GUEST SHIFT: RACHAEL PETACH, C. Cassis
Rachael Petach. | Photo: Konrad Odhiambo/The Dishing
Rachael Petach, founder of C. Cassis, talks hospitality, dreaming up her logo, preserving blackcurrants + crafting green tomato cocktails.
Interview: Susie Davidson Powell
Photos: Konrad Odhiambo/The Dishing
Location: C. Cassis Tasting Room, Rhinebeck
Tastemaker: Rachael Petach| IG: @rachaelpetach
Where: C. Cassis | IG: @currentcassis
Hometown: San Clemente, CA
Current city: Germantown, NY
Personal style: Comedy, utility, arch support, hat.
Listening to: Geese, KATSEYE, DYAN
Favorite spirit/non-alc: I was just in Greece so I’ve been drinking a lot of ouzo!
Favorite classic cocktail/non-alc drink: Dirty Martini/Casamara Super Clasico
Coffee or tea and what’s your order: Tea - Oolong, whole milk, dab of buckwheat honey
Biggest industry influence/inspiration: Pascaline Lepeltier, Chris Crawford, Alice Jun
Drinks industry trend that should end: Aperol Spritz
Read about Rachael’s new aperitif cocktail, the Green Tomato Spritz here.
C. Cassis + Green Tomato Spritz. Photo: Konrad Odhiambo/The Dishing
The Dishing talks with tastemakers in the hospitality industry + trailblazers at the intersection of food, culture + art. Today we’re talking with Rachael Petach, founder of C. Cassis blackcurrant liqueur and the C. Cassis tasting room in Rhinebeck, N.Y.
Hi, Rachael. Thanks for talking with us! You started out batch testing your Current Cassis recipe in your Brooklyn apartment. How did you come up with an idea to make an American crème de cassis?
Thank you for visiting us! It’s true, haha - honestly not much smaller than our first production space but that apartment saw the development of what became C. Cassis over the course of a strange and transformative two years. It started when I was pregnant with my son and looking for low ABV or no ABV drinks that were not sweet, or overly complex, or with botanicals that weren’t compatible with pregnancy. Remembering the flavor of fresh blackcurrants from time spent farming in France years prior, I became obsessed with making something that tasted more like the fruit itself — as opposed to the crème-style which is quite sweet.
And you’ve recently introduced a non-alc version, right?
As much as I love to drink, I also love to have stretches of time where I’m not drinking alcohol. I really wanted something that was similar to the cassis, just without the booze, and for like 2 years I worked on perfecting that. It has the same botanical profile plus just the lightest bitter to stand in for the bite that would come from the spirit. It’s also full of antioxidants, vitamin c, and anthocyanins. Truly a joy to drink.
Compared to the French crème de cassis, what’s the process for making your Hudson Valley C. Cassis?
Similar to vermouth — we essentially make a blackcurrant wine then fortify and aromatize it, adding in just a bit of raw wild honey for light sweetness.
How did you find your beautiful tasting room in Rhinebeck?
Total kismet! We were connected to our landlords through a friend who had been doing some build work for them and knew about the barn. It is an 1860s dairy barn that had been lifted, structurally reinforced and lightly renovated before we started leasing it. Really a dream come true for us, and almost overwhelming as we were looking for a production space first and foremost. We weren’t exactly ready or financially prepared for a tasting room buildout but we made it work and feel so lucky to be here.
How to picnic. Charcuterie board, end of summer tomatoes, original C. Cassis, canned C. Cassis Spritz, and pouring the new non-alcoholic C. Cassis over soda. | Photo: Konrad Odhiambo/The Dishing.
Walk us through a typical work day for you.
One of the things that I love about this work is that it has many faces, every day is a little different. I get up very early, so after a run my day starts with making lists and doing some emails before my son wakes up. Once I arrive to the studio, I’m checking on tanks, working over a production schedule with our small team which can be anything from pressing fruit or bottling to making compote or disgorging sparkling wine, then connecting with our sales manager, working in the garden and doing tests for our smaller experimental batches. The company is a collaboration between myself and my husband, Steve, who does all of the graphic design. In the early evening we’ll reconvene at home and talk about any upcoming projects and design needs while cooking dinner. He has a full time job, so will often work after dinner on the cassis graphics. I go to bed early because I wake up early, and truly I love sleep.
Anyone visiting your tasting room will see the logo and bright blue of your brand repeating throughout the design, merch, and even your wonderful bar stools. Does the blue have a Pantone name? What’s the story behind the logo?
The blue, much to the chagrin of most of our print partners, does not have a pantone name! The paint in the space is Sojourn Blue. The logo came to me in a dream and I was drawing it in Sharpie on all the little bottles I was first giving to friends back in 2018. My husband is a graphic designer and he perfected the logo for the labels.
[Ed. note: C. Cassis is short for Current Cassis. The spelling of Current - rather than Currant - is no mistake! Current Cassis is a modern version of traditional, fermented currant liqueurs popular from France to Poland.]
When I first wrote about the tasting room in 2023, Katy Moore (Marlow + Sons) was your culinary director preparing dolmas, salads and sandwiches. Now you have a packed fridge with local cheeses, charcuterie, and some small seasonal plates, but you’re increasingly featuring pop ups. Can you tell us about a few of your collaborations and what’s coming up?
Yes! Katy is amazing, we just visited with her at Kinderhook Farm where she tends to all of the sheep! We have so many friends who are cooking in increasingly creative and less traditional ways. It’s no secret that the restaurant model is very hard to make work financially so as we head into Fall/Winter this year, we are partnering with a number of incredible chefs who want to explore brick and mortar operations with more flexibility. We are asking the same questions about equity, structure, and sustainability that we ask in the manufacturing business — what is possible in making something meaningful without sacrificing your mental health and quality of life. Starting 10/17, we will begin offering reservation-based lunch service with some Friday dates. We cannot wait to host you.
Bottles for merch for sale inside the C. Cassis Tasting Rooom. | Photo: Konrad Odhiambo
Tell us about your production team and front of house crew. Does it feel as if you’re a bit of an incubator since some of your past staff have gone on to open their own businesses too?
I’m so in awe of everyone that I get to work with. We all teach each other so much and everyone that works here also has their own thriving creative practices - we are an amalgamation of writers, poets, photographers, artists, musicians, bakers, performers, designers, and builders. So much of what makes the work satisfying is being able to support each other and exchange ideas across many endeavors. It also helps all of us to be flexible and apply our different ways of thinking to the various tasks at C. Cassis.
You use Hudson Valley blackcurrants to make C. Cassis but your tasting room sits on 35 acres and you recently planted your own bushes. How much will they yield and will they make it into production?
Yes! The goal is to grow at least 50% of what we use in our production onsite, but it is a process and as anyone who farms knows it is a full-time job in and of itself. This year was our first yield on our plants, and we made an incredible jelly with lemon verbena and lemon balm, available at the tasting room and online.
You have many sustainable uses for the blackcurrants after pressing from the salted currant compote to the crackers served with your cocktail flight. Can you tell us about these ways you use up the fruit? Are operations zero-waste?
While we aren’t fully zero-waste we have imagined our production as closed-loop oriented from the beginning. We compost all organic waste with Laughing Fox Farm, have re-usable vessels for transport of bulk materials, + channel all pressed fruit into secondary projects like the salted currant compote + our sparkling wine, Cassette.
I’ve seen your wonderful vegetable garden and leafy tomato plants. You launched a new Green Tomato aperitivo this summer. What gave you the idea to make it and how do you like to drink it?
This came from an abundance of green tomatoes from 1841 Farm down the road from us. I had made a small batch of green tomato aperitif for our bar program when we opened the tasting room that went into our original CCTINI, so I felt confident that I could do something with the larger amount of fruit. But what happened with this one sort of became its own story - the last of our rose wine from Hudson Chatham, an ex-pommeau barrel from Rose Hill, all these Hudson Valley pieces that synthesized over two years into this incredible golden liquid.
Actually, you’re also now producing a C. Cassis blackcurrant vodka in partnership with Matchbook Distillery. What’s the flavor like and will it be an RTD like your C. Cassis Spritz in a can?
Leslie at Matchbook is such a font of knowledge and source of inspiration. We use a ton of Matchbook products on the bar and truly she has been one of my industry confidants since the beginning. I have to also give credit to Talitha at Vine Wine in BK for encouraging this one, and I’m so glad that she did! It is so smooth and aromatic, with an underlying tart complexity, making it something that has won over vodka drinkers and vodka haters alike. No RTD in sight…yet!
Are you behind the rotating creative seasonal cocktails on the menu? What inspires you and do you have a favorite cocktail you’ve made to date?
So much of what I know about cocktail creation and being behind the bar I owe to industry friends like Natasha David who designed our original menu, and Orlando McCray who guests and consistently surprises us with his creativity, to our own expert Alex Patrick Dyck who is behind the bar many weekends and has come up with some of our best cocktails + best names. Our inspiration comes primarily from the gardens at C. Cassis or things we have eaten or songs and people that we are in love with. My favorite to date remains the 10am Somewhere, one of Natasha’s babies, which drinks like a friendly daytime espresso martini and is so darn pretty.
The C. Cassis cocktail flight + blackcurrant cracker. | Photo: Konrad Odhiambo
You come from a hospitality background having worked at Chez Panisse in California, the Wythe and Bowery Hotels in New York City, as well as hosting pop up dinners in an apartment when you lived in Madrid, Spain. What does hospitality mean to you?
Great hospitality is invisible. It’s being in the arms of your favorite caregiver. It’s letting someone else take the reins so in that way it can be kind of vulnerable. But really it’s simple, it’s water in the glass, it’s the drink you wanted, it’s food without waiting too long, it’s someone else’s genuine curiosity in finding a beautiful way to meet some of your needs for a little while.
Given all the moving parts of your life, what do you do to foster a good work/life balance?
It is hard but there are a few things that I rely on - moving my body outdoors in some way every day, reading/going to readings, taking time with my family, remembering that it’s ok for some things to take longer because we are humans and we are doing our best.
Looking at the impact of the pandemic lockdown, restaurants are still struggling with foot traffic and trying to innovate sometimes with programming or earlier hours. What do you think is the future of the industry?
I don’t think any of us can really know the future, but what gives me hope is that we are shaping it every day with our choices - all of us. Support your local small businesses because they care way more about you than any corporation ever will.
Looking forward, where do you see C. Cassis in 5 years?
Consistent, thriving, continuing to surprise and delight ourselves and all of you.
On a solo day off, or with friends visiting town, where would you go for breakfast, lunch or dinner? (3 spots in the Hudson valley or Capital Region, pls!)
It’s Club Sandwich in Tivoli for breakfast (run by C. Cassis alum Anna Morris!), Montgomery Place Orchards for picnic provisions then to a hike or swim spot, and Cafe Mutton for dinner.
You’re a Californian who moved to Europe and then landed in New York. Is there anything you miss about the West Coast?
Of course. I love California, its wild mediterranean plant life, the pacific, golden hills, its gentle flakey optimism, all of that lives in my body all the time.
Thanks for talking with The Dishing. We’re looking forward to coming in for your Friday lunch pop ups and seeing what you dream up next for C. Cassis.
