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Bitter and better
Wormwood Distillery opens tasting room in Industry City
In the pour house: Standard Wormwood Distillery co-owner Sasha Selimotic mixes a Manhattan, made with the distillery’s own vermouth and rye whiskey. Photo by Caroline Ourso
A little jarring: The distillers at Standard Wormwood experiment with many different flavors while
working on their next spirits. Photo by Caroline Ourso
COURIER LIFE, FEBRUARY 7-13, 2020 39
By Bill Roundy They’re setting the standard!
A distillery and tasting room
now open in Industry City produces
spirits made with an exotic, once-forbidden
bitter plant. Standard Wormwood Distillery
creates whiskey, gin, and other kinds of
booze out of wormwood, a key ingredient
in absinthe that was banned in the early
20th century because of suspicions that
it could cause hallucinations — concerns
that were concocted by a rival beverage,
said one distiller.
“It was a hit job from the wine
industry,” said Taras Hrabowsky, who
founded Standard Wormwood with Sasha
Selimotic.
Restrictions on the herb were lifted
in 2007, and the pair, then roommates
in Bushwick, began experimenting with
it. Now they use the plant to distill a
rye whiskey, a gin, an amaro, an apertif,
and a semi-sweet vermouth, along with
an agave spirit (which legally cannot be
called mezcal since it was not produced in
Mexico, but tastes much the same).
The addition of wormwood gives each
spirit a unique character, said Hrabowsky
— one that is distinct from absinthe.
“It gives the spirits a long finish,” he
said. “It’s a way to add complexity. People
assume it’s going to be licorice-y, but we
say right on the bottle that there is no anise
or licorice flavor in here.”
In fact, Standard Wormwood does not
make absinthe, because its founders are
focused on making something new, said
Selimotic.
“We do love absinthe,” he said.
“For us though, it’s about exploring the
possibilities of what wormwood and bitters
in spirits can bring.”
The pair previously worked in a
cramped spot in Bedford-Stuyvesant,
but the Industry City location gives them
plenty of space to experiment. The back
room features a mad scientist-like shelf
of bottles, each containing the essence
of a different herb or fruit, along with a
still and other equipment. In the front is a
45-seat bar, where people can sample the
results of those flavor trials.
“Experimenting is what this is all
about,” said Hrabowsky. “We can do little
things that are one-offs, things that we
only do here — it gives you a reason to
come back.”
The bar has a cocktail menu filled with
classic drinks, including the Manhattan, the
Sazerac, and the Margarita, each made with
liquor produced on site — and if you like
what you taste, you can buy a bottle to go!
The distillers plan to produce two more
kinds of vermouth and another apertif in
the near future, which will let them add a
Martini and a few other drinks to the menu.
Standard Wormwood Distillery Tasting
Room 68 34th St. between Second and
Third avenues in Sunset Park, enter from
Industry City Courtyard 5/6, (718) 635–4368,
standardwormwood.com. Open Thu–Fri,
5–9 pm; Sat, noon–10 pm, Sun, noon–8 pm.
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