On the Menu: Valerie, Madame George, and Lolita

Welcome to On the Menu, where we explore what makes a bar’s menu unique, intriguing, and all-around delicious.

Better known for souvenir shops and chain restaurants, midtown Manhattan is not typically associated with high-concept cocktail programs. But at 45 W. 45th Street, just steps from the chaos of the theater district and Times Square, three different bars share both an address and a beverage director: Marshall Minaya. Beginning with Valerie, opened in 2018, and followed by Madame George in 2022 and Lolita in 2023, Minaya has created three cocktail programs rooted in classic inspiration and driven by a near-obsessive DIY ethic. 

Due to a quirk in city zoning, the three properties run by Minaya all bear the same address, despite being separate spaces with individual entrances and distinctly different vibes. “I’d say the through line is based on the techniques that we do behind the bar and the classic cocktail inspiration,” says Minaya. “But it ends with that because every program is a different concept. There’s no cocktail overlap outside of how we build classics.” 

Triple Down

At Valerie, the concept presents as a gin-centric program of historically inspired drinks translated through a modern lens and a seasonal inflection. Starting with 15 gins, Valerie now stocks north of 100 that make their way into house Gin & Tonics, bottled “freezer door” Martinis, and seasonal originals like Lulu’s Back in Town (Sipsmith overproof gin, Condesa prickly pear and orange blossom gin, Suze, poblano, lime cordial, pimento bitters). “The seasonal signatures are a collaboration among the bar team,” says Minaya. “Two bartenders are assigned a type of spirit and a style of cocktail and then given a list of seasonal ingredients. Then they can build a cocktail how they see fit.”

At Madame George, a plush, subterranean speakeasy, the drink builds are still classically rooted while the theme takes inspiration from the city of New York itself. “I was thinking we’d do an annual menu that changes the entire concept every year, similar to places like Grand Army Bar,” says Minaya. “But I already had all these connections with local distillers and brewers. And everybody really loved the New York theme, especially people who were visiting.” The inaugural menu paid homage to neighborhoods and signature facets of the city like a bodega breakfast sandwich (bacon-washed rye whiskey, maple, citrus, egg white, and everything bagel seasoning). 

For the current menu, the bar team collaborated on drinks that celebrate the city’s artists like Basquiat and Warhol, its role in hip-hop, and one of its most notorious historic neighborhoods: Five Points. “The most popular on the menu right now is a cocktail called To Randy. And it was written by former bartender Cassie Taylor. It’s an ode to a bartender, Randy, who would make Basquiat his favorite cocktail, a Margarita served up,” explains Minaya. “It’s a jasmine-infused Margarita variation with acid-adjusted orange juice and a house-made peppercorn salt on the rim. It just soars.”

Lolita, the newest of the trio, was born of Minaya’s love for agave and sugarcane spirits and his admiration for the program at Brooklyn bar Leyenda. He tapped longtime Valerie bartender Carlos Kennedy-Lopez to step into the role of head bartender and help create the program. “We wanted to highlight the conversation of terroir in spirits. And agave and sugarcane are these raw ingredients that grow in different soils and different elevations all over the world,” says Minaya. 

To engage people in this conversation, Lolita deploys familiar cocktails—Margaritas, Palomas, Daiquiris—presented in new ways or playful formats, and a menu divided into tropical and savory categories. The Paloma is clarified, carbonated, and served on draft. The house Margarita, also on draft, is made with blanco tequila, house-made curaçao, and super lime juice. Those feeling more adventurous can opt for an original like the Las Mineras with an ensamble mezcal, fino sherry, elote liqueur, clarified enchilada water, sofrito, and maize. 

Do or Die DIY

Given the high-volume of service at all three bars, the commitment to house-made ingredients could seem … extreme, if not downright crazy. “We make everything here,” says Minaya. “Obviously primary spirits we purchase, and some modifiers and liqueurs we purchase, but many modifiers and liqueurs we make. I’d say it’s probably like 80/20 made versus sourced.” 

It’s enough to require a full-time prep team, led by Daniel Hernandez, operating seven days a week. In addition to a spectrum of syrups, shrubs, and tinctures, the prep kitchen is also making its own orange curaçao for Margaritas and Mai Tais, a roasted almond orgeat, and other liqueurs like a Chambord dupe made with un-aged Armagnac, raspberry juice, blackcurrants, and black raspberries. “I understand that sometimes it would be easier to just buy an ingredient, but, really, you’re coming to these bars so you can experience these ingredients we make fresh,” says Minaya. “Plus we have a lot of control over [the drinks] that way.”

A cocktail that demonstrates their commitment to both precision and the guest experience is the Pico de Gallo Martini from Lolita’s savory menu. Starting with Abrojo Gin from Oaxaca made from the spent agave fibers from mezcal production, the team washes the gin with candelilla wax for a more viscous body to complement the drink’s savory flavors, rounded with manzanilla sherry and a dry vermouth. “We make the pico de gallo fresh and then we clarify the liquid, and add that to the Martini,” explains Minaya. “We also use the excess pico de gallo liquid and we make little caviar pearls out of it, serving that with a corn chip on the side.”

Max Volume

Given the bars’ bustling location and large capacities (particularly by New York City standards), it’s no surprise that all three operate at a very high volume of business. An average Wednesday night at Valerie can see upwards of 1,500 drinks crossing the bar. The menu boasts around 38 cocktails and flips twice a year with the season. Madame George and Lolita each have about two dozen cocktails on the menu, flipping every year. “We have larger menus because I hope that whoever comes to sit at the bar is coming back for at least another visit,” says Minaya.

But combined with their DIY approach, it’s a model that requires utmost efficiency—from the mise-en-place of the bar wells, where ingredients used in tandem might get micro-batched together, to optimizing the utilization of ingredients. For example, all citrus twist garnishes are peeled and trimmed ahead of time. Lemon scraps are used to make limoncello. Orange scraps get either dehydrated or used in bitters or the curaçao. The fruit itself is then juiced and zero waste is left behind.

“I think it’s just the only way that I know how to do it. And I would never be able to do it without the prep team and the bar teams,” says Minaya. “The last thing I would want is to create an experience that is just fine. I want it to be showstopping. I want people to be a little thrown off and excited and just want to come back.”