Sasha Petraske is all about ice. The New York City drinkman, known for suspenders, corduroy pants and opening bars in places where no man has gone before (well, some men), was in Atlanta recently to oversee progress of his latest venue, Drinkshop, which was slated to open Feb. 5 inside the W Downtown Hotel and Residences.

And he couldn’t stop talking about ice. Well, that and newspapers, which he reads diligently and prolifically. Petraske looks younger than his 36 years, but is an old soul — at least when it comes to drinking.

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Ben Rose/Special

Sasha Petraske’s Drinkshop will open Feb. 5 inside the W Downtown Hotel and Residences.

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“We’re time-traveling,” he says. “I’m trying to take people back to an era — the late ’20s and ’30s — when a great cocktail was as important as the rest of the meal. When hotel bars were the rage.”

Still, it’s the ice that gets him going.

“Drinking liquor is all about the ice,” he says, clamoring over a beau soleil oyster at FAB’s bar. With very little, if any, public relations effort for his bars (including Little Branch, which he opened in a former cross-dressers’ nightclub), Petraske has managed to pull up well-heeled Manhattanites by their lapels and introduce them to the “old-fashioned” cocktail. His following borders on a cult, and includes chefs such as Daniel Boulud and Todd English.

In New York, (he also has a shop in London) the self-made Petraske’s venues are known for offering old-fashioned drinks, made with fresh ingredients, by “bar-keeps” (he loves the hyphen). He also loves offering drinks like ginger beer and bourbon and lots of visible mise en place (all those goodies the “bar-keeps” need to make drinks, like fresh fruits and herbs) displayed neatly about the bar.

At Drinkshop, he’ll offer what he calls three kinds of ice — crushed, cracked and block — for the cocktails served. The idea harkens to the days when hotels had ice delivered in huge blocks, and it was freshly chipped for cocktails.

“The ice machine started the demise of the great hotel bars,” he proclaims. “The shape of the ice directly affects the water content in a drink, which ultimately makes the drink good or bad.”

He uses freshly crushed ice in a drink such as a mint julep. For a caipirinha, cracked ice is preferred. Spears are chipped away from block ice to make what’s needed for something like a Tom Collins; golf ball-size spheres are molded from block ice to create just the right degree of melting for a whiskey sour.

Think of Drinkshop as a classy speakeasy more than a bar. And forget the long cocktail list of “signatures.” A menu of maybe 10 drinks will be available, but the focus will be on the “bar-keep’s” choice: Sit, say your choice of booze, and a fresh drink will be created, just for you. The ginger ale will be house made, and fruit cup cocktails, from a recipe dating to 1926, will be made with house-made Pimm’s, raspberry simple syrup and fresh lemon juice. Bottles will be encased in blocks of ice, and you can expect a wait of “seven to 10 minutes” for each handcrafted drink. Because we’re in the South, there will be a focus on brown liquors like bourbon and rye.

The staff reflects the vintage mood with uniforms gathered from local vintage clothing stores — suspenders and arm garters are a given.

And don’t expect to get jiggy with it: Like all Petraske’s bars, there will be house rules at Drinkshop. Ladies don’t get spoken to unless they speak to you first, gentlemen.

“I sell relaxation,” Petraske says, “not oblivion.”