It was an overcast and blustery late April evening, the kind of weather that prompts one to think that spring will never come. But inside the Bridgehampton Community House, the night was beginning to heat up in anticipation of the Ellen Hermanson Foundation's Spring Warm Up dance party.
There, along the wall, a bar had been set up with some very long tables and white tablecloths. Behind it was a crew of three women, all dressed in white overalls with pink scarves, in constant motion setting up for the event.
East End Mixology has been showing up at public parties and private dinners since Jarhn Blutstein founded it two years ago. After a quiet start in 2021, "I really took it off the ground last year. . . . I realized how busy I was all of July, August, and September and that this could be a real business."
If Ms. Blutstein's name and face are familiar, it might be from the years she has spent in the beverage side of the food service industry at places such as Gurney's in Montauk and Le Bilboquet in Sag Harbor. She grew up in New Bedford, Mass., but has been here full time since 2014.
She was already working two jobs when she took two shifts at another restaurant to meet Jeremy Blutstein, a chef who grew up here and is now her husband. She had tried to break the ice by asking him how to can tomatoes through a Facebook message, but he was always too busy to reply. Her reasoning was that if she worked at the place he worked, "then he'll have to talk to me."
That restaurant was East by Northeast, a space now home to Mavericks, the Montauk restaurant Mr. Blutstein opened this spring as executive chef and a minority partner. The couple have a house in Springs and a young daughter, Poppy, who was born during Covid.
East End Mixology focuses on a higher quality cocktail experience for a dinner party, wedding, or a full-on benefit. After Covid, Ms. Blutstein began receiving inquiries from some of her restaurant customers who liked to entertain at home. "I know when we entertain I spend so much time making people drinks, while my husband is cooking, and we don't get to mingle as much as we'd like to," she said over coffees at Tutto Caffe in East Hampton on another overcast and chilly spring morning.
Although caterers provide bartenders, they tend to focus more on basic drinks and mixers or a single signature cocktail, even when the alcohol and wine being served is top shelf. Ms. Blutstein looks for seasonal produce and herbs to create fresh pressed juices and essences for her recipes. She works with the client to customize the experience, coming up with a list of multiple specialty cocktails for each event.
She realized the experience of having an expert and artisanal bartender was something missing out here when guests at the smaller parties started asking her if she could come to their house and bartend too. "It wasn't something that I thought about, like 'this is the business I'm going to do,' it just kind of started happening and it was kind of exciting."
Ms. Blutstein was approached for the Hermanson benefit by a friend who noted that the group "never really had that elevated bar experience. But a lot of guests that come to these galas really want that."
In honor of the foundation's signature event, Ellen's Run, the menu had a drink called Ellen's rum -- a Hemingway daiquiri, which consisted of rum, pink grapefruit juice, lime, and Luxardo, which is a maraschino cherry liqueur. Also on the menu was a spicy watermelon margarita, a regular margarita, and an alcohol-free watermelon fresca made with fresh watermelon, lime, elderflower, and club soda. Classic mixers and liquors were there as well for any type of traditional cocktail in addition to donated wines, ice, and liquor from local suppliers.
When designing a menu, Ms. Blutstein starts with the client's favorite drinks. She also has a core list that reflects what most people are drinking here now. Asked what her primary cocktail recommendations are, she said number one is "always a spicy margarita." After that, she will suggest adding cucumber juice to something classic like a gin or vodka gimlet, or a margarita, to make it refreshing. "People really seem to be drawn to those." For a third option, she often suggests something with a darker spirit like whiskey, depending on the client's taste. This might result in "a riff on a Manhattan, or a boulevardier, or an old fashioned of some sort." She often suggests adding a juice like watermelon or passionfruit to some of these more basic drinks. "They make super fun cocktails and they don't need to read 'sweet' if they're made the right way."
Themes are important. One client last summer wanted to celebrate tomatoes at the height of the season with a special meal and drinks. Ms. Blutstein made infused tomato cocktails and created dehydrated tomato garnishes.
In addition to boutique bartending, East End Mixology designs cocktail menus and wine lists for restaurants and bars. Ms. Blutstein is responsible for the cocktail menu for Mavericks and for Christian's by Wolffer Estate, a reboot of what was Wolffer Kitchen in Amagansett. For Mavericks, they wanted a "big wow" for the opening. At Wolffer, the bartenders were happy executing a menu, but weren't comfortable being the creative force behind it.
She will help clients build a bar or stock a wine cellar, and she offers classes for small groups -- even a date night cocktail lesson -- or larger corporate team building challenges ("like you see on the Food Network, where you have to go to certain tables and make a drink, instead of food, from certain ingredients"). At the end of the challenge, the contestants name and present their cocktail, and she judges them. She can design an experience for anywhere from two to 50 guests. The company's website and Instagram feed highlight its various offerings.
Ms. Blutstein learned how to bartend in college and on the South Fork. She was always curious and wanted to try new things, asking questions of her colleagues and working collaboratively. When she became beverage director of Gurney's a few years ago, the resort still owned the Montauk Yacht Club. She was responsible for three of its bars there and another seven at the main resort, which needed to be revised every year.
The ideas, which she keeps on file, are based on building out classic recipes. "It goes right down to classic proportions, having the acidity match the sweetness," while adjusting them to contemporary palates, which favor acidity over sweetness. "We'll take all the classics and sub things in or out with different ideas," such as adding fruit juice or an unexpected flavor.
She also knows how to follow a trend, since restaurants all want the latest buzzy drink. "Last year, The New York Times had an article about the espresso martini being such a big drink, but, it's always been big on the East End." Her twists on it have included adding mezcal for a Mexican theme and the herbal liqueur Amaro to accent the Italian in the drink. For a Diwali party last October, she made a masala chai espresso martini, with cardamom and other Indian spices.
She shares her husband's passion for localism and incorporates whatever she can into her recipes. She will use locally sourced herbs and produce, and incorporates a lot of edible pansies and wildflowers from Balsam Farms and Quail Hill, even suspending them in ice.
One of the unexpected improvements she has seen in starting her own company is the interaction with guests. "People are so nice when you work in someone's home," compared to bartending in the restaurants out here where "you don't always get the nicest interactions. When you're in someone's house, all the guests are 99 percent of the time so gracious, so nice, and interested. They want to talk to you about what's going on."
