Recorded live before an audience at Sunken Harbor Club in Brooklyn.
Why This Episode Matters
- Gage & Tollner’s revival shows how a historic restaurant can be preserved without turning it into a museum.
- Sunken Harbor Club demonstrates how tropical cocktail history can be reworked through modern technique, research, and strong storytelling.
- St. John and Garret offer practical insight into crowdfunding, opening during COVID, and building a destination bar above a landmark restaurant.
- The conversation connects serious non-alcoholic cocktails, classic steakhouse drinks, the Martini, and Charles H. Baker Jr. to the larger evolution of cocktail culture.
The Conversation
The live conversation opens with Mark admitting that it took him several meetings to realize writer St. John Frizell and bartender “Sinjin” Frizell were the same person. Francis recalls Garret recognizing The Restaurant Guys at Tales of the Cocktail, back when being recognized in public was still a notable event.
From there, St. John tells the improbable story of finding Gage & Tollner’s landmarked interior beneath the remains of a TGI Fridays, an Arby’s, and a makeshift mall. He explains how 450 crowdfunding investors helped revive the historic Brooklyn oyster and chophouse and how the restaurant was preparing to open when COVID closed New York.
Garret traces Sunken Harbor Club from a weekly pop-up to one of the country’s most distinctive cocktail bars. He explores forgotten tropical formats, historic steakhouse drinks, the challenge of creating serious non-alcoholic cocktails, and the timelessness of the Martini.
The conversation also reaches Charles H. Baker Jr., his amazing life and the idea that a great drink can be built as much on story and context as on the recipe itself.
Timestamps
00:00 Live from Sunken Harbor Club
02:00 St. John, Sinjin and a James Bond pronunciation lesson
04:00 Garret’s first encounter with The Restaurant Guys
05:30 The opening cocktails and Sunken Harbor’s menu philosophy
08:30 Gage & Tollner prepares to open as COVID closes New York
11:00 How the Sunken Harbor Club began as a weekly pop-up
14:00 Finding Gage & Tollner behind false walls
17:00 Raising $450,000 from 450 crowdfunding investors
20:00 Reconstructing forgotten cocktails and the Cross Current
25:30 Historic steakhouse drinks meet tropical cocktails
30:30 Why serious non-alcoholic cocktails are so difficult
42:00 Martinis, Charles H. Baker and cocktails built around stories
Bios
St. John Frizell is a writer, restaurateur and co-owner of Gage & Tollner and Sunken Harbor Club in Brooklyn. His work has appeared in publications including Bon Appétit, Saveur and Punch, and he is also the founder of the acclaimed Red Hook restaurant and bar Fort Defiance and a noted authority on cocktail writer and adventurer Charles H. Baker Jr.
Garret Richard is the Chief Cocktail Officer of Sunken Harbor Club and the co-author, with Ben Schaffer, of Tropical Standard. His career includes acclaimed cocktail programs at Existing Conditions, Slowly Shirley, ZZ’s Clam Bar and Exotica, and VinePair named him its 2024 Next Wave Bartender of the Year.
Info
Sunken Harbor Club
Brooklyn, New York
Gage & Tollner
Brooklyn, New York
Tropical Standard
By Garret Richard and Ben Schaffer
If you want a chance to get two tickets to our Bourbon, Beer & Beefsteak and live recording with Sother Teague and Jack McGarry in New Orleans on July 21, 2026,
sign up to be a Restaurant Guys Regular (our paid subscribers) here https://restaurantguysregulars.buzzsprout.com/
Then email TheGuys@restaurantguyspodcast.com. Put "beefsteak" in the subject line.
We'll pick the winner and let you
Subscribe: Restaurant Guys' Regular
https://restaurantguysregulars.buzzsprout.com/
Magyar Bank
https://www.magbank.com/
Stage Left Wine Shop
https://www.stageleftwineshop.com/
Our Places
Stage Left Steak
https://www.stageleft.com/
Catherine Lombardi Restaurant
https://www.catherinelombardi.com/
Stage Left Wineshop
https://www.stageleftwineshop.com/
Reach Out to The Guys!
TheGuys@restaurantguyspodcast.com
