Join the Edible Collective and you’ll be joining the Edible Community. Think of it as a roundtable where bartenders, chefs, makers and farmers share ideas, education, enlighten and enhance skills. The Collective is made up of the people who make what we eat and drink.
Two years ago, Logan Ronkainen worked in Flatiron as the head bartender at Trattoria Il Mulino. The managers asked him to close one evening and he decided to tip the in-house pizza guy 20 bucks to stay later so that Ronkainen’s friends could come by for pizza and cocktails. Named Punch & Pie, it became a popular weekly underground event where bartenders did guest stints, liquor brands sponsored some evenings, and musicians played. Fun was had. Friends were made. What more could one ask?
More. More events. More people. More magic. More mystery. More.
Last October, Ronkainen left the bar and set to work full time on Punch & Pie. A member of the Edible Collective, he’s also now Punch & Pie’s owner, master mixologist and Notorious Pink Rosé‘s brand ambassador. He’s making his own contribution to local nightlife and glimpses can be had on Instagram, but they don’t touch the custom latex fringes of attending a real event.
A month ago, Ronkainen joined other creatives including Jade Levinson, Tim Kosters and Carter Cleveland to start a new project. “It was a collaboration between different groups within the event community,” says Ronkainen, “spiritual events, Burning Man events, burner events….” They named their dream-child Collective Beginnings and aimed to make it the start of grand things.
There was synergy behind the scenes. Good events are as buzzy for the staff as for attendees. Ronkainen says creators can show what they do “in a special way, from entertainment to sound to lighting to art.” They bring ingenuity, pool resources and invite others in to play.
On July 29, the collaborators walked from sunshine into an empty gray warehouse in Bushwick. By 10:00 p.m. the space looked like A Midsummer Night’s Dream—if Oberon and Titania had spent a month in an ashram and come back calm and loving, artists and inspiration in tow.
Beside a row of tents, a woman used jewels and glitter to transform patrons into eldritch beings. A stroll away, tumblers tempted guests to try acrobalance. Patrons gathered in meditation, danced to hypnotic beats and lounged on cushions, lingering over drinks.
Saturday’s sips were as artful as the scene. Punch & Pie’s drinks included the Citrus Assemblage, a composition in Jack Daniel’s, Amaro Meletti, chocolate and Watson’s lemon cordial. The garnish was as magical as the surroundings; an impeccable, edible white orchid drifting on a night-dark drink.
You have to be on an insider email list for future Punch & Pie events. Fortunately, you now have the link.
