GUEST SHIFT: Adam Minegar, Hemlock, Catskill
Adam Minegar tending bar at Hemlock in Catskill. Credit: Konrad Odhiambo/The Dishing
Bartender and owner Adam Minegar talks to The Dishing about theater, making Esquire’s Best Bar list, and opening a cocktail oasis in a small town upstate.
Interview: Susie Davidson Powell
Photos: Konrad Odhiambo/The Dishing
Tastemaker: Adam Minegar, owner -Hemlock
Hemlock: IG: @hemlockcatskill
Hometown: Osceola, IN
Current city: Catskill, NY
Personal style: The last fashion decision I made was buying sunglasses that my partner, Charlotte, wouldn’t describe as “mowing the lawn glasses!
Listening to: Yacht Rock, almost exclusively
Favorite spirit: Overproof Bourbon
Favorite classic cocktail: Tom Collins
Favorite bar or venue ever: Dynaco, Brooklyn
Biggest cocktail influence: Kathryn “Pepper” Stashek. Everything she creates is so elegant and brilliant. She’s possibly the best bartender I know.
Drink trend that should end: Bartenders giving attitude to non-drinkers.
Adam Minegar spritzing the . Photo: Konrad Odhiambo/The Dishing
The Dishing talks with tastemakers in the hospitality industry + trailblazers at the intersection of food, culture + art. When Esquire magazine named Hemlock in Catskill among their writers’ favorite bars for 2025, it hit the national stage with influencers filming and upstate media outlets covering the accolade. But the focus of the best bar list this year was slightly different: Esquire had asked staffers a simple question: “Where do you go for a drink when the world’s giving you the blues?” and writer Peter Barrett gave Hemlock its flowers. We talk to owner Adam Minegar about his industry backstory, theater, carpentry and building a cocktail oasis in a small Catskill town.
SDP: In the 2025 Esquire Best Bars article, Peter Barrett wrote, “I was looking for a bar I could love… somewhere with character, a place where I could unwind and converse and sip drinks that satisfied me cerebrally and viscerally.” And that in finding Hemlock, he “found a solid place to hang out, and that’s no small thing in a person’s life. Hemlock’s great achievement is that it exists to create space for you.” I reviewed the prior three restaurants in your space at 394 Main Street and you have - thankfully - already outlasted them all. What do you think you have created at 394 Main Street that feels so welcoming for your guests?
Honestly, not alienating locals is a huge priority. I had the good fortune of personally building out the space with my partners, Chad Arnholt and Charlotte Daniel) on the sidewalk in front of hemlock for 6 months. The original idea was to focus on cocktails and exclusivity, something that is sought out in NYC. But the 6 months of meeting and listening to Catskill locals completely changed our business model. You could say the people of Catskill helped build the place.
In New York City, you worked at Dear Irving, The Fat Black Pussy Cat in the West Village and were head bartender at Raines Law Room before heading to Diamond Reef in Brooklyn. When that closed during the pandemic, you retrained in carpentry and moved upstate to renovate a space in Catskill, but ended up bartending at The Maker Lounge in Hudson. What made you decide it was time to open your own bar and can you describe the bar’s identity?
Charlotte and I used to go to 394 Main (which we turned into Hemlock) for karaoke on Saturday nights after my shift at The Maker. After hearing the DJ announce that the bar was going out of business the next day, I immediately found and contacted the landlord. Having only enough money to pay for our drinks, and that months rent, I guess you could say I was just kicking tires. But after seeing the potential of using my carpentry and hospitality experience, along with Charlotte’s natural inclination for interior design, I asked friends for money and pulled the trigger. It was after I demolished the entire space that I took a moment, looked around, then BEGGED Chad to move here to help me make this happen. Best decision of my life. And I got a best friend discount!
The signature martini at Hemlock. Photo: Konrad Odhiambo/The Dishing.
SDP: Can you describe the last 5 years of your life since the 2020 lockdown in 5 words.
Insecure, rooted, grateful, openminded, happy.
SDP: You studied theater in Chicago and moved to NYC to pursue acting. I keep meeting bartenders with theater backgrounds. Do you think there are parallels between working in theater and the theater of bartending?
Both careers derived from laziness and fear! I went to theater school because I thought I absolutely had to go to college and musical theater seemed to be a concentration that required the least amount of work. I was wrong. I absolutely had to work and I thought tending bar would require less of me than auditioning for shows. I was wrong again! It was very easy for me to give up acting once I found my love of the hospitality industry. I’ve told people for years that being a bartender lets me use the skills I acquired as an actor to perform for my guests, but that’s not all true. I’m not a good enough actor to have done that for 20 years. I genuinely love being behind the bar.
SDP: My favorite Hemlock story is about the Brazilian bubinga-wood bar that was originally at Diamond Reef, the Brooklyn bar operated by Sam Ross and Michael McIlroy of Attaboy in New York City and Nashville, Tenn. How on earth did you move a 40’ bar from Brooklyn to Catskill in one piece?
Oh god. I rented a 26ft U-haul and drove to Brooklyn to pick it up. The hardest part was finding a route OUT of the city that allows trucks! It turned a 2 hour drive into a 7 hour drive home. But I made it. The bar was a gift from those guys, and I would do that trip 100 times again if they ever needed. Without that gift, Hemlock might have never happened. The partners from Diamond Reef (Dan Greenbaum, Sam Ross, Michael Mcllroy) played a huge roll in Hemlock’s success.
Adam Minegar and the backbar shelves made from Brooklyn’s Diamond Reef bar. Photo: Konrad Odhiambo/The Dishing
SDP: What’s the vision behind your cocktail program at Hemlock?
The vision is simplicity. Short menu with a short list of quality ingredients. Do simple, but do it well.
SDP: You have a martini misted with a house tincture of local spruce, fir and conifer. What other locally sourced Hudson Valley ingredients do you try to incorporate into your cocktails?
We buy local as much as we can. It’s easier with food items, but there are still loads of amazing local distilleries and breweries in NY State. Return Brewing, C.Cassis, Matchbook Distilling Co. are a few standouts. We juice everything in house and make a lot of ingredients like the spruce tips tincture and use local Tivoli Mushrooms Go Mushrooms reishi oxymel in our non-alcoholic Mock Turtleneck. (Ed. note: Oxymel is an ancient herbal remedy and Go Mushrooms is made with apple cider vinegar, honey, burdock root, hibiscus flower and their own reishi extract.)
SDP: Restaurants and bars have all reported less foot traffic and less of a drinking crowd since 2020 and many offer more pop up collaborations. What do you see as the future of bars?
I think bars will be more and more food focused in the future. People are certainly drinking less, but they are still going out. They still spend money. If you have non-alcoholic options and food, nothing really changes from a business perspective.
SDP: You are a cocktail bar first and have just five items on the food menu although they have taken on an iconic life of their own. For a minute you added late night glizzys. What are the 5 menu items and why?
Sure! 1. A $9 Wagyu Smashburger! We’re able to charge that because we’re okay breaking even on that item. It’s one of my favorite burgers in the world and It brings people in the door. 2. Vegan Chopped Cheese. Gotta have a vegan option. 3. Pimento Cheese. Charlotte and Chad are both Southerners and I eat more cheese in a day than most families in a week. It’s a problem. A delicious problem. 4. Salad. It changes seasonally and is always a second vegan option.
5. Fries. Duh!
Photo: Konrad Odhiambo/The Dishing
SDP: Your cocktails are all priced democratically at a pocket-friendly $15. Why?
It all comes back to avoiding alienating locals. We did a LOT of market research in the area (drinking), and found $15 to be the sweet spot that people are fine spending on a quality cocktail, while keeping the bar profitable.
SDP: What are your childhood memories of cooking/eating at home or dining out?
I grew up in a home with two grandparents who never stopped making depression era food. There was a rotation of 12 or so dinners that I still think about often.This sounds crazy, but my favorite of those was the peanutbutter, pickle and onion sandwich. Natural Peanutbutter, dill pickle, and red onion. Trust me!
SDP: When friends come to visit, what are 3 favorite spots where you’d take them anywhere in the Hudson Valley or Capital Region for breakfast, lunch or dinner?
Breakfast: Gracie’s Luncheonette. Lunch: Greenhouse Cidery. Dinner: Casa Susanna
SDP: Catskill has had quite the glow up in recent years. If someone spent a weekend in Catskill, what are some top spots to eat and drink and what else is there to do?
Left Bank Ciders has the best cider, and they recently added an incredible food menu. The Avalon Lounge has killer Korean food and really creative cocktails, and live music. Cafe Joust for coffee. There are also lots of shops and art galleries on Main Street. My favorite shop is Catskill Collectibles. They have vintage Catskill memorabilia, and Tom is so knowledgeable regarding Catskill history.
SDP: Imagine your ideal day or night out. If you could go anywhere with no limits on costs or reservations, where would you go and how would the day or night unfold?
Private jet to Barcelona. I would walk the entire city, stopping at EVERY place that has jamon iberico bellota and get a heaping plate with a tiny freezing cold beer. After watching the sunset over the water, Charlotte and I would watch celebrity jeopardy with a bottle of local vermouth.
SDP: You opened Hemlock with your partner Charlotte Daniel (who designed the stylishly simple interior) and your industry friend Chad Arnholt, a bar consultant who stayed on until January 2024 but came now back in 2025. You’re now open 7 days a week, 5 p.m. to midnight, so how do you manage a work/life balance and what do you do to relax?
Chad takes a ton of the workload off my plate. I’m really bad at paperwork and administrative stuff, so Chad is a godsend. Charlotte keeps me from overextending myself too much and forces me to do things like sit down for a home cooked meal any night I’m not working. I also have an amazing staff who I can trust to operate the bar without worries.
SDP: What’s next? Any new projects or programming at Hemlock?
Chad and I are dying to put ourselves through a restaurant opening for some reason. We don’t have any money, but that didn’t stop us from opening Hemlock, so we will see!
SDP: Thanks for talking to The Dishing, Adam! Hope we’ll get the chance to collaborate!
Hemlock. Photo: Konrad Odhiambo/The Dishing
*This interview has been lightly edited for clarity and length. - SDP