In the past year, grown up New Yorkers have thrown themselves into a giant ball pit ; we’ve leapt on a breast-shaped bouncy castle ; we’ve watched Shakespeare performed by a drunken cast ; and we turned Park Avenue into a 270-ft long Slip N Slide water feature. Either we’ve regressed to pre-school mentality or we’re in need of a bit of light reprieve from the fact the world is crumbling around us (see: Trump. ISIS. The inevitable closure of the L Train. etc, etc.).
This silly streak goes beyond an apparent willingness to queue for anything involving oversized childhood games: it’s made its way to our cocktail glasses. Cue small plastic toys sitting pretty atop our drink, flaming accouterments better suited to Margaritaville than a respectable drinking establishment, and receptacles that could be classified as incitements to thievery. In otherwise refined and classic bars, you will usually find at least one spectacle order—that one drink that always makes the Instagram edit.
This wasn’t always the case. There was a time when if you went to a serious bar you were served a serious-looking drink. It came delivered in a vintage coupe or stout, stately rocks glass by a man in sleeve garters. It contained a liquid of various shades of sepia. But that was back in the aughts, when bartenders were still fighting for their industry to be considered commensurable with their culinary equivalent. The aesthetic of the cocktails, often inspired by bartending legends like Jerry Thomas or Harry Craddock, implied a more subtle craftsmanship than the multi-colored disco drinks of the 80s and 90s.
These days, you can’t turn a corner without falling into another craft cocktail bar, and people are just as likely to order a Manhattan as a Mojito. With the battle largely won, bartenders are free to make whatever the hell they want, which seems to be brilliantly absurd-looking cocktails. And, much like the grown-up boozy version of a Happy Meal, they’re often accompanied by something silly to play with.
The Ocean Club at Holiday Cocktail Lounge
75 St Marks Pl, New York, NY 10003
This place has been a bar for half a century, though back then there were presumably fewer plastic toys in the drinks. After shuttering in 2012, it was lovingly restored with long-lost details such as the harem-girl mural from Holiday’s time as a burlesque bar, and the signature Christmas lights. It became somewhere the former locals still recognized, but with a new bar menu—thanks to Michael and Danny Neff of Extra Fancy—to bring in fresh faces.
From the get-go, a few of their cocktails came garnished with plastic monkeys and mermaids, tiny teacups, or the infamous paper umbrella, back again after its years of shamed exile. But soon they noticed if the customers didn’t get a tiny pink dinosaur, they’d demand one. Now every drink comes with a side of silliness, which serves as a pretty good memento when you can’t remember where you ended up the night before.
The tropical-inspired Ocean Club, with lime, pineapple cordial, and Santa Teresa 1976 rum given a dry twist by the Meletti amaro and Angostura…and some toy soldiers. Photo by Paul Wagtouicz
The Tahitian Coffee at Slowly Shirley
Downstairs, 121 W 10th St, New York, NY 10011
This subterranean cocktail den, with its tan leather banquettes and Art Deco figurine lamps, would have been a prime date spot circa 1940, and it still does the job very nicely. Much like their jazz age soundtrack, the drinks keep things classic, with a handful of original creations thrown in by bartending veterans Jim Kearns and Jon Neidich.
While in many ways this feels like your old school speakeasy, with bartenders dressed to the nines and table service, they still list a few spectacle serves, such as the Tahitian Coffee ($42) designed for two to share, arriving in a Chemex coffeemaker —that favorite receptacle of coffee snobs—offering a coffee-buzz-meets-booze-fix all in one giant drink.
The Tahitian Coffee with Plantation Barbados 2001, Encanto Pisco, lime, orange, passion fruit syrup, guava nectar, cold brew concentrate, house-made falernum, and honey syrup, garnished with grated coffee and an orchid. Photo courtesy of Slowly Shirley
Any Cha-Chunker at Genuine Liquorette
191 Grand St, New York, NY 10013
Any drink that requires the use of something called a Cha-Chunker is already giggle-worthy. This device, invented by bar manager Eben Freeman, is inserted into the mouth of any canned beverage to widen the hole, making room for a miniature bottle of booze to be unceremoniously upended into the can—a take on fast-casual we can get behind. The cocktails become low-brow sculptural beverages, reminiscent of something you might make on a plane, and certainly poke fun at the seriousness of cocktail culture elsewhere.
Located beneath the restaurant Genuine Superette , this spot is styled like an upscale take on your corner bodega, and just like your bodega, you can help yourself to the booze in the cabinets—only the spirits here are of a far higher caliber, and you’ll be charged per ounce you consume. If a Cha-Chunked Paloma is too low-key, Freeman and his team will also mix up drinks on demand, keeping their craft cocktail credentials firmly intact.
The Cha-Chunk method is turned on anything you can make with a soft drink and a miniature, from Dark & Stormys to Bloody Marys. Photo by Garrett Rowland
The Coconut at ZZ’s Clam Bar
169 Thompson St, New York, NY 10012
This tiny reservation-only seafood joint is a haute celebration of the humble bivalve, elevating the clam bar concept to dizzying heights, both in terms of their notoriously high prices and the precise presentation. When it comes to the cocktails, Chief bartender Thomas Waugh—formerly of Death & Co and the other Major Food Group hotspot Carbone —is all about whimsy, and he has created a menu where spectacle is king. This philosophy extends to his attire: Waugh often serves drinks in a white tuxedo and gold bowtie, with only booty shorts below.
When designing a drink, Waugh works backwards, building the cocktail to suit whatever unusual vessel he’s come across in the catacombs of eBay. Between dishes of shimmering sardine fillets and tuna crudo, cocktails emerge in porcelain Buddhas pierced with a straw through their bellies, or in bisected brass pineapples, garnished with a sprinkle of chamomile powder and flowers.
The Coconut features Trinidadian rum, house-made coconut cream and acacia honey and is served in a whole fuzzy frozen coconut, balanced on a bed of ice and banana leaves and garnished with a smoking stick of Sri Lankan cinnamon—looking more like an offering to the gods than something to drink. Photo courtesy of Major Food Group
The Shark’s Eye at Mother of Pearl
95 Ave A, New York, NY10009
This is a modern tiki bar without a grass skirt or lei in sight. Another venture from nightlife impresario Ravi DeRossi—whose bars include neighborhood favorites Amor y Amaro, Death & Co., and Cienfuegos—Mother of Pearl has channeled all of tiki’s escapist qualities straight into the drinks (and the palm-leaf wallpaper). Order the Pink Dolphin garnished with a dolphin carved from grapefruit or any of their cocktails from one of their impressive decorative punch bowls.
In many ways, as bar manager Jane Danger (previously of PDT, Little Branch, the NoMad Hotel) explains, the creativity of tiki is the cornerstone of so many of the more playful drinks we’re seeing today.
The Shark’s Eye is a blend of passion fruit, lemon, maraschino, bourbon, tiki bitters, and curaçao served in a shark-shaped cup. Photo via Facebook
