Woo-hoo! I just returned from a weekend of festivities in New York City with a couple of friends. E was there on business to attend the annual Toy Fair, and invited R and me to join him. Our evenings were free, so I served as cocktail Sherpa, guiding us on a tour of the city’s top watering holes. So many choices! How to decide? I remembered my graduate school days, when good buddy P and I organized the pub crawls for our classmates. So, I followed the same template: an ordered list of destinations, within walking distance of each other. A limit of one drink per venue, so we could explore as many places as possible without getting hammered. Interspersed with food breaks, for the same reason. Itinerary in hand, we were off to the races!

First stop, Mace. Think upscale dining, the drink menu driven by the flavors of herbs and spices from the kitchen pantry. Next was Nitecap, a casual juke joint offering a fun-filled and eclectic playlist of cocktails. Shifting gears completely, we headed to Bar Goto, all cool Asian sophistication and sublimely harmonious libations. Another gear shift found us at Amor y Amargo, its small standing-room-only space housing the largest collection of amari and bitters imaginable. Then Death & Company, the quintessential speakeasy, with a candlelit intimacy and impressive catalog of creative drinks that featured uncommon, hard-to-find boozes. On to the Pegu Club, inspired by a Burmese outpost of the British empire, which served up a variety of tropical punches as we lounged on a comfortably overstuffed divan. Our final destination was Dante, a century-old Italian café in Greenwich Village, where Negroni variations were (appropriately) the bar’s forte.

These establishments varied dramatically in concept, décor, and ambience. Their approaches to drink-making, ingredients, and flavor profiles were equally diverse. And yet every single one created an inviting place to relax and enjoy a delicious, interesting cocktail with friends. Our outing was an unqualified success, and we’re already thinking about the sequel. I’ll keep you posted…

h.

Mace

Amburana– Great Kings Street scotch infused with shiitake mushrooms, soy sauce, Pedro Ximenez sherry, burnt cocoa maple syrup, amburana bitters

Ras el Hanout– coconut oil fat-washed gin, green coconut-infused Campari, ras el hanout-infused sweet vermouth

Dill Seeds– lardo-infused calvados, amontillado sherry, agricole rum, cedar milk, rectified pineapple-beet juice, dill seed bitters

Nitecap

Year of the Cat– Suze, gin, olive leaf, salted lemon-lime cordial, tonic

Space Cadet– navy strength gin, Lillet Blanc, vanilla, blood orange shrub, lemon juice, cardamom

Moon Rising– reposado tequila, mezcal, ancho chile, sour cherry, lime juice, mole bitters

Bar Goto

Improved Shochu Cocktail– barley shochu, bison grass, douglas fir

Oolong Sazerac– shochu, cognac, oolong, peach, anise

L.E.S.– gin, Cointreau, lemon, chili, cucumber, shiso

Amor y Amargo

Di Pompelmo– Citron Sauvage, Aperol, tequila, hopped grapefruit bitters

Sharpie Moustache– Meletti, Bonal, rye, gin, tiki bitters

Amaro Nardini– shot, neat

Death & Company

Iron Path– Zuccardi ‘Q’ Malbec, Amaro Pasubio, El Dorado 8 yr rum, cinnamon, Angostura bitters

Cutlass– Siembra Valles blanco tequila, Tanqueray gin, Castelvetrano olive, pale cream sherry, thyme

Mai Tai– Habitation Velier Worthy Park 2007 Jamaican rum, Rhum Clément Créole Shrubb, lime, orgeat, Angostura bitters

Pegu Club

Pegu Club– London dry gin, Angostura bitters, orange bitters, curaçao, lime juice

Pisco Punch– pineapple-infused pisco brandy, grapefruit and lime syrups, lemon juice

Kill-Devil– rhum agricole, green Chartreuse, Demerara syrup, Angostura bitters

Dante

Red Sky Negroni– Plymouth gin, Martini Bitter aperitivo, Regal Rouge vermouth, lapsang, kombu, Islay scotch ‘mist’

Negroni Coffee Swizzle– Del Maguey mezcal, Martini Ambrato, Meletti Bitter, cold brew