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Acclaimed bartender Moe Aljaff’s bar love story started as he was handing out flyers to a dive bar in Amsterdam. The industry had him in a joyous headlock and he climbed the ranks, eventually opening a “five-star dive bar” in the rough quarters of Raval, Barcelona in 2017.
Fast forward to The World’s 50 Best Bars awards bonanza in his then hometown five years later. His bar, Two Schmucks, had just been awarded number seven on the list. People were flocking to the after parties, queuing up to the bar and its two neighboring siblings that opened during the pandemic. Head bartender Juliette Larrouy was seen parading the lines with trays full of shots, making the wait worthwhile.
“We had decided to go out with an absolute bang,” Aljaff remembers.
No one necking those shots knew that two days down the line almost the whole staff would do a walk-out in support of the founder’s loss of business control to its venture capitalist investors. But it wasn’t only that, along with internal power battles work had become something else than it initially was.
“You wake up and your job title has changed from creative to logistics and it’s just not as fun anymore,” explains Aljaff during a lecture at Tjoget bar.
We’re in Stockholm, just one hour from the Swedish city of Västerås where Aljaff grew up, when he, for the first time, opens up on how life has been since leaving his lifetime project that day in October 2022.
“We had no idea what was next”.
Aljaff and Larrouy at work
But Aljaff had an invite by a tequila brand to go to Guadalajara in Mexico and the loose plan was to go to the US afterwards.
“I knew I wanted to go to the States, and I had always felt like our brand and bar belonged there. But my name is Mohammed and I was traveling with three suitcases which was my whole life back then so I got stopped at border control. I was officially declined and told I was probably never going to get an ESTA again,” he says.
Aljaff felt a strain of despair and was quite literally homeless. He was going broke too, as he hadn’t settled with the co-owners in Barcelona.
Acclaimed bartender Hampus Thunholm, running Röda Huset in Stockholm (currently number 31 on The World’s 50 Best Bars list) came to the rescue, giving up his sofa in Stockholm.
“It was the first sofa of many more to come,” says Aljaff with a smirk.
Then he got a tip from a lawyer: the employment-based, first-preference immigrant visa for people meeting the extraordinary ability criteria was also granted to people in the service industry. He felt he had nothing to lose and applied, handing in his passport to the US embassy in Stockholm. This end bit of the process normally takes around two weeks so, naturally, after one month the one-time bar superstar of Raval felt desperate. He was working out frantically twice a day to keep his mind off the pressing fact that his one master plan—presenting the Schmuck concept to the US market—wasn’t going to happen.
He was in his mid-30s and the next step was to move back in with his parents in Västerås.
But, six weeks later, his passport was returned, upsized with a visa.
The team that did the walk-out packed up and left for Miami where they launched a residency inside a hotel. The whole menu’s R&D was created in a shared Airbnb apartment’s tiny kitchenette; 'Kitchenette' became its name. It was a fresh start, but without gilt edge. And Miami was not the place for Aljaff to lay down his hat.
“I have always struggled with the feeling of home, as my parents came to Sweden as refugees but when I came to New York in May 2023 I immediately felt I was home,” he says.
In Miami, Moe had met the bar entrepreneur Dan Binkiewicz, once a barback who moved up the ranks, and currently operates a multitude of bars. He had always wanted to open up shop in New York. And now, Larrouy, a former chef and ex-staffer of Le Syndicat in Paris, who had been reluctant to leave France for Barcelona back in 2020 but was then persuaded by Aljaff, also felt it was a good idea.
The trio behind New York City’s most anticipated bar opening this year was now formed.
Larrouy and Aljaff with Dan Binkiewicz
But finding the right location in New York is not easy. And Aljaff didn’t think much of the space that’s now becoming the 100-seater called Schmuck. [note the period] in Manhattan's East Village. It was ridden with sewage and looked like a dump, but Binkiewicz saw its potential.
This February, another residency was set up at the Back Bar in Kimpton Hotel Eventi in Midtown, to tease Aljaff and Larrouy’s drinks skills. It was a huge success, with guests sometimes queuing for up to three hours, just to try some cocktails.
Also, along on the new Schmuck. journey are Floriane Groux and Eliane Naeger, part of the original Two Schmucks team.
“I grew up with four sisters so for me it’s a feeling of safety,” comments Aljaff on working with his all-female management team.
The name of the new cocktail list at Schmuck. has not been chosen, even though it would be hard to beat Kitchenette, the Miami tribute to what the team created without professional bar tools.
“You have to work with what you have. We had nothing. These days bartenders are blinded by all the advanced equipment that’s out there, so I think it’s a good reminder that the job is actually working with your hands,” says Aljaff.
Whilst the follow-up to Kitchenette is still in the making, Barcelona regulars will notice a difference—the pours on the other side of the Atlantic will be more “refined”. Aljaff presents me with Le Banané, a flavor-forward cocktail that tastes exactly like a ripe banana.
“We’re always chasing flavor. Juliette used to be a sous chef in [a] Michelin-starred restaurant, so she has an incredible way of transferring that knowledge into cocktails,” he adds.
Patrons can also expect an upgraded version of the signature Melon Cheese Pepper alongside a herby burnt marshmallow and black truffle drink when Schmuck. opens sometime in September or October at 97 First Avenue. Plus, a great selection of tap cocktails for when you want something fast and easy, as well as an in-depth selection of fruit wines, which Aljaff identifies as a big coming trend. The kitchen meanwhile will offer dishes with a fusion of Middle Eastern and French cuisines.
If you can’t wait that long for a sip, here are two Schmuck. cocktail recipes to try at home.
Schmuck. cocktail recipes to try at home
Ramos Royale
Ingredients
1.7 oz/50ml cacao butter-infused gin
1 oz/30ml simple syrup
1.4 oz/40 ml truffle cream
0.4 oz/12.5ml lime juice
0.4 oz/12.5ml lemon juice
0.5 oz/15ml egg white
0.5 oz/15ml soda water
4 dash salt
Method
- Combine all ingredients besides the soda water in a milkshake machine or blender.
- Add a scoop of crushed ice.
- Blend until the ice is melted.
- Serve in a highball glass and let it sit for 3 minutes.
- Create a hole with a straw at the center of the cocktail.
- Pour the soda water into the hole to create a ‘soufflé effect’.
Preparation
Cacao butter-infused gin
84.5 oz/2.5l gin
1.7 oz/50 g cacao butter
- Melt the cacao butter (it must be raw cacao butter).
- Add the cacao butter to the gin and let it infuse for 24 hours at room temperature.
- Place the gin with cacao in the freezer for more than 6 hours then strain it through a cloth.
Simple syrup
33.8 oz/1l water
53 oz/1.5kg sugar
- Blend the water and sugar until the sugar is dissolved.
Truffle cream
33.8 oz/1l cream
0.2 oz/5g minced black truffle
- Blend the truffle with the cream and let infuse for at least 24 hours.
Tarte Tatin
Ingredients
1.2 oz/35ml Dusse butter
2 oz/60ml cooked apple juice
0.7 oz/20ml amontillado cinnamon
0.7 oz/20ml crème fraiche
0.7 oz/20ml cream
0.3/10ml all egg
5 dash salt
Method
- Add all the ingredients to a blender with 2 ice cubes.
- Blend for 30 seconds.
- Serve on ice in an Old Fashioned glass.
Preparation
Cooked apple juice
33.8 oz/1l golden apple
0.14 oz/4g malic acid
- Juice some fresh apple, add the malic acid and boil the juice.
Dusse butter
8.8oz/250g salted butter
25.3 oz/750ml Dusse Cognac
- Cook the butter until it takes on a nice golden brown color.
- Filter it into the Dusse cognac and leave it to infuse for 14h at room temperature. (Put the Cognac in the freezer for a night first, then filter it once the butter is frozen).
Amontillado cinnamon
33.8 oz/1l amontillado sherry
11.7 oz/333g sugar
10 sticks cinnamon
10 cloves cardamom
- Crush the spices and mix them with the amontillado sherry in a pan. Boil everything and leave it to infuse for an hour.
- Strain out the spices, add the sugar, and mix until the sugar is dissolved.
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