Well read.

Libraries and libations go together like gin and tonic. Or perhaps we should say like Islay scotch, Chambery Blanc vermouth, South India Solera sherry and crème de cacao, the makings of the Old Alhambra cocktail we had in the Library at the new NoMad Hotel.

The NoMad’s is one of the most exquisite hotel libraries we’ve ever seen – and we make a point of seeking out hotel libraries. Polished wood shelves, an oriental rug warming the hardwood floor, a sleek curved library stair leading to the second floor of books, strong WiFi – it’s the prototypical private library reimagined for 21^st-century tastes.

The content is as dazzling as the setting. Sidestepping the prevailing trend of outfitting a hotel library with books from one publisher – or color-coding a random selection of bulk-purchased hardcover books – the NoMad’s wood-paneled room looks like the lair of a voracious bibliophile with wide-ranging tastes. (more…)

Chocolate cocktails sound pretty good to us, but as we discovered on a recent visit to the lounge at the Pierre hotel, they’re oddly polarizing.

While keeping a friend company before she went to a dinner party upstairs, we spotted the bar’s Chocolate Cocktail Festival menu featuring eight drinks (five hot, three chilled) and two lavish desserts, $14 each. (more…)

Talk about a misnomer. Lady Mendl, aka Elsie de Wolfe, the pioneering interior designer and Age of Innocence-era grand dame, never lived in the twin 1834 townhouses containing the tea salon bearing her name. And we can’t imagine this crusading modernist who loathed Victorian frou frou would have selected, or condoned, the curvaceous loveseats, tufted brocades, fringed lampshades and acres of carved wood that fill the salon’s two parlors.

No matter. We can’t think of a better place to retreat when you want to take a quick break from the 21^st century. (more…)

Classic Mai Tai.

When we strolled into the Two E Bar at the Pierre, a glamorous, windowless, black-and-white lounge with silk throw pillows on the banquettes, we never dreamed we’d wind up with a dark orange drink sporting an orchid and a paper umbrella. But atop our black-lacquered cocktail table stood a flier announcing the Two E Tiki Festival.

Among the seven selections priced at $14: Polynesian Fashion (Mount Gay Rum, brown sugar syrup, bitters, kumquats and raspberries) and Island Hopper (light rum, lychee syrup, white cranberry juice, cantaloupe and orange bitters).  Sugar shock anyone?

The bar offers a permanent menu of drinks more easily identified with its sleek Upper East Side surroundings, like gin martinis and sidecars. (more…)

The "70s Manhattan."

Sounds like a riff on Long Island Iced Tea, ie mix ½ ounce of everything. But instead of a single drink we’re discussing one from each decade from the 1920s through the 1990s.

This summer the bar at the Barclay Intercontinental New York is serving up a Decades Cocktail Hour, weekdays from 5 pm to 8 pm.

Mondays celebrate the 1920s (Sidecar) and 1930s (French 75). Tuesdays relive the 1940s (Bellini) and 1950s (Harvey Wallbanger). Wednesday, the 1960s, is Vodka Martini night. (more…)

Highlands Margarita.

It sounds like a mixed metaphor, but no, we’re talking mixed drinks – one of the coolest drinks we’ve had this summer. This refreshing concoction, served salt-free, combines Patron Silver Tequila, Cointreau, Chambord and fresh raspberries in a tall, ice-cubed glass ($14). It tastes as summery as the Fourth of July. It looks great, too – one of those hot weather drinks that helps lower the temperature by its mere appearance.

But a big part of the Highlands Margarita’s appeal is its backdrop. Situated several miles south of Carmel, California, where Overnight New York overnighted this week, the Carmel Highlands is an unincorporated town, population 800ish, (more…)

The Vieux Carre.

We’re in the early stages of summer roof bar season, but no one would call most of New York’s recent nights balmy or sweet. So this week we offer a weather haven, a hotel bar where you can order a drink with a dash of glam and forget the gloom swirling around outdoors.

The above requirements mean dim lighting, no windows, dark woods and a muted palette, preferably blue to match the weather-inflicted mood. Since that describes the Royalton to a T, we headed to West 44^th Street. Our advice: if you want to be able to hear your companion, arrive early. By 8 pm the place assumes its nighttime guise as a hotel lobby doubling as a nightclub. But at 6:30 on a rainy holiday Monday evening, we had our pick of the cushy leather club chairs (more…)

Pink Ginger Cosmo.

A Cosmo? In 2011?

We’re in the Lobby Lounge on the 35^th floor at the Mandarin Oriental. The city sprawls below on a gorgeous spring night. Actually, the lounge itself where the most drop-dead views unfold is full – it’s 7 pm and I didn’t reserve — so we[re are in the bar, a moody/modern/manly high-ceilinged lair lighted by filament bulbs and outfitted with white oak tables. We’re not far from the window and the vista, similar to being on an airplane as it homes in on its destination, is sufficiently breathtaking to not make us gulp — too much — at the $19 cocktails. But a Cosmo? (more…)

Christmas 2010 is history, but the holidays roar on. And so does this season’s round of holiday drinks

The Bah humbug.

served at hotels around town. While complex signature drinks are more plentiful at New York hotels than ever – Red Pepper Daisy, anyone? — holiday libations are surprisingly rare.

Last season, the Algonquin concocted six special holiday drinks, including a killer eggnog. But when we stopped by to sample this season’s offerings, alas, there were none.

We were also intrigued when we heard of Hilton’s Twelve Days of Christmas cocktails (Two Turtle Doves — Baileys, rum and espresso – sounded particularly promising). Too bad they’re only available at Hilton hotels in Great Britain. (more…)

Mr. Big with starfruit

Cocktails as health drinks? In your dreams. Still, every day, it seems, another hotel bar announces an ingredients purge – out with processed juices, prefab mixes and high fructose corn syrups and in with fresh squeezed juice (complete with traces of pulp), mint leaves and sliced fruit.

Bars at boutique hotels, like the Royalton’s revamped Forty-Four, have led the all-natural, fresh-everything, organic-when-possible charge. (more…)