What happens when you bring together one of New York’s best unknown chefs and the founder of a bold new cocktail brand? You get a tasting table that doesn’t hold back.

Cesar Jaitman-Labaton has spent the last 18 years turning New York’s smallest kitchens into five-star dining rooms. Born in Argentina and raised on flavors that traveled with his family across continents, he arrived in Manhattan in 2007 and has been cooking like it’s an art form ever since. From Harlem to Midtown to the Upper East Side, each apartment became his studio—his knives and pans the tools of a quiet master chef.

He isn’t on TV, and you won’t find his name on a restaurant door. Instead, Cesar’s dishes live in the memories of friends and his wife Claudia, who gather around his table for meals that taste bigger than the room they were cooked in. Every plate is layered with the detail of a painter, every flavor built to last like a melody you can’t shake.

To call him “unknown” is almost unfair—he’s simply been hiding in plain sight. For those lucky enough to share a meal, Cesar proves that food, like music or film, can be both intimate and transcendent.

The Criteria

• Best Pairings – what food or vibe the cocktail matches.
• Accuracy vs. the Bar Version – how close it tastes to ordering the real thing.
• ABV – does the strength make sense for the style?
• Ingredients – quality, balance, and authenticity.

The Lineup

• Little Saints – Paloma
• Cassis – Sparkling Blackcurrant Apéritif
• Suerte – Paloma
• Social Hour – Whiskey Mule
• Social Hour – Gin & Tonic
• Two Fruits – Cosmo
• Mettle – Last Word
• Mettle – Nordic Summer
• Tip Top – Negroni