Trailblazing Death & Co Team Adds a Hidden Cocktail Lounge to Midtown Hotel

The team behind craft cocktail institution Death & Co is bringing another hip drinking den to NYC’s booze scene tomorrow, opening Lost Hours, a hidden bar in Midtown Hotel 3232 at 32 East 32nd St., between Madison and Park avenues.

Lost Hours comes from Proprietors LLC, a consulting company for beverage programs that includes cocktail maestros Devon Tarby, Alex Day, David Kaplan, and the vegan restaurateur and cocktail bar hitmaker Ravi DeRossi. The group formed in 2007 and owns the lastingly popular bar Death & Co, as well as LES cocktail bar Nitecap. With Lost Hours, which Simple Venue is partnering on, they’re expanding their NYC presence, tucking a small cocktail lounge behind a discreet sliding door in the hotel’s lobby.

Photo by Eric Medsker

The drink menu will feature 16 cocktails, divided into the four categories air, water, earth, and fire. Under air, there’s the “Small Wonder,” made with apple and cherry brandies, a sour cherry cordial, Aperol, acid phosphate, and bubbles. Water includes a cocktail made with the sparingly found Scandinavian spirit aquavit, used in the “Memory Palace,” which also includes honeydew, falernum, clear brandy, and lime.

There’s also a cocktail that goes heavy on the veggies in the earth section, called the “At Its Peak,” which is made with the alcohol-free spirit Seedlip Garden, carrot, bell pepper, cucumber, sherry vinegar, thyme, and spices. And fire drinks include an apple cider take with a kick, made with mezcal, cognac, sherry, golden raisin, and black pepper. Most of the cocktails are $16, with a few coming in at $14. Besides house cocktail selections, wine, beer, and sake will also be available.

In addition to its sliding door and hotel lobby setting, Lost Hours goes hard on the speakeasy aesthetic in its 30-seat lounge space, which has dark reds and blacks, low lighting, and music provided by a record player. There’s also a five-seat green marble bar with leather bar stools and a massive brass chain chandelier.

Food won’t roll out until the spring, but it will come from chef Jon Yun, formerly of high-end omakase Nakazawa. Dishes will include izakaya-like small plates like a sashimi platter, a seafood and cucumber salad, uni toast, karaage (fried chicken), uni donburi, and oysters.

Opening Friday, Lost Hours will soon be joined by another cocktail lounge debut from a similarly experienced team called Mister Paradise, which opens next week in East Village. But while a lot of the city’s finest craft cocktail bars — including other Proprietors LLC establishments — live downtown, Lost Hours will add to the less saturated Midtown cocktail scene. Lost Hours will serve drinks Monday through Saturday from 5 p.m. to 2 a.m.