Audio By Carbonatix
The minute LoHi SteakBar opened its doors in the transformed North Star Brewery space last week, I was there to try a few of the cocktails that bar manager Dan Guaydacan has concocted. And no sooner had I sat down than Joe Vostrejs, the COO of Larimer Associates who’s behind this project, walked in and joined me. I’ve seen Joe for years at his restaurants, but I’ve never had the pleasure of really talking with him one on one. And what I learned is that there’s a very good reason Joe’s ventures are so successful: He’s a man possessed. The entire time I was with him, he was looking at the restaurant like it was a new baby. Making sure every finger and toe was perfect, that all the labels were facing the same way. Jumping up to clean a spot on the bar. Running off to ask the GM about something he saw. A little OCD? Perhaps, but it’s hard to argue with what his compulsion has done for his assorted restaurant partnerships (including TAG, Billy’s Inn, Rioja, Bistro Vendôme and Corridor 44). We were sitting by the brilliant cocktail condiment station, and Joe explained that he’d wanted a raw-bar-like station so that people understood that SteakBar emphasizes fresh, quality products — both at the bar and in the kitchen. He got an ideal fit for that kitchen — acclaimed chef Sean Kelly — and as I sampled Joe’s own creation, the Caviar Martini ($12), made with Russian Standard Vodka and Caviar, he told me that the little spoons that rest perfectly across the martini glass do so because he had them made specifically to that size by a glass blower. After the martini, it was on to the Ginger Gimlet ($7), made with fresh muddled ginger, Seagram’s gin and fresh lime juice. As a fan of anything ginger (snaps, Rogers, -bread men, beer), I expected it to taste clean and delicious — and it did. But then, Joe wouldn’t have it any other way.
