They feel the need — the need for mead.
A bartender and a vintner have opened a new Williamsburg bar specializing in house-made mead — a type of wine made with honey instead of grapes that was popular in the middle ages — which they say will quench a growing thirst for ye olde beverage in the borough.
“I feel like it has caught on but it just hasn’t really been available,” said Arley Marks, co-owner of Honey’s on Scott Avenue. “People want it so we’re just trying to give it to them along with a nice place to hang out.”
Marks opened the bar and meadery at Randolph Street late last month with his business partner Raphael Lyon, who has been making mead under the name Enlightenment Wines since 2009.
The drink has a reputation as a crude hooch served at Renaissance Faires, but the pair claim their own artisanal brews — which are mostly dry, rather than cloyingly sweet, and are made from local honey, fruit, herbs, and flowers — will shatter that stereotype.
“There aren’t a lot of good mead producers,” Marks said. “A lot of them are stuck in the sort of Viking mentality and this was our attempt at re-branding that.”
At Honey’s, Marks serves up the wines — which come in straight honey, blackcurrant, herbal, and sparkling varieties — on their own, and mixed in with cocktails, such as one called the Night Eyes, made cherry and cranberry juices, rosehip, and sumac.
Fans can also take home bottles of their brews — ranging from $25 to $50 — to drink at home.
The pair hope to eventually offer tours of their facility, where visitors can see how mead is made, from barrel to glass — a process that usually takes about a year.
Honey’s (91 Scott Ave. at Randolph Street in Williamsburg, insta
