefully) without ice. This is called the “dry shake,” and it’s meant to help create a richer, creamier head on an egg white drink. Then, once you feel the texture change in the shaker, add your ice, shake until the drink is chilled, strain into a stemmed cocktail glass, and enjoy.

We thought the White Lady was a perfect cocktail to feature for this episode because it’s emblematic of Hanky Panky’s truly international approach to their cocktail program. This drink – which is essentially a gin sidecar with egg white – was conceived in London by Harry McElhone in 1919 and originally featured creme de menthe in place of gin. So it was a mint liqueur, an orange liqueur, and lemon juice. And if you think it’s only crazy people on Tik Tok and Instagram who are capable of inventing vile concoctions, let it be known that the inventor of the French 75, the Boulevardier, and other immortal cocktails was also prone to a faulty spec now and again.

But the difference between great bartenders and the rest of us is that they won’t stop tinkering with their cocktails until they’re RIGHT. 10 years later, in 1929, after moving from Ciro’s Bar in London to found his legendary establishment, Harry’s New York Bar in Paris, he ditched the green, minty stuff, swapped in the gin, and created today’s favored White Lady formulation.

If you visit the Hanky Panky website, you’ll see their version of the White Lady cocktail from a recent menu, still sporting its signature, pale hue and head of rich foam, but served in a low, scalloped cruet that evokes perfumery, or scented oils, or potpourri. This is an example of taking a classic drink, honoring its origins, and then elevating it and delighting in its presentation. All of this seems central to the beverage program at Hanky Panky.

This episode was made possible with editing and sound design by Samantha Reed, bar and hospitality insights courtesy of Walter Meyenberg of the acclaimed Mexico City bar, Hanky Panky, narration from our international drinks correspondent, Adam Bauer, and a little bit of interview magic by yours truly. This has been a Modern Bar Cart Production, copyright 2022.

This episode is also brought to you by Near Country Provisions. If you live in the Mid-Atlantic and want to enjoy ethically raised (and delicious) meat from local farmers delivered to your door every month, then you need Near Country in your life.

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Hanky Panky: An Unintentional Speakeasy

Featured Cocktail: The White Lady

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