Casanara is a neighborhood cocktail bar in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn — tropical deco by way of old South Beach, an additive-free agave shelf, a deep cane program, and live music built into the room. Everything on this page may be used for editorial purposes.
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In the Glass and On the Record
Roughton & MacClennen
Tom Roughton moved from North Carolina to New York to make it as a visual artist. Hospitality pulled him in along the way — behind Brooklyn bars since 2013, most notably Izzy Rose — and he came to see a great bar as the more inclusive art form: ambiance, music, and beverages composed to get people unwound, open to everyone who walks in. That conviction became Casanara, where he runs the beverage program — an additive-free agave shelf and a sourcing-first approach: producer-driven bottles, balanced builds, classics kept honest — and works the bar most days.
In 2026 he co-presented “Making Space for Ease: The Art of Disarming Hospitality” on the Main Stage at Bar Convent Brooklyn, alongside Leanne Favre (Dolores) and Gates Otsuji (Marriott International). His spirits education is rooted in travel through the Caribbean and Latin America, an influence threaded through the programming and the gallery wall. He still shoots the bar’s photography — 35mm film and digital.
Originally from rural Maine, Max MacClennen has spent his career in live entertainment production. Through his company, Great North Shows, his credits span Smorgasburg, SummerStage, Pier 17, Live Nation, and AEG, including work on stages at Coachella. At Casanara, that background is built into the venue itself — the stage, the sound system, the production backbone behind every night of live programming.
Built in the Buying
Casanara’s program is built in the buying. The shelf runs to small importers and independent producers — Mal Bien, Lo-Fi, Covalle, Mater — chosen so a guest can taste the field a spirit comes from and the hand that made it. The drinks follow from there: honest proportions, classic forms kept intact, recipes honored in their original architecture. The proof: the drink that earned Casanara a dedicated Robert Simonson feature was a rum Manhattan — two centuries of form, three ingredients.
The agave shelf is additive-free as a matter of policy, stocked exclusively with producer-driven tequila, mezcal, and sotol. The payoff is in the glass: earthy tequila, fresh lime, a bright triple sec — margaritas balanced well enough that no one thinks to order them skinny. The bar runs ongoing staff trainings with importers including Viamundi.
The flagship of the cane program is the house Rum Punch, a permanent fixture: sorrel made in-house from hibiscus and warm spices, Tom’s Blend multi-island rum, lime, orange bitters, fresh-grated nutmeg, and a measure of Rivers overproof from Grenada. Punch is the oldest cocktail format in the Western Hemisphere, still everyday drinking across the Caribbean, and almost nobody in New York takes it seriously. In Clinton Hill, a neighborhood with deep Caribbean roots, the drink reads as continuity.
Shot in House
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