Spirited Cocktails

In some fit of insanity while planning my agenda for the 2011 Manhattan Cocktail Classic, I chose to schedule a Behind the Bar session at Painkiller early in the afternoon on the day following The Gala. As excited as I was to learn more about the bar that is leading the Tiki Revolution, I was dreading another drink so soon after the prior evening’s revelry; especially from a bartender as renowned for knocking his patrons on their asses as proprietor Giuseppe González. Fortunately, he was relatively kind!

Painkiller is located on Manhattan’s Lower East Side, and in its short life to-date (they just celebrated their one year anniversary earlier this month), it already has a reputation. Ask anyone who has been there about their Painkiller experience and more likely than not, they remember simply that they enjoyed it; not much else! But Painkiller has also established their reputation as a world-class cocktail bar, particularly in the tiki style. Not a surprise, given the pedigree of owning partners Giuseppe González (Flatiron Lounge, Clover Club) and Richard Boccato (Little Branch, Dutch Kills). Read More

I love a good tweetup. As you probably know, I’m a Twitter addict, and I’ve met so many great people on the Twitter machine. Every once in a while though, it’s nice to crawl out of one’s cave and actually hang out with people in person!

Last night, we were lucky to have two amazing tweetups back-to-back. The first was the evolution of what has become our awesome monthly event (which began with our brown liquor tweetup in Brooklyn, followed by our clear liquor tweetup at Double Crown last month). This month’s tweetup focused on Rum – Tiki-style cocktails in particular. @Sweetblogomine was kind enough to get things organized at Elettaria in the West Village, which has a Mahalo Monday tiki special. My favorite of the evening was the Black Pearl – a twist on the Old Fashioned which includes Old Forester bourbon, Curzan black strap rum, demerara sugar and bitters. Outstanding. Read More