- Cocktail names include Corpse Reviver No. 2, Smoking Dragon and Serpent & the Rainbow
- Among the luminaries spotted in recent weeks at Quoin: Wilmington Mayor Mike Purzycki and President Joe Biden’s daughter Ashley
It’s been two months since Simmer Down, the speakeasy bar at the new boutique Quoin Hotel in downtown Wilmington, quietly began serving guests.
Is that news to you? That may be their goal. After all, it is a speakeasy.
It’s been four months since DelawareOnline/The News Journal first asked to speak with a Simmer Down representative for an article about the bar, tucked away in the 24-room hotel, which also houses a 155-seat restaurant and rooftop bar at Sixth and N. Market streets.
After many delays and getting the runaround by both their public relations firm and the bar’s general manager, we decided to drop in for drinks on a couple of recent nights to see it for ourselves. (They have said it’s not “officially” open yet.)
The bar is underground, both literally and figuratively, located in the basement of the hotel.
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If you’ve dined at Quoin’s restaurant and used the downstairs restrooms, you have walked by its entrance: a door with ribbed decorative glass that keeps you from seeing inside with “Simmer Down” written across it.
When we were there, patrons were instructed to first go to the restaurant’s host stand and ask to go down to Simmer Down.
Once downstairs, open the Simmer Down door and you’ll find a whole new luxurious world with exposed brick walls and ceiling, ultra-comfortable couches and chairs and even a fireplace, all surrounding a single bar with an extensive specialty cocktail list. (If you want to eat, you have to go upstairs.)
If you’ve been to Wilmington’s other speakeasies, Torbert Street Social and Hummingbird to Mars, the vibe will be familiar: a high-end spot for drinks in an ultra plush setting with understated lighting.
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But Simmer Down is an elegant stand out from that field.
There’s a reason local luminaries are drawn to the spot. We spotted both Wilmington Mayor Mike Purzycki and President Joe Biden’s daughter Ashley at the hotel on separate nights.
Just like the entire refurbished building, Simmer Down shines, especially thanks to the custom hand-drawn mural by Philadelphia-based artist and illustrator Reverend Michael Alan.
If you look closely at the mural, which spans the room on its two longest walls, you’ll find small nods to Wilmington, including tiny portraits of President Joe Biden in Aviator sunglasses and singer Bob Marley, who once lived there.
Philadelphia-based Method Co., which designed the project, manages it for Wilmington-based Buccini/Pollin Group, project developers and owners.
Method, a real estate management, development and design company rooted in hospitality, is also behind Wm. Mulherin’s Son’s, an urban Italian restaurant and hotel, and the HIROKI restaurant, both in Philadelphia’s Fishtown neighborhood.
As Method representatives previously told DelawareOnline/The News Journal, Simmer Down emphasizes “a low and slow atmosphere with a music selection as curated as its beverage program.”
On our night there, there seemed to be more locals than out-of-town guests smattering the speakeasy at the hotel, a four-story Victorian Romanesque brownstone designed by renowned Philadelphia architect Frank Furness in 1885.
Before Quoin, the building had several lives, including originally as the Security Trust & Safe Deposit Company, complete with impressive fireproof steel vaults that still remain in place. Later it was the Kuumba Academy Charter School, which moved to the Community Education Building nearly 10 years ago.
As Quoin states on its website, Simmer Down was the bank’s money room and has been “reimagined into a high-style affair by bringing opulence back to the space where furs, silks, gold bars and coins were once stored.”
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The play on the name of the hotel and coins does not stop there.
Simmer Down’s specialty cocktail menu is broken down into several parts, including “Heads” and “Tails,” featuring a dozen different handcrafted $18 cocktails.
The drinks include Corpse Reviver No. 2 (gin, Lillet, Combier, lemon, absinthe), Penicillin (scotch, lemon, ginger, honey, Laphroaig), New York Sour (bourbon, lemon, egg white, red wine), Serpent & the Rainbow (cachaça, bianco vermouth, dry curacao, blood orange, absinthe) and El Pharmacia (mezcal, reposado tequila, Ancho Reyes, honey, lime).
A third section of the cocktail menu is labeled “Signatures” and those six drinks cost $20 a pop: Monks Respite, Oaxacan Old Fashioned, Smoking Dragon, Wings of Barnabus, Emperor’s New Groove and Vanilla Sky are the selections.
And if getting rocked by the hard stuff on the rocks isn’t your thing, they had five beers available with Red Stripe as the cheapest offering at $6. Others included Deschutes Fresh Squeezed IPA ($8), Ommegang Witte ($12), Lindemans Framboise ($15) and Rochefort Trappistes 10 ($18).
The wine selection featured a handful of options including a sauvignon blanc from Routestock ($15), Au Bon Climat’s chardonnay ($16) and Buena Vista pinot noir ($14), along with champagne.
If all that makes you think “stuffy,” Simmer Down is not that once you settle in. The bar can get boisterous as the night stretches on with a knowledgeable crew of mixologists who are more fun and down-to-Earth than the setting might suggest.
Simmer Down opens at 6 p.m. on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Don’t tell them we sent you.
Have a story idea? Contact Ryan Cormier of Delaware Online/The News Journal at rcormier@delawareonline.com or (302) 324-2863. Follow him on Facebook (@ryancormier) and Twitter (@ryancormier).
