Featured Cocktail of the Week: Estereo’s Agricole
This week’s featured cocktail brings us to Logan Square, to the hip and popular cocktail bar, Estereo.
Logan Square has become the hottest neighborhood in the city for progressive cocktail bars. One might even say that Logan Square is to cocktail bars as the West Loop is to restaurants, at the moment. And just like in the West Loop, if you’re not doing something special or different, you may not last more than a year.
Estereo is approaching its one year anniversary this July. Located on the corner of Milwaukee and Sacramento, Estereo has established itself as one of the coolest and hottest bars in a neighborhood overflowing with them.
Estereo (translating to stereo in English) has carved out its place by crafting Latin American and Caribbean inspired cocktails and pairing them with vintage Latin sounds on vinyl.
Agricole (the spirit not cocktail) is a spirit produced in the French Carribean islands. The spirit is created by cold pressing sugar cane and the allowing the juice to ferment and develop depth of flavor. Once the juice has reached its desired fermentation it is then distilled into the exotic rum used in Estereo’s cocktail, Agricole — this week’s featured cocktail.
Once beverage director Michael Rubel has his agricole spirit, he turns his attention to figs and syrups. Rubel gets hardy figs from South Haven, MI., and poaches them in simple syrup. Once they are fully poached, he freezes them. From there he takes dried Spanish mission figs and turns them into a second syrup, once again freezing them when they are finished.
Once he mixes up a canela syrup made of cinnamon and sugar, Rubel combines the figs and canela to create a syrupy puree that will be added into the Agricole cocktail. This process is made daily to ensure peak freshness.
Once the syrup is finished, Rubel adds Italian liqueur Campari, a bit of lime, and home made papaya bitters to complete the Agricole cocktail.
The finished product is a pinkish, peach colored drink that tastes as surprising as it is gorgeous. The first sip is sure to make your brow furrow from the unexpected funky yet slightly fruity taste. It is a cocktail that is so subtle in its use of spirit, that you may want to order a second round just to try and decipher where all the components come in.
It is so masterfully balanced that no one component shines brightest and no one component is buried with any sip. The funkiness of the agricole spirit and the papaya bitters are balanced out by the sweetness of the canela syrup as well as the earthiness of the figs to create tastebud nirvana.
Maybe the most alluring part of Estereo is the vibes and atmosphere that emanate from within the bar. Repelling garage doors that serve as walls, ensure that the alluring drinks and music spill out onto Miwaukee Ave. and Sacramento St.
The shape of the bar top adds a nice element, too. Since Estereo is located on a corner, the space and bar top mirror the streets, forming a morphed triangle of sorts. This means that in some places on the bar you are a lot closer to other patrons, inducing that feeling of sharing the same space and being at the same party. Even the disco themed bathrooms, complete with disco ball and floor to ceiling miniature tile mirrors, oozes “cool” and builds on the unique experience Estereo takes you through.
From any seat at the bar or table along the walls, you can easily see the rest of Estereo. You may see couples dancing to classic salsa, heavily tattooed bartenders shaking and stirring cocktails, or Rubel sharing his spirit knowledge with anyone willing to listen.
Along with the Agricole, Estereo has created a cocktail list that is simply named, but extremely complex with drinks like the Pisco, Tequila, and Singani.
Estereo is a market driven, seasonal ingredients bar. Thus, once figs or tangerines go out of season and up in price, the cocktail menu will change. According to Rubel, the existing cocktail menu has about a month left until the menu switches up for the summer. But if the last nine months are any indication, the new cocktail menu will not miss a beat.
Beer drinkers are also welcome, with four local draft beers including the popular farmhouse ale, Off Color’s Apex Predator. They will also feature a rotating 3 Floyd’s Brewing Co. beer, making sure to having patrons coming back hoping to find the elusive pale ale, Zombie Dust.
Estereo is located 2450 N Milwaukee and is open:
Sunday-Friday: 11am-2am
Saturday: 11am-3am
