Bartender Seth Allen has led a pretty dreamy life. He grew up on a farm in Connecticut with blowout Fourth of July parties before heading to college in Rhode Island, where he lived on the ocean and gave kayaking tours between classes. But it was studying abroad in Spain that really set his priorities straight. “I slept on beaches after missing the last train from town because having a coffee with a couple other fellow travelers was more important than checking the time,” he recalls. Upon arriving in NYC, he started managing a bar called Hells Kitchen before helping them to open The Snug, an Irish dive bar. “There, I learned how to be a New York bartender — talking to locals and cultivating a good business with the proper balance of buybacks and late night dart games,” he says. Since then, he’s put in overtime behind the bar at spots throughout town, from Cookshop and WD-50, to Resto and Cannibal. Most recently he’s greeting patrons at The Late Late, the Irish-inspired Lower East Side bar and grocer. Here, Allen shares with us the menu’s many faces of Guinness, the universal language of darts, and the campfire that inspired it all.
BoozeMenus: What can you tell us about the name behind the bar - The Late Late?
Seth Allen: The Late Late was named for the longest running late-night TV show in Ireland.
BM: Guinness, of course, plays a big role there. Can you tell us all the ways you guys work with it there?
SA: We use Guinness in a chocolate float with marshmallows, a shot of Jameson and a mist of peated single malt Irish Whiskey. I call it the Irish Campfire. We use Guinness with mint liquor and a fresh Mint leaf. This is called the Minty Fresh. I reduce Guinness with a little cherry and turbinado and use this reduction in our Late Late Old Fashioned. We use Guinness floated over Prosecco in a classic Black Velvet. Guinness is used to float atop Frangelico and Galeano in my Rootbeer Stout. We have versions of daiquiris, manhattans, and margaritas — all with Guinness.
BM: Which cocktail, for you, was the most exciting creation?
SA: My Late Late Old Fashioned really got my juices flowing the most. It is exciting creating a variation on a classic with Irish influence, keeping in the guidelines of what we do here at the Late Late. I had worked with a Guinness reduction before, so I thought of incorporating some cherry into it and using it as the sweetener to our Old Fashioned. Just a half ounce is needed. After that, I keep it simple with some American Rye from Jim Beam, and it’s topped with my Rhubarb and Wormwood bitters. I have made many different bitters in the past, but the tart from the rhubarb and bitter from the wormwood really was a winner for me. For the citrus finish, I went with a lime zest to give a brightness that balances the roasted notes from the Guinness reduction and the bitter tart from my rhubarb bitters.
BM: Any great inspirations or stories behind any of the drinks?
SA: My inspiration for the Irish Campfire is sitting around a campfire in summer drinking your favorite beer and having shots of your favorite whiskey. Afterwards, everything smells of smoke, and your hands are still sticky from the marshmallows that you melted into chocolate at the end of a stick poking into the fire. It’s all in the glass — chocolate, Guinness, Jameson, marshmallows, and that hint of smoke.
BM: How has the building's history and vision played into your drinks there?
SA: We keep it rock and roll with inspirations from our favorite musicians. One example is Florence and The Machine and our blue cocktail How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful.
BM: What was your last memorable conversation behind the stick?
SA: Talking to musicians and artists at our open mic last Wednesday. At two in the morning, after listening to artists play from their soul — not for money, but for love — and perhaps a pint — the conversation gets pretty deep. It’s hard to keep doing what you love in this city of millions. Millions of dollars and millions of people. It is only the passionate that can survive while creating artistically. To be able to eat, drink and be merry while in a creative field is very hard, especially in this city. The conversation was about the bravery, willpower and hard work it takes to live in this wonderful and diverse city.
BM: What's the last thing you've learned in your line of work, and how did you learn it?
SA: The last thing that I have learned is that I will never be able to know or learn enough about food and drinks or life. I learn it daily by trying new food, drink and experiences, whenever possible.
BM: When do you celebrate your real weekend, and what do you do?
SA: My real weekend is Tuesday and Wednesday, usually. I play darts in a league Tuesday nights. Yes, I own my own set of darts. I fell in love with darts while traveling. A dartboard can be found in every city in the world and the rules don't change, so a game can usually be found, as well. Even if you aren't that great at the language where you are traveling, the game remains the same. I bike a lot, as well. I use my bike to get to work as well as to see parts of this great city that I might otherwise miss in a car or on a train.
BM: If you could grab drinks with any one person anywhere in the world, who would it be, where would it be, and what are you drinking?
SA: I would love to grab a cold beer by a lake in the woods with my dad. It's that time of year. The Fourth of July is right around the corner, and it's time to hang with the family.
By Nicole Schnitzler
(Photos From Left: Interior by Oleg March; Seth Allen by Jason Malihan; Giunness Cocktail by Oleg March)