Well, I made it to a number of restaurants and had many drinks, but only two cocktails from the list were conquered that night.
The first stop was the swanky bar at Allen & Delancey, a popular restaurant with interesting American cuisine, on the Lower East Side.
The gimmick on their bar menu is that they offer two variations on each cocktail. Version one is lighter with lots of fruit and fancy sweeteners. Version two is more for sipping with balanced liquors and thoughtful combinations.
Since I’m a guy that likes to taste and enjoy my alcohol, I was pleased to see that I had a version two on the list. The Tinker’s Stand No. 2 is a delicate combination of rye, amaro, sherry, elderflower, bénédictine, and bitters.
For those of you who are not professional drinkers, I’ll fill you in on a few of those ingredients. Rye is an American whiskey (I love my whiskeys) and amaro and bénédictine are both herbal liqueurs with slightly sweet and bitter flavors. The cocktail had a tasty balance of sweet, spicy, and herbal notes. I could have sipped it well into the night.
We also ordered the L’heure Verte No. 2 which was a stirring of tequila, absinthe, a smokey Islay scotch, bitters, and sweet agave nectar. It was deeply complex and incredibly interesting to drink.
This cocktail (which isn’t on my list) kept finishing with new flavors on my palate after I put the drink down. Smokey, sweet, bitter. It was amazing. It began to overshadow the cocktail I came for in the first place.
Sipping these spirits was a great way to start New Year’s Eve and I’m glad this was our first stop, before the drinking got intense and my taste buds became completely dull.
Would Allen & Delancey’s Tinker’s Stand No. 2 make my Top 100 of the year? I can guarantee that their other cocktail would, but both drinks were balanced and very pleasing to imbibe. I give the Tinker’s (sorry for the weird abbreviation) a 7 out of 10,but would rate the L’heure Verte much higher.
