The Silver Lyan Folklore menu launched on Tuesday, August 18, and it is the rare concept menu with an actual argument behind it. Every drink on the list comes from a story that is not true: a monster nobody has photographed, a superstition nobody can source, a rumor that outlived whoever started it. The premise is that these stories still shape how people behave, which is a more interesting idea than most bars get near.
Developed by general manager Alex Leidy and head bartender Sam Nellis with the creative leads at Mr Lyan, Folklore splits into three sections: Cryptids, Social Lore, and Cautionary Tales, plus the Lyan Classics section that appears on every menu in the group.
Silver Lyan is Ryan Chetiyawardana‘s first American bar, set in a former bank vault beneath the Riggs hotel in Washington DC, and it placed No. 55 on North America’s 50 Best Bars 2026.
Cryptids
The menu opens with four creatures whose existence is disputed and whose cultural footprint is not. The Loch Ness Martini is a vodka martini variation built on the flavors of Scotland: gorse sherry, sour strawberry vermouth, and jasmine, sweet and aromatic rather than austere.
Its counterpart is the Bigfoot Negroni, a bittersweet aperitivo of The Botanist gin, forest fruit vermouth, Campari, and pine sherry that leans into woodland flavors, the only place anyone claims to have seen the thing. The section is rounded out by the Green Bear Mojito and the Scooby Sour.
Social Lore
The second section deals with the stories groups of people tell each other. The Ellis Island Punch is built from Tequila Ocho Plata, mezcal, an olive and sweetcorn whip, sour pineapple, and lime: old world and new world in one glass, which is the point.
The Achilles Ambrosia goes back to ancient Greece and the excavation of Troy, using mezcal, bronze fennel yogurt, mango, and lime. The Vanishing Manhattan is a tribute to the lost colony of Roanoke, where in 1590 an entire English settlement was found deserted with a single word carved into a post and no other trace. The Stone Banana Gimlet closes the section, drawn from the odder corners of visual folklore.
Cautionary Tales
The final section covers the stories people use to keep each other in line. The Tarantula Iced Tea takes the widely repeated and entirely false claim that you swallow spiders in your sleep, then chases the flavors of grilled tarantula through Jack Daniel’s Bottled-in-Bond, buckwheat tea, and a lemongrass hemp foam.
The Boogeyman Old Fashioned is drawn from El Coco, the sleep-stealing monster Spanish explorers reported encountering and Goya later painted. The drink runs a coconut base under Teeling whiskey, oak leaf, and bitters. The Volcano Spritz and Nightbreeze Snap finish the list, working from Hawaiian superstition around the volcano goddess Pele and South Korean lore about electric fans.
“This menu is really a celebration of the stories that stay with us,” says Alex Leidy. “From myths and folklore to the ideas that have travelled across cultures and generations, we wanted to explore how these narratives shape the way we see the world and connect with one another.”
What Else Is on the Silver Lyan Folklore Menu
The Lyan Classics section carries the Project Manhattan and the Season’s Sazerac alongside the Silver Service Martini, a personalized serve where guests pick from two flavor profiles and choose their own garnish. The bar’s Jell-O Shots return with a new Pornstar Martini version using Elyx vodka, passionfruit, and vanilla, and the kitchen keeps the tater tots, halloumi fries, and duck grilled cheese that regulars would riot over.
Folklore is pouring now at Silver Lyan in Washington DC.
Details
Silver Lyan, beneath the Riggs hotel, Washington DC. Instagram: @silverlyan
Menu: Folklore, launched Tuesday, August 18.
