[ruby_title]Bucatini straws at Honey’s Brooklyn, New York[/ruby_title]
You could order your straws from a supplier, or pick up a few packs of pasta at the supermarket. At Honey’s in Brooklyn, mixologist-owner Arley Marks does just that, taking reference from the linguine coffee stirrers at fellow NY coffee bar Crema. “I immediately though of using bucatini or uncut macaroni to be used as a straw,” says Marks.
Tossed into glasses of their house-fermented rye bread kvass or honey wines by their first-in-NY meadery, Enlightenment Wines, the hollow long pasta tubes – which would usually be served cooked with rich sauces – don’t add any flavour to the drink. According to the bartender, they take about 1.5 hours to get floppy in a cold beverage, but “it never takes someone that long to finish the drink,” explains Marks. “I also find that people will begin to eat the straw when it begins to soften a bit – sometimes they ask for seconds for the straw!”
Having previously researched metal and glass straws for the bar, he found the prices too high and thought that “every other customer is going to take their straw home if it’s made from expensive materials”, so pasta turned out to be the happy discovery that’s paying off for the bar. “People love them – it’s a story for people to tell once they leave the bar, and it’s good to be reminded about being environmentally conscious in your day to day life,” says Marks.
