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Inside a South Asian Speakeasy

Jam & Jaggery opened September 18 under Aarthi Sampath’s Drāvida. The list runs on sherry, curry leaf, jaggery, and a duck-fat old-fashioned.

United States · New York
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The downstairs lounge at Jam & Jaggery: a small wooden bar with striped stools, pendant lamps, and a round table with a lamp
Courtesy of Drāvida: Courtesy of Drāvida · Press / promotional use

The Dirty Currytini smells like tadka, curry leaf hitting hot fat. It is built like a dirty martini: Lustau fino, the dry sherry from Jerez, sake vermouth, olive vermouth, and the leaves. Jam & Jaggery started pouring that list on Friday, September 18, in the basement under chef Aarthi Sampath’s restaurant Drāvida at 211 First Avenue in the East Village.

Sampath, born in Chennai and raised in Mumbai’s Chembur neighborhood, opened the dining room upstairs on May 21. She had already planned a quieter downstairs room of a couple dozen seats, for cocktails, tea, and private events. She wanted a place where you could still drink tea at the end of the night. On September 18 that room got its own card.

Double Trouble is the Trinidad doubles from upstairs: Angostura, chana, sweet Pedro Ximénez sherry from Lustau, Scotch bonnet, cucumber, and lime. Gola Chaat is ice gola, the shaved-ice snack from Indian street carts, built with shochu from Watanabe Brothers, a Japanese distillery, plus yogurt, pomegranate, tamarind, herbs, and aloo bhujia, the fried potato strands that usually go on chaat. The Badak Old Fashioned is washed with duck fat and sweetened with jaggery, the unrefined cane or palm sugar, then set on cream sherry, shochu, and cardamom bitters.

Most glasses start with Lustau. There is also a mango-ume Adonis, a passionfruit Goa Highball, and a Lycheetini with sake and Meyer lemon. Tamarind, curry leaf, chickpea, mango, cardamom, and jaggery sit inside the drink. If you order one, start with the Currytini or the Gola Chaat.

Downstairs after six

The lounge is in the lower level of the restored century-old building between 12th and 13th Streets, under the dining room with the old brick ovens. Jam & Jaggery is listed from 6 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. Upstairs dinner is Sunday and Tuesday through Thursday, 5 to 10 p.m., Friday and Saturday from 4:30, Monday closed. Reservations open 14 days out. Make sure you are booking the lounge.

The public food list still names one plate, an Indian-inspired burger meant for the bar. Confirm what is pouring before you go. If you only have one night, go down after six and see whether you want the dining room later.

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