He is credited with helping shape modern cocktail culture. He pioneered the cocktail revival in New York with Milk & Honey, in Lower East Side.
The bar was set up as 'pre-Prohibition' with a speakeasy-style.
In 2012 two of his associates took over the site and called it Attaboy. Petraske moving Milk & Honey to West 23rd Street.
Apparently the 42-year-old was living upstate temporarily with his wife, journalist Georgette Moger. There are reports that he could have taken a drug overdose.
He opened other bars in New York, London, Los Angeles, and Melbourne. Reports say he was working on a new bar in Red Hook, called Falconer.
A tribute eveinng will take place August 31 at Milk & Honey in NYC.