News
Bloomberg
To Reopen, Restaurants Are Doubling Down on Becoming Grocery Stores by Kate Krader. May 20, 2020
“It will be a weird place where you can get a daiquiri and a tin of sardines at the same time, but the neighborhood has been coming,” he says.
New York magazine / Grub street
Can New Brooklyn Save Old Brooklyn?
By Robin Raisfeld and Rob Patronite. February 27, 2020
It was right around that time that St. John Frizell, owner of Red Hook’s Fort Defiance, was leaving Kings County Supreme Court during divorce proceedings and in need of a drink. Noticing the lack of a decent cocktail bar in the vicinity, he decided it would be a good idea to open one himself.
Punch
Mastering the Sazerac with St. John Frizell
by Laurel Miller. March 9, 2020
“It’s always been my favorite drink to prepare, because there’s ritual to it,” says Frizell. “Icing down the glass is part of that—and sets a good Sazerac apart from a bad one, in my opinion.”
Punch
In Search of the Ultimate Irish Coffee
by Robert Simonson. March 11, 2019
Two drinks tied for first place in the tasting—one a tested veteran, the other a dark horse. The former was the celebrated Irish Coffee of Fort Defiance in Brooklyn, which is generally regarded to be one of the best in New York.
Punch
In Search of the Ultimate Hemingway Daiquiri
by Robert Simonson. May 16, 2019
The winning cocktail came, somewhat unexpectedly, from Fort Defiance in Brooklyn, not a bar known for the drink.
Punch
In Search of the Ultimate Sazerac
by Robert Simonson. March 8, 2018
Tying for first place in our recent blind Sazerac tasting, Frizell’s straight-shooting recipe calls on a base of Old Overholt rye, complemented with both Peychaud’s and Angostura bitters and a touch of simple syrup.