Chefs and bartenders often pay homage to their family on menus (and on
tattoos), but mixtress Gina Chersevani is going one step further with Buffalo and Bergen, a soda shop-cum-bar joining the slew of just-released vendors at the soon-to-open Union
Market.
The catchy name refers to the cross-section of Buffalo Avenue
and Bergen Street in Brooklyn where Chersevani’s mom–nicknamed
“Nonnie”–grew up. As Chersevani tells it, no matter what kind
of drink she’d make her, it was never as good as an egg cream
from Norma’s, an old-school Brooklyn soda fountain. Maybe not
quite the same, but Chersevani will replicate “Nonnie’s egg
cream” and other classics such as fountain sodas and malts at
her 15-seat market spot (more communal market seats will be
available). Modern twists include house-made seasonal sodas in
flavors like honey-citrus–another familial homage, this time
to her orange soda-loving father–and the biggest of all: the
ability to “adult up” your beverage with booze.
Chersevani is also collaborating with Jamie Leeds on her Hank’s on the Hill project.
Related:
Gina Chersevani Out at PS 7’s
Anna Spiegel covers the dining and drinking scene in her native DC. Prior to joining Washingtonian in 2010, she attended the French Culinary Institute and Columbia University’s MFA program in New York, and held various cooking and writing positions in NYC and in St. John, US Virgin Islands.
