Bartender Showcase
Meet the Bar Meisters from across the nation

Ben Hopkins
Welcome to Bartender Showcase featuring Ben Hopkins! Bartender Showcase brings the best bartending talent from across the country. These passionate and gifted artists are leaders within the industry and are educating and inspiring through their shaker tins.
- Press play on Ben Hopkins' Spotify playlist & enjoy the tunes.
- Learn about Ben Hopkins' NYC-inspired cocktail below.
Ben Hopkins's Spotify playlist & inspiration
This playlist is a mix of the music we listen to at my bar during service, what we listen to when we set up the bar--Jessie Ware please adopt me--and the album that inspired this drink. The soundtrack is as eclectic as our drinks, silly and hopefully a lot of fun.
Halcyon Digest
Ben Hopkins

What do you love about your city?
My favorite thing about this city is walking thru lower Manhattan around 2-3 in the afternoon and seeing five bartenders I know in grocery stores, walking to work, etc., looking for ingredients or talking about what’s coming next in their programs, and then having a different version of the same conversation twelve hours later over a hot dog and a beer. Our industry is everywhere, there isn’t a day where I don’t run into someone I am happy to run into out and about. So many friends. What a dream”
Cocktail Inspiration:
I took inspiration for this cocktail from Deerhunter’s 2010 album of the same name. While the deer-to-deer tie in is obvious, it to me represents everything I love about this spirit: its depth of field, it’s multifaceted uses, it’s bouquet of flavors that range from savory too sweet to spicy. The album itself is sort of a genre-mystery; a psych-rock album with 2 minute long sax-rock jams and 11 minute long muliti-system odysseys. I tried to make a drink that is sort of a few different drinks. Sort of a daiquiri. Sort of a spritz. All a good time!
Cocktail Name: Halcyon Digest
Name: Ben Hopkins
Recipe:
- 1 part Jägermeister
- 1 part White Rum
- ¾ part Lime
- ¼ part Bird’s Eye Chili Syrup
- ½ part 1-1 Demerara Syrup
Glass: Coupe
Garnish: Baby's Breath
Method: Combine ingredients in a tin and shake. Once shaken, add a splash of sparkling wine to the tin and then fine strain into a chilled coupe and garnish with a baby’s breath.
Tips & Tricks:
Bird’s Eye Chili Syrup - Combine 1000g of 1-1 white simple syrup with 5 grams whole stemmed bird’s eye chili in a Vitamix and blend until incorporated. pass through a coffee filter then fine strain.
I started my career working for my parents’ catering company on the north shore of Massachusetts, washing dishes, helping brides fix their heels, and being and all around silly person at large scale weddings and events. Since moving to New York City after college, I was able to learn this craft behind some of the cities best bars!
Most recently, I was given the incredible honor to open my own bar, a disco cocktail lounge, where we pour out Manischewitz black Manhattans and listen to the B52’s late into the night. Come see us on Avenue C, there’s ceramic cats and secret hideouts!
JOIN OUR JÄGERMEISTER BAR FAMILY
