Broken Shaker Now in the Hands of Pebble Bar and Wildair Teams

The hitmakers behind Jac’s on Bond in Noho, Pebble Bar in Rockefeller Center, and Ray’s Bar on the Lower East Side will run Broken Shaker in the Freehand Hotel at the border of Gramercy and Flatiron — and at Freehand hotels around the country — with the Wildair founders consulting on food.

While the handoff was earlier this month, design and food updates will roll out across hotels in the fall.

Broken Shaker will keep its name, though the relaunch under the direction of Authentic Hospitality — Carlos Quirarte, Matt Kliegman, and Matthew Charles — is one of several hospitality projects the group already runs at the Freehand. The trio first worked with Freehand Hotel when they opened Smile to Go, and, later, in 2021, continued with management of its cocktail bar, Bar Calico, and Georgia Room.

Wildair’s Jeremiah Stone and Fabian von Hauske Valtierra are assembling a menu that includes a jerk chicken sandwich made with a 24-hour marinated chicken leg, served with a spicy cabbage slaw, fried plantains, and pickled red onions. They’re also offering the Broken Shaker burger with shoestrings, caramelized onions, and queso. Though Stone and von Hauske Valtierra are often associated with fine dining, their consulting has branched into menus that include higher-end bars as well as dives.

The partnership reinforces the working relationship between the Wildair duo and Authentic: Wildair consulted on a menu for Pebble Bar, worked with the team on the food menu at the team’s Jac’s on Bond (bringing to life its signature pies), and later partnered up to develop a menu for the expansion of Ray’s to Brooklyn.

It has been several years since the Broken Shaker founders, Gabriel Orta and Elad Zvi, have been connected to the hotel. Ortz and Zvi started a pop-up bar in Miami in 2012, eventually establishing Bar Lab. Last month, Bar Lab and their cocktail bar, Broken Shaker, parted ways. Meanwhile, Bar Lab continues to operate cocktail destinations in New York, such as at the recently opened Moxy Hotel in Williamsburg.

Freehand Hotels and Broken Shaker were purchased by London-based hotel company, Generator and its parent Queensgate Investments, for $400 million in 2019.