One Third Ice: Veteran Bartender Juan Meyers Starts Clear Cocktail Ice Business

There’s a strong chance that if you’ve eaten your way through the Fairfield County restaurant scene that Juan Meyer has made you a cocktail. And if you’ve sat at his bar at Barcelona Wine Bar, The Spread, East End, or Bar Rosina’s, you’ve certainly felt his warm hospitality firsthand, too.

Now, the Cape Town born Meyer, a restaurant lifer who came to the states decades ago to continue that career path, is hoping to be a part of your cocktail experience in several bars and restaurants all over the area and then some with his upstart clear ice business, One Third Ice.

*What’s in a name? Meyer had to idea what to call his new venture until he had an epiphany. “I was taking a shower one day and it just came to me because a cocktail is one third ice.”*

Located in Norwalk on Merritt Place, right near Spacecat Brewing Co., Meyer’s solo ice venture, something he started doing at a few of his previous stints, is finally off the ground running after a lot of hard work.

“I found this space and signed a 15-year lease,” he says. “I did most of this myself, even some of the plumbing and electrical, and called in a few people.”

Meyer’s workshop consists of heavy machinery to cut ice, large chest freezers to freeze 300-pound blocks of ice, a massive walk-in freezer where he cuts ice cubes and has an engraving machine, plus…

*A reverse osmosis water filtration system that removes lead, fluoride, chlorine, and bacteria.*

*And a full bar, of course, for experimentation, photo purposes, post work libations, and maybe more fun stuff eventually.*

And he had to fill it up with all the necessary equipment for the type of ice production he’s going for. Think along the lines of a massive walk-in freezer, band saws, a reverse osmosis water filter, and all the tools he needed to lift 300-pound blocks of crystal-clear ice from tubs in another freezer.

“I was doing this at Bar Rosina’s on a small scale in coolers, but actually, I started doing it originally at Terra in Danbury when I was working at Eastend for Z Hospitality,” Meyer says. “But when you do it that way, you can only use a small amount of the ice because the impurities will either rise or fall. The water filter—they use this in breweries—it’s top of the line, the most expensive one I could find, it removes chlorine and fluoride, so it’s as pure as you can get. It looks like glass, right?”

*Back when Meyer was experimenting with clear ice at Bar Rosina’s, you may have noticed it in several cocktails there.*

While Meyer says he’s not fully done working behind bars, he obviously still does sometimes, plus consulting work designing bar programs, he’s happy and excited about this new chapter, and as a new father, he’s very much into spending more time with his wife and child.

What Meyer is trying to do at One Third Ice is appeal to restaurants, bars, country clubs, and wedding venues who are taking their bar programs seriously. Besides the obvious that clear ice makes any old fashioned, Negroni, or clarified milk punch look stunningly beautiful in a glass, it’s got other benefits. For one, clear ice melts a lot slower, therefore, it won’t water down your drink, and two, it’ll taste better, since when it does melt a bit, all the minerals found in tap water won’t change the flavor of your drink.

Early on, Meyer’s One Third Ice has a few restaurant clients like Bar Rosina’s and Taco Guy who use his carefully made ice cubes, rectangles, and spheres, and venues have hit him up for custom luges and sculptures created in the freezer by a Swift Ice Carver which works on a software to churn out 2D and 3D sculptures.

Once frozen solid, Meyer uses equipment to lift the blocks out of the freezer and onto a cart before it gets cut into smaller sections before it can become cubes, spheres, or even a sculpture or a luge.

“I can do engraving or custom ice for restaurants like I do for Bar Rosina’s (with their rose logo embedded into the cube),” Meyer says. “If you need different sizes (from what’s online), I come to your restaurant and measure your glassware to see what work. Ice sculptures, luges, ice bars, all of it. If you’re a bartender and your restaurant or bar is a customer, you’re welcome to come by and put flowers or fruit in the ice if you wanna come in and do that together.”

Those interested in what One Third Ice is offering are encouraged to send an email or call to set up an appointment to swing by, see the space, and talk about your ice needs. And even though it’s not a walk-in kind of operation, Meyer does have big plans for the space that does include a bar and a little photo area, by the way.

Custom cubes for Valentine’s Day? Or for whatever event or occasion you want? No problem.

“If I wanna do events, I need parking, but I know Matt who owns the lot across the street that Spacecat uses, so that might be possible,” he says. “What I would do are bartending events and seminars if anything. I want to spruce the place up a bit with barstools, some plants, and make the front office like a library full of cocktail books and combine that with music. The photo area is set up for me and for customers or bartenders to come in and shoot with the lights for their personal Instagram or whatever.”

After Meyer gets going even more, One Third could pursue an FDA license to potentially offer shipping, but to also be able to get his products into grocery and liquor stores.