Delancey’s Essex Bar Opens Wednesday

 Molly Wizenberg and Brandon Pettit of Delancey (and Orangette) fame sent word today that the couple’s new bar, Essex, officially opens on Wednesday, August 15.

Wizenberg and Pettit took over the former umbrella store at 1421 NW 70th Street, next to their much-loved pizzeria, and turned it into a whale-wallpapered wonderland of housemade treats. Some of said treats are of the boozy nature, like bitters, a housemade take on fernet, and a liqueur called Burg’s Extra Special Orange, inspired by Grand Marnier, named for Wizenberg’s father, and aged four months in rye barrels.

Bar manager Gary Abts previously opened La Bête and worked at the former Licorous as well. He has fashioned a cocktail list that includes drinks like the T-Dock: tequila, watermelon, house tangerine liqueur, lemon, salt, and egg white. Or the Peter Falk, a concoction of bourbon, house blood orange liqueur, black tea, orange bitters, and lemon. A menu of simple but heavenly sounding bar snacks is heavy on cured meats, cheese, pickles, and preserves.

No, there’s no pizza, but you’ll be able to console yourself with a housemade soft pretzel, boiled in beer, or seasonal produce that’s spent a little time in the wood-fired oven. Delancey pastry guru Brandi Henderson designed a four-item dessert menu (hello, housemade Thin Mints).

For now the bar is open Wednesday to Sunday, just like Delancey. Wizenberg and Pettit hope to move to seven days a week in the future, but the couple is having a baby pretty much any moment and do need the occasional hour of sleep. The bar was designed by the same team behind Delancey—Pantea Tehrani and Katie Caradec (Wizenberg’s cousin) of tbD.