MEET: TWIN LAKES ICE Co. —Abby Puca + Sean Meagher
Diamond Life: Abby Puca + Sean Meagher talk cut, clarity, balance + why you should care about the ice in your glass.
Interview : Susie Davidson Powell
Art Director: Susie Davidson Powell
Photographer: Victoria Sedefian/The Dishing
Location: The School: Jack Shainman Gallery, Kinderhook, N.Y.
Tastemakers: Abby Puca + Sean Meagher | AP IG: @_disheveled_elegance_ | @railroadcrossfit
Business: Twin Lake Ice Co. @twinlakesiceco
Website: twinlakesiceco.com
Hometown: AP: Pine Plains, NY | SM: Oceanside, NY
Current city: Claverack, NY
Personal style: SM: I mostly wear the same 6 days a week: shop clothes, multiple layers, jeans and thermal shirt, muck boots. | AB: I’m pretty much the same: black leggings, athletic t-shirt, Railroad Crossfit brand hoodies
Listening to: AB: Lots of 90s rock, hip-hop and R&B | SM: Predominantly Phish, Grateful Dead + assorted roots reggae
Favorite spirit: AB: Gin | SM: Rum
Favorite classic cocktail (or N/A): AB: Negroni | SM: Sidecar
Favorite bar or venue ever: AB: Mila’s Restaurant & Bar, Schenectady, NY | SM: Governor’s Tavern Hudson, NY + BackBar Beer Garden, Pine Plains, NY
Biggest cocktail influence: AB/SM: We’ve both always gravitated towards the pre-prohibition and prohibition era
Drink trend that should end: AB: I’m not up on drinks trends - but jalapenos in rosé?! | SM: Anytime you find yourself doing something that falls into a trend, you should do an about-face and go the other way and stay true to yourself!
Welcome to The Dishing’s Quick Serve interviews where we talk with tastemakers in the hospitality industry and trailblazers at the intersection of food, culture and art. Today, we’re talking with Abby Puca and Sean Meagher, founders of Twin Lakes Ice Co., a Hudson Valley based ice company serving custom cubes to area bars, restaurants and home buyers, about the role of ice in cocktails, expanding their business since the pandemic, the importance of custom cuts and how they strike a work/life balance.
[Ed’s note: Given we wanted to put the focus on the ice for the shoot, Abby + Sean were good sports when I asked Sean to custom cut enough slim spear ice for a game of Jenga. I lugged a folding table and chair to Kinderhook and advised everyone to dress warmly for an outoor shoot in the snow. They went all in and photographer Victoria Sedefian bundled up to shoot on a bitter February day, even with the sun glistening on the snow. I’m so glad everyone trusted me because the ice + Jenga shot are stunning. — SDP ]
Abby + Sean, thanks for talking with The Dishing! Let me ask the most obvious of questions: Why is ice important in cocktails?
Ice is an ingredient. Clear ice is going to have a slower melt time providing the appropriate amount of water content and allowing that sipping cocktail to mature over the length of its life. High quality cocktails deserve high quality ingredients and quality ice ensures the best possible cocktail. A few choose to do it themselves; some buy mass-produced. All solid approaches until quality, consistency, and time become priorities. Hand-cut ice is different: Clear, dense, and slow-melting; consistent across the board. We’re a small, craft-focused business built around quality and reliability and doing it really well.
Although interest in cocktails seems to be staying steady in the industry in bars and with the home bartender, but we’re seeing a decline overall in the consumption of alcohol, particularly among a younger audience. Obviously, non-alc cocktails still require ice, but do you see growth in any other areas?
We’ve been a part of bar programs that offer temperance or low abv cocktails. In our early days of Twin Lakes Ice Co. we were a part of Natasha David’s Drink Lightly book featuring low-abv and zero-proof cocktails which prove these style cocktails deserve clear ice as well. We also feel coffee shops can benefit from using clear ice in one form or another—and we’re already working with Broadway Coffee up in Saratoga for all of their ice needs.
We have seen growth of distilleries and breweries through the Hudson Valley and very often they specifically mention Hudson Valley water. I know your production facility is in Ghent. How did you find this space and is the water source an important part of your decision to be based in the Hudson Valley?
Yes, our warehouse is in Commerce Park in Ghent. The landlord envisioned multiple spaces within the warehouse so there are artists, tradesmen, a sort of collective. We were the first and he built out our space with refrigeration, freezer storage. They’ve been adding tenants. I think there are five now: a candle maker, metal worker, and a group doing art installations. But, for the water, most of filtration comes through the freezing process. We also have a filtration system and watering softening system to combat the hard water that we all face in the Hudson Valley.
I know some major food distributors like Sysco and US Food are moving into selling large ice. Presumably there’s little way of knowing the water source they’re using? Is that something that concerns you?
Now we’re talking about quality. Really the issue is about how mass-produced ice is handled. At higher volume, there’s not enough attention to detail, no consistency in size/shape and that can lead to inconsistency in cocktails. Or inconsistent temp controls through delivery. Also they don’t have the variety of shapes or custom sizes that we are able to custom cut to a bar’s glass. If we see any imperfections in a cube, it gets tossed into our cracked ice. With us focusing on the Hudson Valley, it allows us more quality control than a company shipping nationwide. It’s like picking your favorite spot where you get a burger, then compare it to a fast food burger. That's the difference between Twin Lakes Ice Co. and a large company.
It is no surprise to me to find that you’re both career bartenders! Abby, you grew up in Pine Plains where your mother owned a bar; Sean, you grew up in Long Island and worked front of house in hospitality for many years. Can you briefly walk us through how you arrived in the Hudson area, where you met and when you started Twin Lakes Ice Co.?
SM: I moved up here to crack into restaurants almost 20 years ago. I was living and caretaking on a family property in Elizaville on a lake, Twin Lakes, which is the company’s namesake. In high school I was a busser and server but after college I ran events and was maitre d’ at Sands Beach Club on Atlantic Beach so when I moved up here I managed events for Terrapin and was a server at Flat Iron in Red Hook before I went to Backbar to bartend, presided over the bar program at Wm. Farmer + Sons in Hudson for 7 years where their bar program focused on classic cocktails and clear ice. I had the opportunity there to train using a bandsaw to hand cut ice. Soon Lawrence Park, The Maker and BackBar reached out and I was able to start selling to them. I met Abby in 20217 when she was bartending at Governor’s Tavern – I’d stop into Govie’s pre and post shift where Abby was working behind the bar. We founded Twin Lakes Ice Co. in 2020 during the pandemic and in 6 years we’ve been able to bring our ice to the Hudson Valley region.
AP: I started bussing/serving at restaurants where my mom worked (Stissing House was one in the early 2000s) and moved to Hudson after graduating from college. I worked at Ca’Mea bartending and running their three inns before I moved on to manage an apartment complex called The Falls. I jumped from place to place working at The Lumber Yard Dance Residency in Catskill, Le Gamin on Warren Street, and then found myself at Governor’s Tavern. Sean would come in, just one of the reasons why it's one of our favorite spots.
Can you walk us through the kind of ice cubes you cut for your customers and how they’re best used.
Whenever we start with a new account we like to provide samples of all of our offerings sometimes even taking glassware back to the shop for custom cuts ensuing the customer gets the exact style that would be most appropriate for their bar program
Walk us through what your production schedule looks like each week.
We’re in the shop 6 days a week, harvesting up to 20 - 300# blocks a week and then breaking down those blocks with a chainsaw into various sizes prepping them for the bandsaw and those final custom cuts. Running with 3 employees, everyone having their own department that they work in and head up, and then all of us coming together to get that ice on the truck and ultimately into your glass. All of us either bartenders, artists or tradesmen looking for something slightly different but still being creative.
Abby, you had mentioned the burnout you felt at one point and I know you re-trained as a certified cross-fit personal trainer. That’s a really interesting shift. Can you tell us how that came about and if you’re still training or offering training today?
I wanted to shift my focus into giving back in my professional life. I had been working out in a CrossFit gym for about 6 years at the point of the shift, I saw what coaches were doing and I wanted to be a part of it. I got my CrossFit certification in 2018 and have been coaching at Railroad CrossFit for 8 years. I love every second of it.
I know business has really expanded for you but is it true that you’re both still bartending?
SM: I’m still currently doing 2 nights a week at Governor’s Tavern and still enjoying being behind the bar and the fast pace, also being at the ice shop 6 days a week not getting out much, it is my way to get out and spend some time at a bar.
AP: I fill in at Back Bar Beer Garden (Pine Plains) here and there during the summer months on busy Friday nights when they have bands playing.
We talked about Abby’s fitness journey, but I always ask industry people about ways they manage their work/life balance and protect their health and mental health. How do you make time to rest or unwind?
AP: Sunday is the day! Once Twin Lakes Ice Co. really took off, Sean was able to give up Saturday and Sunday shifts!
SM: For the first time in 25 years, I don’t have Sat or Sun shifts and I adjusted to that really quickly.
AP: We love spending time on our property and occasionally venturing out to the many places that are on our list to visit. We like to hang out by the pool or walk around the property with our dog. We have a couple of acres. We just love being there.
Whether by yourself, or when friends come to visit, where would be 3 go-to favorite spots in the Hudson Valley or Capital Region for breakfast, lunch and dinner?
So many to list with all of the places we’ve encountered seems like an Oscars exception speech where we’re going to have to leave a few out - Shadow 66 for either brunch or dinner, Padrona for sure, Subversive for smashburgers and great beers, Milas for the atmosphere great food and cocktails, Governor’s Tavern for obvious reasons.
Where are some of your favorite places for cocktails anywhere in the Hudson Valley or Capital District?
We have a great list of places on our website! But we like to go out for cocktails at The Hereafter, Padrona, the tap list at Governor’s, taking our dog to Subversive, heading to Milas in Schenectady. Also we love Rivertown food and drinks, even though it’s closing. [Ed. note: The restaurant at Rivertown Lodge is closing in March 2026 to re-open as a new concept under Executive Chef Éfrén Hérnandez.)
Imagine an 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?
We love to go out early, get some cocktails and apps at a place or two, head home around 6 — summertime especially — Sean with a bottle of Sierra Nevada in hand cooking dinner. Then hanging outside on our property until late at night with our dog, Toro.
What’s next? Any new projects or expansion plans? Where do you see yourselves in 5 years?
We’re looking to get into the more non-drink focus ice applications. Definitely coffees shops for iced coffees, but other non-cocktail ice like an ice punch bowl, large ice display vessels for a raw bar, or small individual plates for crudos/sashimi, to work alongside food and back of house visions. Maybe orchids frozen in cubes. We’re looking into building relationships with ice carvers.
I’ve previously featured your company in end of year gift lists because I’m a firm believer that if you’re going to give a quality bottle to someone then it’s a solid move to bring quality bar ice. If individuals want to order from you directly, how do they go about that?
You can submit an inquiry online or reach out via text, email or phone. The info is right on the website. We have a truck out 3 times a week so we can absolutely accommodate residential deliveries!
Thanks for talking with The Dishing! This winter shoot with photographer Victoria Sedefian was one of my favorites ever. Thanks so much for going along with my plan to set you up playing ice Jenga. (I know it was cold!) And we look forward to your ongoing growth and hopefully will collaborate down the line. Cheers!
