Everything Matters at Sugar Monk

The Duo Behind New York's Hardest-to-Define Cocktail Bar.

Ektoras Binikos and Simon Jutras, the sui generis owners of Sugar Monk, a cocktail bar in Harlem,

Being a journalist who covers the drinking scene, I’ve become accustomed to offering thumbnail descriptions of bars. The question “What’s that bar like?” comes around fairly often and I’m usually able to answer it, capturing a joint’s personality in a sentence or two. But whenever I visit Sugar Monk, the small, posh cocktail lounge in Harlem, I ponder how I might describe the bar to a friend, and I am stumped.

Sugar Mark is the most undefinable cocktail bar in New York. It is unique in the extreme. It is located in Harlem, where craft cocktail bars are few and far between. The bar is run by Ektoras Binikos, who was born on the Greek island of Ikaria, and Simon Jutras, who is from Montreal. They are partners in both business and life. Jutras designed the small, cloistered place, with has a lush, verdant feel. If there was a cocktail bar hidden somewhere inside a tropical rainforest, it might look like Sugar Monk. Binikos creates all the drinks, which have more bells and whistles that a circus parade, and are as complex and creatively garnished as anything put out by Artesian or Aviary in their heydays.

When designing Sugar Monk, Jutras strove to create a bar he would want to visit.

Both men are artists, working chiefly in photography, and the bar’s strong connection to the art world is unlike that of any other bar in the city. Binikos has created cocktails and liquors for art exhibitions and operas, and designed an entire line of amari inspired by the five movements of Bach’s Partita No. 2 in D Minor. The art on the walls of the bar is by both them and artist friends.

The seven different amari Binikos has created for Sugar Monk were all inspired by various musical compositions.

Whereas other cocktails bars make some of the bitters, syrups and infusions that go into their drinks, Binikos has taken that DIY ethos to an extreme. He has created seven different amari, 14 kinds of bitters, 2 tinctures and 15 liqueurs. Then latter include flavors like yuzu, Seville orange, black currant and fern. Yes, fern.

These are bottled and available for purchase and despite a hefty price tag (one amaro costs $100 for a 375ml bottle), the elixirs have proven quite popular during the pandemic and frequently sell out.

Sugar Monk also has its own line of custom liqueurs.

They work with the professional forager Tama Matsuoka Wong, whose clients include the restaurants Jean-Georges and Daniel, to get the ingredients their need for the spirits. Binikos also makes jams and commissions chocolates with the Manhattan chocolatier Roni-Sue, located on Forsythe Street downtown.

All of the above is to say that, well, Sugar Monk is complicated. And I’m not the only one who thinks so.

“I feel we’re still under the radar,” said Jutras, “because we’re not really easy to classify.”

The couple met thirty years ago in a bar, appropriately enough. (The two men are actually due to get married today!) Jutras has been a commercial photographer for twenty years, working for Calvin Klein, Nine West and Guess, among others; he also does interior design of private houses. Every inch of the Sugar Monk space was designed by him, as are the menus, which change frequently. Binikos’ background is in art as well, but he has always worked in hospitality simultaneously, including fine-dining destinations like Aureole, Oceana and Gabriel Kreuther, as well as the short-lived bar 2nd Floor on Clinton.

Binikos’ urge to create ingredients began long ago. “Charlie Palmer kind of found me and kind of pushed me to collaborate with the chefs,” Binikos said of the Aureole chef. “He said go into the kitchen and take whatever you need. Ask questions.”

He sees a clear connection between his twin professional focuses. “I always felt there were a lot of similarities, how I was creating the drinks and how I was creating the art.” The drinks and spirits are, he said, “my liquid art.”

Sugar Monk is in Harlem because Binikos and Jutras live in Harlem. They moved to the neighborhood ten years ago.

Both owners of Sugar Monk have an art background and the connection between the bar and the art world is strong.

“I thought, ‘Where would I like to go?’” said Jutras, talking about their initial vision for the bar. “It’s a small space. I wanted it to be comfortable. I wanted it to be a place where people could talk, not too loud, and a place with really good products.”

They also wanted it to pay homage to Harlem’s history for both storied nightlife and diversity.

“We thought, what would be a theme for Harlem, what can we do that will contriubute to the rich culture and history of Harlem,” said Jutras. “So we thought of the early speakeasys of the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s. They were basically safe havens for a lot of marginalized people to go and drink. We wanted to create a place that was very inclusive.” On an average night at Sugar Monk, the clientele represents a cross section of society that other bars can only aspire to.

Sugar Monk will turn three years old in June, which means it has spent more that two-thirds of its existence battling—and so far surviving—the pandemic. It’s been a challenge. The owners had to close its doors twice. And they lost their entire crew—twice.

But the pandemic has had its silver linings as well. They now have additional outdoor seating. And teaming up with the Resy reservation system has brought them a new group of customers who come from neighborhoods beyond Harlem. They always planned to make many of their own products, but the pandemic fast-tracked that mission. The burgeoning line of custom products is a direct result of the last two years of intermittent shutdown.

“We turned this into a kind of lab and started making recipes,” said Binikos. “I started reading about amari and liqueurs and slowly developed the line, with many trials and tribulations.” He creates all the potions in the basement. The amari are the most difficult, taking seven months to mature. (The popularity of the amari can sometimes be a problem, given how long it takes to make them and how small production is. Last year, a Bloomberg writer named Sugar Monk’s Amari Akhenaten one of the 16 best new spirits of 2021. The day the article came out, the bar had exactly one bottle in stock.)

Three of the many original bitters that Sugar Monk makes and sells.

If all goes according to plan, the Sugar Monk team will have more space to experiment and grow in 2022. In recent months, the duo have been shopping around for a new space that would be part distillery and part tasting room. Should it happen, it will be called Bitter Monk.

Binikos estimates he has created 60 to 70 cocktails over the last three years. A Sugar Monk cocktail is never a simple thing. Take the Marie Laveau for example. It is made with Evan Williams Bourbon that has been infused with fliscouni, a Greek mountain mint; Sugar Monk’s Palatine Amaro; Foro Amaro; black and green cardamom; and Sugar Monk's Orange Bitters. The mixture is then smoked with Applewood chips and arrives inside a glass dome.

The cocktails are often served in antique glassware from the couple’s personal collection. “Wherever we go, the first place we go it the antique shop and we raid them for all the glasses,” joked Jutras.

For those who prefer classic cocktails, there are Monday nights at Sugar Monk, when there is live jazz music, the theme is the Roaring ‘20s and the menu skews classical, including such throwback cocktails at the Boothby, Bijou, Clover Club, Sidecar and Last Word. But, since this is Sugar Monk, their are not strictly classical. The Sidecar is made with SM bergamot bitters. The Martini is made with a touch a fern liqueur.

“Our motto is everything matters,” said Jutras. “Everything matters.”

The bar at Sugar Monk.

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Odds and Ends…

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