Birds & Bees' New Cocktail Menu Has Innovative Drinks

Mallory Carra|May 22, 2018 11:04 pm EST

Jake Larowe spent his childhood performing in theater productions, but by college, he found a new way to perform: as a bartender.

Now, Larowe is the bar manager at the Downtown Los Angeles bar Birds & Bees. The entrance to the bar itself may be hidden, but the bar's new menu is already well-known.

Birds & Bees' new menu includes cocktails inspired by iconic stars of the 1950s (Sophia Loren, Gregory Peck, Elvis Presley) and neighborhoods in Los Angeles (Echo Park Lotus, Bunker Hill Kiss Me Deadly, Silver Lake Twirly Mustache), as well as punch bowls inspired by popular 1950s television shows (The Twilight Zone, Gunsmoke).

Larowe became the downtown hot spot's new bar manager this year and developed the new menu during his first four months in the role. He plans to change the menu every three to four months.

"It's just time for a change," he said. "The cocktail scene in Los Angeles is really exploding. And if you're only doing cocktails and you're not doing anything new, then you're going get really, really stale very quickly. One of the things that we want do is just always be bringing the most new, interesting cocktails to a wide variety of clientele who have different levels of enjoyment of what their looking for."

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Courtesy Birds & Bees

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Courtesy Birds & Bees

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What becomes clear in talking to Larowe is not only his passion for cocktails, but the history of the beverage. He enthusiastically explained the origin of the term "cocktail" and how Birds & Bees' new punch bowls fit into that history.

"The history of cocktails and the history of LA and of the cocktail movement really really is a big part of what we do here," he said. "When you look at punch bowls and you look at the history of cocktails, I mean cocktails really didn't start to come around until the mid-1800's. But punch bowls go back as far as the 15 – 1600's and it all has to do with sailors and their rations."

Birds & Bees' new punch bowls include the Twilight Zone (hite rum, overproof rum, black strap rum, batavia arrack, crème de pêche, lemon juice, lime juice, pineapple juice, orange juice, jerk syrup), the 77 Sunset Strip (rye whiskey, london dry gin, lemon juice, honey syrup, ginger syrup, jasmine green tea, angostura bitters, orange juice, campari, sparkling wine), and Gunsmoke (scotch, lemon juice, orange juice, oleo, lapsang suchong tea, porter beer).

"Those larger format punch bowls are kind of referencing that history while also modernizing it, and trying to get people to come together more and talk to each other," Larowe said.

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Courtesy Birds & Bees

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Courtesy Birds & Bees

Larowe developed his passion for mixology while attending Northern Arizona University as a theater major. He worked at Blackbrick Steakhouse, a Western-themed dinner-theater restaurant filled with many fellow actors and singers. He got hired as a busser and was promoted to bartender within 9 months. Before Birds & Bees, Larowe worked at Playa Provisions in Playa Del Rey, where he ran the whiskey bar and mixology.

"What I love about bartending is that I get to do all of the things that I loved about theater every night," Larowe said. "One of the things I liked about being in theater was being on stage. I liked engaging with audiences and in a bar, you get to do that every night. You're on stage the whole time. No matter what you do, they can see you up here. So everything is part of your show."

The beverage samples that are the subject of this review were provided at no cost to the contributor.