Hi, it’s Becky again, and what a joy it is to fill in for Pete two weeks in a row! We’re in the throes of holiday party season, and things have been pretty festive around here … but the holiday party burnout is real. Cutting back on drinking is one way I’ve been managing my social exhaustion — which isn’t to say I’m not going out.
Maybe you’re in the same boat, or maybe you’re looking to gather with a group of people that includes both drinkers and teetotalers. And maybe you’re just sick of ordering a ginger ale. So, this week, I’m suggesting a few merry and bright bars with notable (and not phoned-in) nonalcoholic cocktail programs — as well as regular-old cocktails and plenty of snacks. After all, everyone deserves a night out to toast the holiday season and the new year.
But! Before we get to those, a couple of tabs for you to open and read through this afternoon: Pete Wells’s end-of-year coverage is here, and it’s delightful. Here are his top 12 new restaurants of the year and his top eight dishes of 2023.
Swanky cocktail bars
Tigre is a new bar in the Lower East Side from the Maison Premiere team where, through a dim hall of mirrors, you’ll find a 70s-style lounge with tiger-print banquettes and gold details on nearly everything. The menu lists three nonalcoholic wines from the brand NON, an exciting alternative to a bitters and soda. For those imbibing, every server there will recommend the Cigarette Martini, and they’d be right — it’s a leathery martini made with vodka and a smoked juniper spirit from Empirical. They’ll also make you a martini by ratio of gin (or vodka) to vermouth, from 4-to-1 to 1-to-nothing.
There’s a similarly festive (read: fancy!) scene in NoHo at the Nines, a plush piano bar with a serious cocktail program, including three bubbly, low-ABV options and three nonalcoholic cocktails. The Famous Redhead, made with pomegranate, ginger and lime, is only $12, which is pretty reasonable for a place serving a $95 baked potato, and a small price to pay for live music and some of the best people-watching in the city.
Drinks (boozy and otherwise) and dinner
You could sit down for a proper dinner at Superbueno, in the East Village, where a Chamoy y Soda made with pickled plums, guajillo and soda tastes just as special as any one of their cocktails. If you’re drinking alcohol, the Vodka y Soda is one of my favorite drinks in the city — it’s much less boring than it sounds, with guava and pasilla. The birria grilled cheese is an ideal drunchies specimen, but delicious in any state of mind, and the pastor yaki tacos are prime party fare.
Layla, in Williamsburg, seems like it should be a summer bar, with its picnic-tabled backyard, but a wintry dinner at the low-lit bar is downright cozy. They have house cocktails, including a spiked hot chocolate, but they also carry brands like St. Agrestis’s phony Negroni, Ghia aperitivo used in a mule, and Seedlip for a nonalcoholic margarita. To eat: oysters with punchy mignonette, fennel salad with pecorino and a crunchy chicken Milanese.
And finally, at 929, in Long Island City, slide into a leather booth while Canto-pop vinyl spins. One of their most popular cocktails, the winter melon-flavored, Not the Melon You Know, can be made without the booze. Dine on braised beef shank, popcorn chicken and radish cakes over drinks, or order Taiwanese takeout from Gulp downstairs to pick up on your way out.
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