Le Comptoir Général

Le Comptoir Général is another uber-hip place in the 10th; brunch by day, drinks by night, hidden door, taxidermy.

Lani Kai

Lani Kai is one of the rare hip tiki bars that exist, but given that it's creator is also responsible for the amazing Flatiron Lounge and Clover Club, this shouldn't be a surprise. The excellent cocktails include the Last Luau, with white & aged rum, grilled pineapple, ginger syrup and lime juice; the Pacific Swizzle with white rum, rosehip, lemongrass and hibiscus tea; and the non-tiki New York Sour with whiskey, lemon and orange juice, red wine and topped with egg white.

The Queen's Park Swizzle is made with aged rum,mint, demerara, lime and bitters.

The food is great as well - we started with the Tuna Poke, a ahi tuna with chilies, sesame, macadamia nuts and cucumber on taro root chips.

The pork buns with pickled cucumbers and secret sauce were amazing; and the delicata squash tempura is a perfect bar snack.

For dessert, we tried the doughnuts served with a perfectly salty caramel dipping sauce.

1534

1534 is a new bar in Nolita where the French influenced drinks are serious, but the vibe is laid back. The drinks we tried - with lemongrass, lime, ginger, pisco & egg white; and vodka, pear, lime, and mint were perfect pre- or post-dinner cocktails.

Akariba

The number of sake bars in the city is limited as compared to the options for wine bars, cocktail bars and beer gardens, so I'm super excited about the opening of Akariba, a tiny sake bar in Williamsburg. The space is cute, with an outdoor porch vibe and a glass ceiling for viewing the treetops above. The sake is good, and served in huge glasses, and there is a menu of small plates from neighboring Zenkichi. I tried the shrimp tempura with a curry dipping sauce - a great sake drinking snack.

Living Room Bar & Terrace

The Living Room Bar & Terrace in the new W Hotel downtown is a little bit slick, but the drinks are really good. This bourbon summer cup was muddled with blueberries, basil, ginger and mint for a light, slightly sweet cocktail.

The strawberry & basil paloma was also nice with pink grapefruit, agave nectar, lime and tequila.

Both the deviled eggs and olives with parmesan were good accompaniments to the drinks.

Puro Wine

The recently opened Puro Wine in soho is a great little wine shop with a huge range of Chilean wines stacked floor to ceiling. Being a huge fan of Argentine wines, I thought it made sense to branch out and explore more wines from the continent.

To get acquainted with their selection, they've been hosting wine tastings on Fridays and Saturdays. In the past couple of weeks, I picked up the delicious 2008 Puerto Veijo Chardonnay with juicy tropical flavor and this 2007 Santa Carolina Reserva de Familia Carmenere with extraordinary spicy notes.

There are more tastings coming up: Super-Chilean Blends from Los Maquis Wines this Friday, 2/12 from 5-7 and wines from the Montes vineyards on Sat 2/13 from 4-6.

Night Owl

I'm loving the recently opened Night Owl bar in Williamsburg - it has skee ball and foosball, which are both loads of fun after a few drinks.

Jeff the bartender makes these excellent "tea" shots which are in the perfectly palatable spot between the super cheesy lemon drop and the difficult to swallow tequila shot. A combination of sweet tea vodka, green tea vodka and a touch of lemon taste remarkably like a sip of iced tea!

Xie Xie

Xie Xie is a hip little sandwich shop with a great soundtrack in hell's kitchen offering some amazing Asian sandwiches.

The Vietnamese inspired Fish Chaca La Vong sandwich is made with on a crispy baguette filled with marinated tilapia, a sweet onion jam and lots of dill and was perfect with a touch of siracha. I loved the sweetness of the onions with the intense dill flavor.

Egg salad is one of my favorite things, and the smoked egg salad on a shredded braised chicken sandwich was creamy and an excellent pair with the chicken.

They also offer a great beverage selection with a few half bottles of wine and a canned champagne (ok, California sparkling wine) that I couldn't resist.

Dessert was a "1000 year old" ice cream sandwich, with crispy wafer thin chocolate cookies and ice cream filled with an inky black caramel made from a carefully crafted recipe to get just the right balance of charred and sweet flavors.
This food was incredible and I can't wait for the St. Marks location to open closer to my 'hood!

Secret Sherry Society

The Secret Sherry Society held a fashion show in the Altman building last night in partnership with Fashion Fights Poverty to promote different varieties of the wine.


During the fashion show of designs by StellaBonds, models carried around a gold box holding a secret and alternated between showing the audience the box and passing it to the next model.

In the next door lounge, these very cool illustrations were auctioned off to support Fashion Fights Poverty.

There were also tables set up with tastings of sherry paired with small bites by The Dinner Bell catering.

This was a delicious bresola beef paired with Palo Cortado sherry.

Other tables had anchovy spiked olives, marcona almonds, jamon serrano cigars, cabreles & crackers, and chocolate covered orangettes with spanish figs. Out of all the wines, my favorite was the Pedro Ximénez, a deep colored sweet sherry. There were also sherry cocktails available, including the margarita-inspired "Project Cortado" with tequila. Can't wait for the next secret event!

Whiskey & Cheese

Artisanal has incredible wine & cheese classes, but I was excited to attend the recent Whiskey & Cheese event since my experience with whiskey has been limited to bourbon old-fashioneds from cocktail bars. After a reception with cava and an assortment of cheeses, the class started. We moved through six single malt scotch whiskeys ranging from fresh to deep and smoky, paired with cheese from Artisanal's collection. Most of the scotch was a bit challenging for a novice, but I really took to the Talisker, a 10-year old vintage that was very smoky and reminded me of the bacon-infused bourbon at PDT. As usual for Artisanal, all of the cheeses were incredible, but this Oregon Blue from Rogue Creamery really left an impression. Sweet, salty and smoked, it really stood out from the other varieties we sampled - Bleu de Laqueuille, Roquefort, Hoch Ybrig, Gruyère, and a soft goat's milk topped with a bay leaf. The night finished with a slice of a dense, creamy cheesecake with a pecan shortbread crust.