A Compulsion for Cocktails
I apologize, for being off-line for so long. The new job in New York City has kept me quite busy. It is exciting and I love being in New York every day, but it has distracted me from posting.
This week's Dining section in the NY Times focused on Cocktails, the articles got me fired up to start posting again. You know how I love cocktails.
Oliver Schwaner-Albright's great article entitled Let 100 (O.K., 8) Bartending Philosophies Bloom got me started on a mission to explore all the exotic cocktail bars in NY City.
Here is my initial list. I am learning that this journey could take years.
I prefer downtown destinations, so my first target was Tailor, not a pure cocktail bar, but a restaurant with a noted cocktail bar downstairs. Located at 525 Broome Street (btw Thompson St. & 6th Avenue) their phone is (212) 334-5182.
"The liveliest place in the restaurant is the low-ceilinged cocktail lounge, located just steps below the ground-floor dining room, where the city’s most avant garde mixologist, Eben Freeman (also formerly of WD-50), shows off his latest creations. Waitresses in elegantly, er, tailored hot pants start elegant foodies off with popcorn dusted in curry powder. This same playfulness is also evident in liquid form; shots of bourbon infused with smoked Coke syrup, cedar, or tobacco (for those who’ve ever wanted to taste a cigar box) are as minimal and woody as the lounge’s decor. Freeman ups the ante on an already exotic pisco sour, faithfully made with raw egg, by infusing it with the bracing taste of Yerba Matte tea. The bar menu is limited, so those who want to combine eating and drinking should try a flight of “solids”— essentially Jello shots, the most inventive of which mimics a Rice Krispie Treat via dehydrated Kahlua with cereal soaked in vodka, sugar and half-and-half." New York Magazine.
Unfortunately there was a private party so I will have to visit Tailor on my next foray.
Luckily a few short blocks away I found the revered cocktail bar Pegu Club on West Houston.
This is Audrey Saunders' SoHo cocktail mecca is famous for attention to detail, rejection of vodka and superbly mixed cocktails.
Pegu Club is named after a bar in Burma near Rangoon that thrived in the era of the old British Empire. Kipling wrote about it in From Sea to Sea: "The Pegu Club seemed to be full of men on their way up or down, and the conversation was but an echo of the murmur of conquest far away to the north."
The old world Asian style decor and comfortable bar and lounge settings make this place a winner.
Photo from NY Daily Photo, by Ming the Merciless
We tried three cocktails, each one was amazing. A Whiskey Smash of Rye, Meyer Lemons and other secret ingredients, a Mojito like Champagne cocktail called an Old Cuban, and something called Fallen Leaves, of Rum and Riesling.
Asian-inspired small plates are served till 1 am. The menu promises and delivers intense and exotic flavors, our Duck in biscuits and vegetable frita completely lived up to the promises.
Address: 77 West Houston Street (Wooster and West Broadway)
Phone: 212-473-PEGU
Next On The List are:
The West Village for Employees Only, a favorite for dinner. Now for the cocktails.
Lower East side for East Side Company Bar and the East Village for Death & Co.
There are dozens more, stop by again to read more.
Cocktail Resources
Cocktail Recipes
NY Bars
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