"Speakeasys" were yesterday: the comeback of craft cocktails is imminent
The bar scene in New York is diverse. Music bars meet high-end bars, classic cocktail bars celebrate a grand revival. And craft cocktails are the name of the game everywhere. A look at some of the hottest venues in town.
New Yorkers have always loved going out in the city to see others and be seen. There's a romance and a gamble in choosing where to go because around the next corner could be a bar, venue, or person that will change your life. That's why the dense downtown streets are a veritable fashion runway for the young glitterati, waiting for their turn in the spotlight, while the restaurants and bars play center stage for the more established.
In the early 2000s, the place to be was in a booth of a neo-speakeasy lounge hidden behind password-protected doors where bartenders like Dale DeGroff and Sasha Petraske were rediscovering or reinventing classic cocktails. These dimly lit, wood-clad rooms reinforced the importance of those lucky enough to taste the bartender's creations. The excitement was in the experience as much as the delicious drinks. To be in one of these bars meant that you had taste or connections, and New York is a city where demonstrations of taste and cultural capital can outweigh actual capital—although having money to spend never hurts.
Today the craft cocktail scene has moved out of the shadows and into the light. It's a golden age for cocktail lovers, where even small restaurants and bars have decent programs. Gatekeeping no longer rules the day, and the best bars are welcoming temples to the art of hospitality, shining a spotlight on the creativity of the bartenders leading the craft movement.
There's a celebratory opulence in today's best bars, with each specializing in something important to the creative chef, owner, or bartender running the endeavor, whether it be punk swagger, zen-like dedication to the Martini, or the search for a perfect sound system designed to enhance a cocktail experience.
Big in Japan
The last example is a rising trend in New York, with listening rooms (loosely inspired by Japanese Jazz Kissa) popping up everywhere. Eavesdrop (Greenpoint), Outer Heaven (Lower East Side), and James Murphy's Nightmoves (Williamsburg) all have fantastic custom speaker systems that cater to cocktail-loving, high-fidelity fans. But the best system in town is Upstairs at Public Records, where the entire one-room cocktail bar has been transformed into an "acoustic vessel" by Devon Turnbull, the sonic genius behind Ojas. A listening session Upstairs is perfectly accompanied by the 03 (Rum, Solera Sherry, and Dandelion) or the 014 (Japanese whisky, black sugar, and bitters). It's a gorgeous room for reverent listeners and cocktail lovers.
But this amount of orderly, prescriptive drinking activity isn't for everyone. For those seeking a slightly more chaotic, high-energy cocktail bar, there's Masahiro Urushido's Katana Kitten (West Village), where late nights are filled with delicious highballs and boilermakers. The Toki Highball is perfect, but it's with drinks like the Hinoki Martini (a combination of Martini and traditional sake service) where Urushido's serious cocktail background shines. The elegant cocktails are beautifully offset by the dive-bar atmosphere. Fans and curious home mixologists can pick up his and Michael Anstendig's recent book, The Japanese Art of the Cocktail, which features the Hinoki Martini and many more recipes.
For the opposite atmosphere that still maintains a Japanese influence, head to Takuma Watanabe's Martiny's (Gramercy), a three-story lounge that dives headfirst into opulence. Guests are greeted with warmed Oshibori towels and a coursed drink menu. The classic-leaning menu is honed to a razor's edge, pared back and perfectly executed, arriving tableside in crystal glassware. These gorgeous cocktails pair perfectly with Chef Wayne Cheng's (Masa, Eleven Madison Park) culinary offerings.
Cocktails 2.0
If you'd rather drink your dinner, there's nowhere quite like GN Chan & Faye Chen's highly lauded Double Chicken Please (Lower East Side), which debuted on the World's 50 Best Bars list at number 6 last year. Double Chicken's front room offers traditional dinner alongside rotating cocktails on tap, but the back lounge is something entirely different. This "Coop" as they lovingly call it, is dedicated to deconstructing and reimagining food flavor profiles into cocktails, perfectly recreating the essence of the dishes. The Mango Sticky Rice, Red Eye Gravy, and Japanese Cold Noodle are all standouts, but the most popular is almost certainly the Key Lime Pie which utilizes the uncategorizable spirits from Lars William's pioneering Empirical to make an ethereally delicious cocktail that tastes just like a Key Lime curd and Graham cracker crust. It's a masterpiece in a glass.
Masterpieces come in all disciplines; for architecture fans, there's the New York City skyline and one of the Art Deco masterpieces (70 Pine), home to another of the city's greatest cocktail bars, Overstory on the 64th floor. Led by stellar bar manager Harrison Ginsberg (who also oversees the sister programs at the two Michelin-starred Saga and one Michelin-starred Crown Shy), the team at Overstory serves up some of the finest (and most complex) drinks with the single best view of New York available. Try the In the Clouds (a fitting name for a delicious cocktail) or the Montego Slay, a perennial favorite. After being served, you can take a turn on the observation deck and see the skyline 360° with your perfect cocktail in hand.
Afraid of heights? Try art instead of an observation deck. Even as the neo-speakeasies faded out of popularity, an older style of New York institution re-emerged: the jazz bar. And there's one in particular that struck a chord in the craft cocktail era: Bemelmans Bar (Upper East Side) at the Carlyle—named after author and painter Ludwig Bemelmans (Madeline), who adorned the walls of the hotel bar with original artwork to pay for a hotel tab. This bar is the place to go for a true classic, like a Martini or Manhattan, while you listen to a jazz quartet play in the center of the room.