Ice, indispensable in any bar, has so far been a concern only for bartenders. The pinnacle of their craft is perfectly square ice rods in a glass of premium Negroni; never mind that you have to prop the cube against your teeth to drink. Or perhaps you’ve been tempted by an ice ball from a special press (Kazuo Uyeda famously sculpted ice into spheres by hand during a memorable seminar at Bratislava’s Papparazzi in 2007), which wobbles in the glass and must be steadied with the tongue. Current trends are setting these tricks aside.
In Los Angeles, Disco Cubes has taken to embedding flowers or fruit in ice. Their method for centering additions within each ice cube remains a closely guarded secret. The approach at The Monarch bar in Kansas City may be less flashy but is more practical: each bar cube is stamped with a butterfly logo. What’s the big deal? You might ask, until you realize that each drink posted on Instagram betrays its origins with that butterfly mark, seamlessly blending marketing with craft.
