Punch Bar Ultramilk Thinks Cocktails Are Better When Shared With Friends

(SPOT.ph) “I ask how they heard about us,” says Jamie Javier, bartender at Ultramilk. “I ask them if they’d been to Big Fuzz before, and they’re like, ‘What’s Big Fuzz?’”

This is a surprise. Ultramilk has only been open for a couple of months, and they haven’t even really posted anything on their Instagram account yet. So one would naturally assume that the initial audience of this new bar would be fans of Kyle Quismundo’s cocktail bar Big Fuzz, which is just across the hall on the second floor of the Creekside Building in Legazpi Village. Big Fuzz famously has a red door with no signage, while Ultramilk has a blue door, also with no signage.

It’s a welcome surprise, though. The implication is that Ultramilk is drawing a whole new crowd. “I feel like too many bars cater too much to the five percent of the population (that’s really in cocktails),” says Javier. “There’s still a time and place for those bars, but we wanted something more approachable.”

The bar seems to have found a younger crowd, with a lot of their exposure coming from TikTok. It is exactly the kind of place that looks enticing on social media, with all of its little quirky details. “Kyle and I really believe in using things that are already there,” Javier says. “So almost everything in here, the cassettes, the speakers, the punch bowls, the cups, the lamps, everything is vintage.” This all lends a certain warmth to the place, even if their customers weren’t alive to experience these things when they were brand new.

Ultramilk is a punch bar. Cocktails can get pretty complicated, but punch is an easy concept to understand. Punch is that stuff ladled out of bowls at parties. It’s typically made up of five core ingredients: a spirit, water, citrus, sugar, and spice. If you order one at Ultramilk, they’ll serve it in a rocks glass. Order three or more of the same drink, and they’ll serve it in a punch bowl, and you can ladle it out yourself into individual cups.

It’s the kind of thing that really works well for groups. This bar isn’t for quietly contemplating the individual components of one’s drink, though one could probably still do that. This is a very social space, with an open layout that encourages mingling. On crowded nights, when all the seats are taken, there might be people just standing or milling about, and separate groups of friends might end up getting to know each other before the night is through. There’s just something about a punch bowl that leads to strangers talking to each other.

So, the drinks are simpler here than at Big Fuzz. “To be honest,” Javier jokes, “it’s about a step away from a fishbowl drink. Just add straws” But it’s clear that a lot of thought has still gone into these drinks, making them friendly but not boring. Fish House Punch (P550/serving) is a classic punch made of rum, cognac, and peach liqueur that Ultramilk has turned into what they’re calling an “alcoholic iced tea.” They use Zarame crystal sugar and real peach, and garnish the bowl with lemon slices and flowers. 

On the signature side, Javier offers up his favorite: Roger’s Water. It’s a play on the Division Bell cocktail, typically made with mezcal and Aperol. Ultramilk’s punch version adds guava and gochujang, adding new layers of tartness, savoriness, and heat. It’s just delicious, with the guava really coming forward and the heat from the spice providing a lasting sensation that travels through the mid-palate. It tastes strong, but Javier reminds us that punch is typically pretty low in alcohol, staying within single digits.

If one is looking for something stiffer, the bar does offer three freezer-door cocktails. These are all prebatched and stored at negative fifteen degrees. They have a classic negroni, which at that temperature is smoothed out to a degree that might make even the most ardent negroni hater consider it as an option for the night. There is a Sazerac, which they make a little stronger than normal, and with the absinthe replaced with a Japanese wormwood liqueur. It is spicy and citrusy and will satisfy anyone looking for classic cocktail flavors.

The prize of their collection of freezer door cocktails, however, is their martini. Because it’s prebatched, they can’t alter the martini to suit the individual tastes of their customers. So, they tried to make something that represents all the common variations of the drink. It is a dry martini, but it’s also got the brine of a dirty martini, and the quiet complexity of a Vesper. “It’s kind of funny,” Javier muses. “We’re a punch bar, but we’re kind of becoming known for our martini."

It’s all pretty funny at this point. As of this writing, Ultramilk isn’t fully open yet. They’ve limited their menu to just five punches and the three freezer door cocktails. By the first week of September, they’ll have more options. Plus, they’re going to have food served in the place from nearby Pizza Maestro, who are putting together a special exclusive menu of pies for them. For now, they’re still discovering who their customer is, and what they can do to serve them best.

But the whole point is to keep it simple. This is the difference. Big Fuzz is also fun, but it might be intimidating to someone who isn’t deep into cocktails. Ultramilk takes away the pressure of needing to look like you understand every ingredient that goes into the drink. It’s there for people who want to drink a little, listen to some music, and maybe make friends. It’s a good time for all.