Under the tutelage of libation artists such as Meaghan Dorman and Milk & Honey’s Sasha Petraske, Theo Lieberman is carving a name for himself among New York’s gilded mixolo-gists, past and present. Currently jazzing up Lantern’s Keep in the Iroquois Hotel, it’s all about quality, familiarity with ingredients and consistently attacking new challenges for this Midtown maven.

Lantern’s Keep, the Iroquois’s new cocktail lounge, opened a year ago in what used to be Triomphe’s private din-ing room. The lighting is dim. The vibe, turn-of-the-century Paris. The music, a medley of Memphis soul,  rhythm and blues, and jazz. The menu, a model of sophistication and a far cry from those of the tourist traps flanking this stylistic stronghold on its surrounding blocks. On his day off, and on the wrong side of the bar, we found head bartender Theo Lieberman sipping slowly from a glass of straight vermouth served “on a rock”—a perfectly clear two-inch ice cube, cut by a Clinebell icemaker and delivered from Queens. Clad in BuddyHolly glasses and custom-made Nikes with “Daquiri” on one shoe and “Ne-groni” on the other, he is 23 but looked midway through his teens… and then he opened his mouth.

“The ‘Stay Up Late’ is a variation on a Tom Collins, from the Stork club in1946,” he said about one of 25 drinks on a menu he designed with Meaghan Dorman, who founded the bar and serves as its consultant. “Forty-six? Was it ’46?” he asked noone in particular, swirling his vermouth. It was.“And the Jimmy Roosevelt is from Baker — Charles Baker.”That would be Charles H. Baker Jr., a man who was born 150 years before Mr. Lieberman and penned The Gen-who wandered over, nursing a copper cup of the Jungle Bird (black strap rum, pineapple juice, Campari, lime juice). “It’s refreshing to introduce people to drinks again.”

—Living There Magazine