GUEST SHIFT: Aaron Wilson, Larkin Hi-Fi
Aaron Wilson at Larkin Hi Fi on Lark Street, Albany
Aaron Wilson, co-owner of The Larkin Hi-Fi Record Bar and Herbie’s Burgers, talks Japanese denim, Martha Stewart, and where Herbie’s will open next.
Interview: Susie Davidson Powell
Photos: Konrad Odhiambo/The Dishing
Bartender: Aaron Wilson, co-owner, creative lead on snacks + cocktails
Guest Shift: Aaron Wilson, co-owner + bartender | IG: @aaronrobertwilson
The Larkin Hi-Fi | thelarkinhifi.com | IG: @thelarkinhifi | HerbiesBurgers
Hometown: Canajoharie, NY
Current city: Albany, NY
Personal style: Uniqlo and Japanese denim like Naked & Famous and Bronson. “Nick and I want to do a pop up of men’s Japanese denim in the back of Rom Shop on Madison Ave.”
Listening to: Jazzy, bass breakbeats, DJ chill background music. For vinyl, I’m listening to IV by BADBADNOTGOOD, Radiohead ‘In Rainbows’ and anything from Mong Tong.
Favorite spirit: Gin
Favorite classic cocktail: Gimlet
Favorite bar ever: Unihog, Hoosick Falls
Favorite restaurants: Ale & Oyster (Albany), Ollie’s (High Falls), GoodNight (Woodstock)
Biggest cocktail influence: Katana Kitten, NYC
Drink trend that should end: “Closing out the tab after every drink. Just leave it open until you’re ready to leave.”
Pho EQ: Wilson uses Asian flavors as inspiration at his Tokyo-style record bar in Albany. Photo credit: Konrad Odhiambo/The Dishing
Aaron Wilson guest stars behind the stick as needed, but he’s the creative mind behind the Larkin Hi-Fi’s eclectic, seasonal, and Asian-influenced cocktails in play since The Larkin Hi-Fi opened in June 2024. Until now, that is. The spring/summer 2025 menu features Wilson’s popular creations and cocktails by the bar team. Divided into Hi-Balls and Spritzes (try the shochu-based Lemon Hi-Chu,) Japanese whiskies and flights, a half-dozen martinis (go for $10 Martini Mondays) and signature cocktails from a Mezcal, yuzu and shishito pepper “Blister in the Sun” to the roasted Hojicha tea-infused Toki “Paper Crane” riffing on a Paper Plane. Wilson’s sesame-infused Hauki vodka “Green Mind” with cucumber, ginger and lime or the infamous “Phở EQ” made with pho-spice infused tequila, are unlikely to ever leave.
Read more about the “Pho EQ” in our Story Of A Pour.
After studying theater at SUNY Albany, Wilson moved to Harlem for four years working for Red Jacket Orchards at the Greenmarkets NYC, managing a team of 25 people and pitching Red Jacket juices to celebrity chefs and industry titans. Describing one meeting with Martha Stewart, Wilson laughs, “I was trying to get her to carry our cider in her staff cafeteria… She liked it but said hers was better. I think she took it though.” He also talked with Food Network host and chef Jeffrey Zakarian about making cocktails with their green juice. “You know, because our products were cold pressed juices with no water added, I knew they could be really popular with bartenders but I couldn’t get the company to market it that way. They wanted to market it as fresh apple cider for kids.”
Moving back upstate to takeover the marketing for his brother’s architectural firm, Wilson was flipping his seasoned smashburgers at a backyard barbecue when Nick Warchol, a friend and partner in Pōst Wine Bar & Kitchen, the subterranean natural wine bar on Lark Street, said they should open a burger spot. The Herbie’s Burgers concept was born. Herbie’s fun pink and yellow retro graphics and design took off with In-N-Out Burger as inspiration and Wilson as chief recipe developer for the smashburgers, bacon jam, vegan patties, milkshakes and vegan shakes synonymous with the brand.
WIth the first Herbie’s open on Lark Street, Wilson and Warchol bounced between there and The Lo-Fi, an April 2021 rebranding of Pǒst from wine bar to a funky, retro cocktail lounge with DJs, fluffy ceilings and monochrome bathrooms in primary yellow and blue. The Lo-Fi closed in 2022, but by then the duo had five Herbie’s locations: Lark Street, Troy, Guilderland, Schenectady, and a new satellite Herbie’s under the Empire State Plaza. (A sixth added later in the Galleria 7 food hall in Latham recently closed.) Warchol saw construction inside the long-empty Farnham’s Larkin across from their Lark Street location. He walked in, asked if they could open a bar and signed a lease, building out The Larkin Hi-Fi while simultaneously fitting out the concourse Herbie’s. Wilson laughs, “That’s how we ended up with so many Herbie’s. If you work with Nick, you know he moves insanely fast.”
Warchol took the lead on designing and building Hi-Fi’s retro, Tokyo record bar-influenced interior including an installation of disco balls under a huge skylight in the rear DJ lounge inspired by a bar in San Diego, and Wilson crafting a Japanese-inspired cocktail menu to match.
Current Intel: Wilson and Warchol have confirmed the opening of 3 new locations this year: Clifton Park Center (in the former Moby Rick’s) by September, a summer takeover of The Ice House kitchen (Saratoga Springs), and their first downstate location in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, projected to open August 1, 2025