The Drink Nation (TDN): Tell us about Dante.
Liana Oster (LO): Dante is, in essence, an old New York institution. The building and cafe have been here since 1915, and MacDougal Street is a historic street in and of itself. Back in the day, Caffe Dante was known for its coffee and pastries, and it’s still very special to a lot of people because of its history. Nearly five years ago, our current bosses took over and changed the emphasis from a pure cafe to a restaurant, but most of it has remained the same. The idea was to keep the history of the place alive, but make it more contemporary. Because it means so much to people still, I think people feel at home and comfortable; the people who live in the building are still some of our best customers. We want it to be welcoming to absolutely any guest. 

TDN: Tell us about the drink program.
LO: The idea behind our program is that we wanted a very European influence, but also that it’s a place to come in the middle of the day and have a martini and a drink. For that reason, a lot of our drinks are lower ABV, so you can stay here throughout the day. Our menu is quite large; we started off trying to be “the place” in the city for European-style drinks. The Negroni put us on the map, and we’ve expanded into martinis and other drinks. 

TDN: Have you bartended elsewhere?
LO: Mainly back in Australia; I used to work at a little bar called Bar Americano, which is the smallest cocktail bar in Australia. It’s only ten person capacity, standing room. It’s designed similarly in concept, so coming here felt like a natural transition. I moved to New York and got the job here within the first month. I also worked at The Bennett for a handful of months, which is now closed, but it definitely taught me about how different bars work.

TDN: What’s trendy right now? How have you adapted a classics-based menu to work with trends?
LO: Fat-washing - I think it’s coming back after being big a few years ago. We’ve joined in on the trend for sure. It definitely suits the winter better than the summer, but it gives an unctuousness to any drink. Milk punches are definitely huge right now. Sustainability was a huge thing this past year, and we definitely want to do our part. Everyone in the community tries to be smart about it, so for us, we’ve done things like in house sustainable cocktail competitions. As for our menu, I think the beauty for us is [Naren Young, creative director] is so creative, and he’s always inspired and always has something in his head that he thinks will work. Even though a lot of things on our menus are classics, we’re always trying to adapt it into something new; for example, we have a gimlet on the menu, but we’ve clarified the lime juice so that it almost looks like a martini. 

Dante's Garibaldi cocktail (Campari & whipped orange juice).

Some selections from Dante's extensive vermouth program.

Negroni Bianco (Brooklyn Gin, quinquina aperitif, alessio bianco, lemon bitters).

Cardinale (Dorothy Parker Gin, Contratto bitter, Lo-Fi dry vermouth).

Brilliant Gimlet (Grey Goose or Bombay salted lime cordial, lime bitters, clarified lime).