Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/566135
20 / the tasting panel / september 2015 THE MESSAGE 20 / the tasting panel / september 2015 PHOTO: OWEN BUBAR IN MEMORIAM Cocktail Innovator Leaves Behind International Legacy T he cocktail community lost one of its brightest stars when Sasha Petraske passed away last month. One of the founders of the craft cocktail resurgence, he opened New York speakeasy Milk & Honey (now Attaboy) in 1999, at a time when contemporaries maintained looser standards and less emphasis on quality. New York bars Little Branch, Dutch Kills and Middle Branch followed, as well as the Everleigh in Melbourne and a second location of Milk & Honey in London. Petraske joined Eric Alperin and Cedd Moses to open modern speakeasy The Varnish in Downtown Los Angeles in 2009 and helped launched the San Antonio Cocktail Conference in 2012. Hidden entrances, expertly crafted classic cocktails and exclusivity colored each of his concepts, where posted house rules like gentlemen will remove their hats and please make all your travel plans and say all farewells before leaving the bar demanded manners and courteous behavior of all guests. Before he died, Petraske, 42, was working on a consulting project in Hudson, NY, where he lived with his wife, journalist Georgette Moger. —B. T. Going Italian in the Twin Cities A t Italian restaurant Osteria I Nonni in the Minneapolis–St. Paul suburb of Lilydale, MN, Wine Director Marc Mackondy oversees an all-Italian wine list that can transport any Italophile straight to the heart of Roma. The authentic Roman-style cuisine is backed by more than 400 labels from every Italian region, ranging from the Ferrando Erbaluce di Caluso from Piemonte in the north to the Ippolito Ciro "Liber Pater" from Calabria in the far south, with many stops in places such as Tuscany (Podere Le Boncie "Cinque"), Umbria (Perticaia Sagrantino di Montefalco) and the Veneto (Nardello Soave Superiore "Monte Zoppega"). Marc is also Sales Manager in regional distributor Rootstock Wine Company. —David Gadd