Espresso Art Café has added handcrafted cocktails to its menu of coffees, teas and hookah.
But this isn’t another party spot on the bar-heavy University Boulevard. This is more thinking-man’s watering hole, where intellectuals converse about culture and academia over specialty cocktails while smooth jazz circa the 1920s prohibition era plays softly in the background.
“We are open to anyone who doesn’t want to scream and be stupid,” said Espresso Art owner Danny Mannheim, who dubbed the bar Castalian Spring. “We have a lot of students who like an intellectual discussion.”
Mannheim opened Castalian Spring last week at Espresso Art, 942 E. University Blvd. in Main Gate Square.
The bar specializes in handcrafted cocktails created by mixologist Tyler Dunn. The menu includes classic cocktails like a hot toddy, Cosmopolitan, Old Fashioned and a Manhattan, alongside some creative twists including the Dark and Stormy/Moscow Mule that marries Gosling’s dark rum with Stolichnaya vodka, lime and Gosling’s ginger beer.
What you won’t find on the menu is beer.
“It’s not a sports bar. We don’t serve Budweiser,” Mannheim said. “The bar seats maybe 20, 25 at the most. We run low-volume, speakeasy music, old jazz. It’s a relaxed atmosphere for conversation.”
Read more restaurant news in Thursday's Caliente.
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