One of D.C.'s Best Cocktail Bars Reveals Most Elaborate Menu Yet

Eater

5 days ago

Most cocktail menu updates aren't usually heralded with such fanfare, but neither are they the product of nearly a year of work. For the team at Silver Lyan, the essential Penn Quarter cocktail bar from London-based master mixologist Ryan Chetiyawardana's ('Mr. Lyan'), the new menu is particularly significant (900 F Street NW). It's the fifth major menu iteration since its 2020 debut in the depths of the Riggs hotel, and the first since Silver Lyan was named one of the Top 50 Bars in North America for 2025 (No. 48), joining Service Bar and Allegory on the coveted list.
The two-week-old Butterfly Effect menu at Silver Lyan — its 'most elaborate menu refresh so far,' per general manager Alex Leidy — is the result of nine months of intensive writing, development, and fine tuning.
Head bartender Sam Nellis adds a striking splatter ring in the It's Alive! 75. Brian Oh
The final product is a collection of 12 cocktails that play on the theme of happenstance and coincidence expressed in inventive formulations. That includes the Pikachu Pop, which inexplicably ties the story of how Pikachu became the face of a 2019 Chilean political movement to a spritzy drink with Chilean kiwi.
Or the Operation Mind Fuck, which transforms the story a conspiracy theory involving an author friend of Lee Harvey Oswald, the Kennedy assassination, and the Illuminati into a smoked carrot vermouth and spring pea cordial suffused concoction. Leidy describes it as 'the perfect last drink of a day that started very early or first drink of a night that is going to end very late.'
With the theme as a starting point, the team spends several months developing the different stories behind each cocktail. 'It's like a writer's room,' says head bartender Sam Nellis. 'A lot of our non-bar staff contribute and it democratizes the process.' Once the stories have been narrowed down to the chosen 12, the team conducts what they describe as 'flavor mapping,' which Nellis calls a 'pie in the sky brainstorming session where anything in the stories that could be a flavor are written down and lead to what the flavor and structure of the final drink might be.'
It's only once the menu copy has been finalized do the team begin actually developing the recipes and ingredients for each drink. 'From copy, it takes three to four months to cocktails,' Nellis says. 'We mark the style, texture, and flavor of each detail in the story.'
The Dynamite Old Fashioned at Silver Lyan. Brian Oh
To execute the Butterfly Effect menu, the team needed to make 30-40 new components that weren't already readily available, including an acorn tincture and reanimated berry madeira for the It's Alive! 75.
'When we put down reanimated berry madeira, we had the idea that we would electrocute something,' recalls Nellis. What the team eventually came up with was a process in which raspberries and blackberries are infused into a dry madeira before being electrocuted to promote oxidation. It's a complex technique they were able to employ after consulting with Chetiyawardana and his tenured team of mixologists at Super Lyan in Amsterdam and Lyaness in London.
But not every idea during the writing and brainstorming process makes it into the final product. Nellis recalls an early iteration of the Hokusai Snap, which was inspired by the accidental discovery of the pigment Prussian Blue.
The Hokusai Snap is topped with a berry garnish. Brian Oh
Drawing a parallel to other examples of laboratory serendipity, Nellis attempted to mimic the accidental discovery of Penicillin by employing penicillium roqueforti to ferment olive oil or cream to create something
similar to blue cheese. 'But after more research, we went a different route,' says Nellis. 'We didn't want to give people botulism.' The final component resembled a less mad science-y milk punch Curaçao.
Use of ambitious ingredients is nothing new for the team. In 2023, Silver Lyan's annual menu makeover called for distilled emu neck and smoked bee larvae. Ultimately, the team understands that its high-minded approach can be alienating to some. Its Classics selection continues fills in the gaps when it comes to guests' preferences. One playful addition to the stagnant list is Jack and Coke Service, which riffs on its famed martini service.
'The conceptual stuff and storytelling are important to what we do,' says Leidy. But at the end of the day, 'we are a bar and we want you to have a good time. If it's not delicious, we've failed.'
Silver Lyan's general manager Alex Leidy ane head bartender Sam Nellis. Brian Oh
Eater DC
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