Professionalism is hot in New York’s crowded bar scene. You want the Italian aperitivo? Or Japanese style cocktails? You have options in spades. The spirits themselves, too, prove rich enough to warrant all the bars dedicated to their various expressions, especially whiskey and agave-like spirits tequila and mezcal. There is one spirit, however, that those veterans of the beer industry who believe it deserves another place have dedicated, especially now: gin.
Brian Gummert and Blake Walker joined forces to open a gin-focused Chin Up Bar at 171 Chrystie Street on the Lower East Side in New York City. The partnership makes sense: Gummert owns a Lower East Side cocktail bar The subject; Walker was stuck there, and in Nitecap again Amor y Amargothe latter being one of New York’s specialty amaro spots.
“Brian and I both love gin, and there’s been an explosion of exciting gins in the last 10 to 15 years,” Walker tells the Observer. London dry styles from established distilleries have long been popular in Europe and back bar staples in the United States. But recently, American craft distilleries, like Tenmile Distillery in upstate New York, they were very dependent on the wind. Gins also come from places that have never been associated with spirits, where traditional fruits and botanicals give it a new spin—South Africa. Father Gin with local pineapple and palm milk, for example, or Vietnam’s Sông Cái Distillery with heirloom pomelo, wild pepper, black cardamom and green turmeric.
The excitement of discovery has fueled the proliferation of whiskey and agave bars over the past two decades, Walker adds. Craft whiskey options exploded in New York, followed by an increase in the availability of quality tequila and mezcal, and suddenly bar-goers had entire sections to explore in dedicated venues. Now, he says, gin is “ripe for that.”
The craft Gin boom has resulted in a plethora of different flavor profiles for such experimentation. Walker and Gummert have selected a backroom space just shy of 100 bottles of gin ahead of the December 2025 opening, which Walker says is likely to double in the next few months and continue to grow from there. In addition to the heavy hitters of the London dry vein, the shelves of Chin Up Bar represent the aforementioned selections from upstate New York, Vietnam and South Africa, as well as those from Japan, India, Kenya, Mexico, Australia and more.
Bolstered by this kind of selection, Chin Up Bar speaks to gin lovers above all else. But Walker and Gummert are willing to bet that even those who believe they don’t like gin haven’t found their gin yet.
“Many people avoid gin because of bad experiences early in their drinking careers,” says Walker. “They had bad gin, or they still have the perception that it’s old or strong. I think that’s going down and a lot of those attitudes have gone down, but there’s still a bit of persistence there.” For Walker and Gummert, the idea that gin is a pine tree and alcohol may be what has prevented the spirit from having its own dedicated menus in the past.
To reflect the versatility of gin and the wide range of regional expressions, Walker and Gummert created a menu balancing classic gin cocktails with many novel creations.
The classics help illustrate the impact different gins can have on familiar, popular profiles—Martin Miller’s Westbourne Strength gin is perfect for a martini with a refined balance of juniper, citrus, spice and clean smoothness. Roku Japanese gin has peppery spice and aromatic green tea notes that sing in a dirty martini, and Neversink New York gin has a similar sweetness that brings out the same in Gibson’s vermouth leek and sherry vinegar while softening the drink’s acidity and brine. Then there is the original Chin Up Bar.
Floral, citrusy and spicy, New York’s Dorothy Parker covers Rendezvous in Chennai. With Madras curry, coconut, apricot, ginger and lime, the slightly creamy, velvety cocktail explodes with a bright, hot taste before the sweet curry, with its subtle heat, flowers and lingers at the end of the drink. Elsewhere on the menu, Australian Four Pillars yuzu gin plays with guava and sunflower seed orgeat, while Mexican Condesa prickly pear gin sticks to thyme, kiwi, honey and sparkling wine.
Walker and Gummert aren’t afraid to go beyond the traditional gin cocktail with creative creations designed specifically around gin. Aquavit, actually a Scandinavian gin riff with caraway instead of juniper, hits the spice with a round, sweet tradition, while apple brandy, Granny Smith apples, wasabi and red shiso enhance its flavor with brightness, earthiness and heat. Gin even found his way to a coquito Walker that was emptying before Christmas. The rich, coconut Puerto Rican holiday punch is made with rum, but Walker separates its base with gin. The result is a very complex coquito with punchier spices and subtle botanicals that keep the drink safely away from the cork.
There’s a lot to learn about gin at the Chin Up Bar, but it’s up to guests how much information they want to be served with their drinks. Walker and Gummert prioritize staff education, so knowledge about various gins comes naturally from conversations with guests rather than requiring repeated spiels. They also plan to have vintage gin botanicals on hand for people to sniff, and they’re letting visitors get a free one-ounce sample of whatever’s in the background.
“It is important that we leave the doors wide open to the educational experience and talk about things in an informed way without forcing anyone,” explained Walker. “They can just come in and have a nice drink without that if they want.”
Chin Up Bar’s seafood-forward menu has been purposefully developed to pair well with gin. Even in the small world of gin-focused bars, this level of detail is rare; Gin is not framed as a pairing context in the same way as wine, beer, or whiskey.
There is the option of simply indulging in a shrimp cocktail with your martini, but you can also order recommended dishes based on your particular drink. For example, Walker suggested an escabeche of smoked mussels and a tuna dish with red shiso leaf and dehydrated beets to pair with Rendezvous in Chennai and a classic aquavit. The red shiso leaf on both the tuna and the elderflower is a perfect match, and the smoky mussel flavor accentuates the savory note of the Rendezvous curry. (It’s worth mentioning that the tooth-satisfying, flavor-packed densely packed beets in that tuna dish deserve their own prize.) The selection of oysters may not be carefully curated for flavor cocktails, but much like the shrimp cocktail, they feel like low-stakes, classic cocktail bar nosh.
All this gin celebration takes place in one refreshing place. You won’t find Art Deco “bathtub” heads here, or the de rigueur red martini bar deals. The space itself feels sculpted, with cave-like white stucco walls inspired by the Gilder Center at the American Museum of Natural History. A soaring high ceiling with Ori Carino’s skyline paintings twinkles on the ceiling of Grand Central Station, while touches of greenery pay homage to Sara D. Roosevelt Park near the bar. Overall, the interior looks like a country one—it offers a chicer, more restrained Mos Eisley Cantina—but everything is connected to another New York reference.
Visualizing the Chin Up Bar space, Gummert remembers serving drinks elsewhere during the riots and thinking how much people would appreciate being in a new place.
“People have been stuck for a while, but now it seems they are looking for something new,” he said. The bar is in a new building, so he and Walker have to design the building from scratch. “Patterns gradually emerged, inspired by New York’s public spaces, cathedrals, train stations… it was time to see something new and exciting in New York.”
Walker and Gummert would like Chin Up to be a bar, but Walker notes that “it’s the locals, the common principles that keep you open and stable for a long time. Our focus is creating experiences to make people want to come back again and again.” Gin lovers will be hooked on a concept like this, but between well-crafted classics, interesting originals, and a strong food menu, there’s more than enough to keep all other types of imbiber happy.
