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Brooklyn’s cocktail scene is no stranger to clever concepts, but Golden Ratio might be one of the borough’s most quietly ambitious bars to open this year.
Landing in Clinton Hill at 216 ½ Greene Avenue, the new spot from Redwood Hospitality, the team behind Café Mado, Place des Fêtes and Laurel Bakery, takes an almost zero-waste approach to drinking, without turning it into a lecture.
Golden Ratio opened late last month, just down the street from Place des Fêtes, and its entire cocktail program is built around one deceptively simple idea: start with a single seasonal ingredient and use every part of it. Juice, skins, peels, stems and leftovers—nothing gets tossed without being considered first.
Instead of a standard backbar stacked with familiar labels, Golden Ratio relies on proprietary, house-made distillates created from greenmarket produce, foraged elements and byproducts from the group’s own restaurants. Citrus peels come from Place des Fêtes, leftover bread is sourced from Laurel Bakery and other normally discarded ingredients are reworked into spirits and non-alcoholic distillates, forming a closed-loop system that keeps waste low, with no lack of creativity.
The menu is split evenly between 16 spirited cocktails and 16 non-alcoholic ones, but they’re not siloed. Every drink can be ordered with or without alcohol and both versions get equal attention. Rather than mimicking booze-free classics, the NA drinks are treated as parallel expressions (sometimes closely related, sometimes wildly different) depending on what the ingredient wants to do.
"If an ingredient has a strong, central flavor identity that works for both alcoholic and non-alcoholic formats, we rebuild it into two drinks that echo one another," explained partner and beverage director Piper Kristensen. "But if it reveals multiple nuanced directions, we follow those paths, even if they lead to spirited and non-alcoholic drinks that are distinct from one another."
One standout example uses the plant grand fir. For the boozy version, fresh fir needles are macerated and distilled with local partner Acid Spirits into a clear, resinous base, then paired with clarified grapefruit. The non-alcoholic take goes in a different direction: fir needles are turned into a syrup, while discarded grapefruit peels are distilled into a bright hydrosol and carbonated into a soda. It’s the same ingredient, yet two distinct drinks.
Despite the cerebral process, Golden Ratio is meant to feel like a relaxed neighborhood bar. The space is warm and minimal, filled with repurposed furniture, soft amber light and multiple seating zones for lingering or popping in. Classics are available on request, but the focus stays firmly on what’s seasonal, local and thoughtfully made.
The food follows the same logic. Culinary director Daniel Martignon’s menu leans vegetable-forward, with five to eight small plates and a couple of mains designed for sharing. Expect dishes like leeks vinaigrette with chile de arbol and hazelnuts, smoked sunchoke profiteroles and crispy hake with achiote and aioli.
It’s precise without being precious and sustainable without being smug—exactly the kind of place Brooklyn does best.