Meet the Mixologists

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Farrell and his business partner, Ted Kennedy, opened the Bar at 327 Braun Court late last year. Eclectic, the bar is. Ridiculously theatrical, it is not. Sure, there are mounted deer heads on the walls, just like PDT; sure, one is wearing a party hat. But the hat simply ended up there after the bar's New Year's Eve party, and it's never left--hardly the kind of excruciatingly polished detail that typifies the big-city craft cocktail lounges.

"Ted and I decided we're not that place," says Farrell. "We're a neighborhood place. We want to be a social center for people to come and hang out. I think that with all the formality and all the period stuff [at places like PDT], it's like a theme park, but somehow less relaxed. We wanted people to relax."

For Farrell, classic cocktails have always been connected to a sense of community.

"I remember my parents having parties when I was a kid," he says. "I don't know what they were serving, but it was the culture of getting together, drinking, and having conversation."