A NEW SPIRIT

Senza Maeso is a new bar on the Devil's Backbone that offers a unique hybrid spirit with the same name. Co-owner Ryan Gitman is pictured at the eclectic tasting room mixing up a fresh cocktail
Daily Record photo by Shannon West

The Ruby Slippers is a cocktail made with the new hybrid spirit Senza Maeso. it is a light and refreshing cocktail with a strawberry flavor that is not overpowering. In the background, Gitman is making a cocktail called Peggy's Martian Vacation.
Daily Record photo by Shannon West

Unique hybrid spirit now made at local bar

There is a new business that provides a swanky experience and a unique and delicious product right off of the Devil’s Backbone. Senza Maeso, located at 1090 FM 32, is both the name of the bar and the liquor that is used in all of its specialty cocktails. The bar is owned by twin brothers Ryan and Jay Gitman who represent two equally important assets in a successful business endeavor along with their good friends and silent partners David Hixon, Judd Williams and Jessie Williams; Ryan is the creative mind behind the lavished interior and the Goldenberry liquor itself while Jay possesses the business acumen.

“I've always kind of been the creative type. My brother's always been kind of the numbers type,” Ryan Gitman said. “We've been inseparable forever. He's always been my best friend [and] my grounder, in a lot of ways. You know, we're very different, but also very complementary.”

Jennine Turo, Senza Maeso general manager, is Gitman’s “organizer.” She helped him build half of the menu, and “put systems in place.” Turo was dating a buddy of Gitman’s when she came out for Thanksgiving, and he convinced her to join in his new business endeavor.

“I've managed bars, but I've never really opened a bar,” Gitman said. “She has, and she was a huge, huge help. She continues to be a very big help to us.”

The twins are originally from Dayton, Ohio. Ryan is a longtime drummer, musician and recording engineer. The pair moved to Austin in 2007 to play music and “just bum around and do work in the service industry,” which they did for several years before an exotic fruit set Ryan’s creative wheels in motion.

“I had tried this fruit at the grocery store, and that's how this all started. The fruit is called the Cape gooseberry or Goldenberry,” Gitman said. “I had never done an infusion or liqueur or made any kind of home liquor products. I had only just been working at a bar, just kind of learning the ropes. …If you haven’t had a Cape Gooseberry …I constantly describe it as having all the properties of a tomato. It looks like an orange cherry tomato in a lot of ways, but it tastes citrusy. It's got this tart tangerine kind of flavor. People here describe it a lot as they try it as a Loquat with some Melon or Pineapple notes. And people talk about feeling some of the tomato notes of it because there's the seeds and all those things. But then it kind of finishes with a little bitter note at the end.”

For around five years, Gitman experimented with the recipe using various herbs, trying both dried or fresh fruit, making different proofs and fermenting the product in mason jars in his closet. His friends served as his taste testers, approving and disapproving of different combinations until it was perfect.

“I wanted versatility in the spirit. Fernet is amazing. Campari is amazing. I love all these bitter amaros [like] Montenegro. These are bitter Italian spirits in a lot of ways. They're all amazing, and they're having a resurgence, or a newfound kind of appreciation,” Gitman said. “Senza Maeso means without master — the idea that we're not a gin or a rum or a tequila or a liqueur. Without master [or] without teacher — it's Italian and Spanish. Italian because of the Italian kind of bitter spirits that it's modeled after in a certain way. Spanish because the fruit usually comes from Latin America and a lot of the herbs are from Latin countries. So the versatility comes in the higher proof and no added sugar. Those are the two things that make us a hybrid spirit.”

Gitman said Senza Maeso is versatile and makes for a good pairing with other liquor drinks and can be used as the primary liquor as well. The two main herbs in Senza Maeso are Damiana, which is an aphrodisiac used in love tonics, and Epazote, which is used in Mexican cooking and helps with digestion and bloating.

“So you can drink it straight as a digestif. … Senza tonic works great. For Whiskey Coke and Rum and Coke fans, Senza Coke is a great one. …When you put it with Coke, there's some tea elements to it. So easily [it can be used] in an Arnold Palmer or a John Daly,” Gitman said. “I have a lot of friends that just drink it with [club] soda or their favorite sodas. There's so much that you can do with it. And again, with the high proof, it can be the primary spirit a lot of times.”

Gitman said the best way to figure out one’s perfect Senza Maeso pairing is by stopping into the bar and trying it a few different ways. The Ruby Slippers is the perfect summer cocktail and is both refreshing and light. It has a light strawberry flavor that is not at all overpowering and allows the bitterness of the Goldenberry to shine. Peggy’s Martian Vacation has a strong citrus flavor with a spicy note of cinnamon paired with the tangy juice of a lime wedge. For a smoky cocktail, Visions of Mezcal is the ticket. As the name implies, Mezcal is not used but the smoky flavor comes from a smoked black tea that Gitman makes into a syrup.

The interior of the building itself is nothing short of spectacular and transports you through time and possibly even dimension. Gitman’s friend described it as “Space Deco.”

“We're mixing a lot of different decades in a lot of ways. And my favorite [part] and the big impetus for me was the 50s retro- futurism. That's a lot of space age elements, where it's a lot of chrome and big ideas,” Gitman said. “But space Deco, to me, really captures it. Somebody was talking about sci-fi meets Mad Men. It's something we've used to describe it before, but there's just little elements. I have Carl Sagan playing in the bathroom on a loop. It's his Cosmos series, 13 part episode. It's from 1979 so he's got these bushy hair and just like weird vibes. I have moving art pieces up on the wall here. This little kinetic piece is probably my favorite. … There's a secret door that you usually wouldn't see there. This hand here is what operates it. This is my great grandfather's little brass hand that he used to buzz people into his office.”

Learn more about the bar and its specialty cocktails at senzamaeso.com and stop in to have an upscale experience.