SIXTEEN YEARS AGO, Fabián von Hauske was an intern for Dave Arnold, the French Culinary Institute’s director of culinary technology. Together, the two distilled vodka with canned pumpkin purée, turned potatoes into ice cream, and churned deodorized cocoa powder with freeze-dried tomatoes to make “ketchup chocolate,” which, Arnold recalls, “everybody hated.” Arnold left the FCI to open Booker and Dax, the cocktail laboratory in the back of Momofuku Ssäm Bar, while von Hauske paired up with another FCI alum, Jeremiah Stone, to create the restaurants Contra and Wildair, among others. This spring, the duo will turn the Contra space into a cocktail bar with their newest partner: Arnold. This city is thick with men who threaten to “do something different,” but these three could actually pull it off. At Bar…
