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…)

After: the new Paramount Bar bar.

As a Paramount fan since its cheap-chic Philippe Starck/Ian Schrager days, we mourned the hotel’s fall into disrepair in the 2000s and cheered its renovation in 2009. But we disagreed with some design decisions. Apparently we weren’t alone. The renovated Paramount keeps getting tweaked – and better.

First came the lobby (big improvement; see our previous blog). And now – not a moment too soon — the ground-floor bar.   (more…)

Nightcap at the Benjamin's National Bar

In case you didn’t know, we just wrapped up National Sleep Awareness Week, which culminated at 2 am on March 13^th, the day we “spring forward” and return to Daylight Savings Time, one hour blearier (but oh, those long evenings).

It’s not exactly a national holiday, but don’t tell the Benjamin Hotel in midtown, which has celebrated sleep awareness for a decade.  (more…)

As fans of the Crosby Street Hotel’s Sunday Night Film Club (a club in name only) we perked up when we

Crosby Street screening room.

learned the hotel’s stylish basement screening room – orange leather chairs, state of the art equipment – had launched a new series.  Planned for four Mondays sprinkled throughout 2011, “Under the Influence: Writers on Film” pairs celluloid with lit, featuring a movie chosen by a prominent writer followed by a discussion with said writer and screenwriter Michael Maren.  A reception with wine and nibbles wraps things up.

It’s a 92^nd Street Y, Film Forum, private screening mash-up, in other words. And it’s yours for $35 (they also toss in popcorn and Voss water). (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…)

Crosby Bar, home of Mrs. Lilley's Pumpkin Pie

Seasonal drinks make some people squirm, but we love them. Give us a pumpkin martini, and we say Thanks(giving)! Stir in a cool story, and it tastes even better.

Which brings us to Mrs. Lilley’s Pumpkin Pie, available for a limited time, naturally, at the Crosby Street Hotel.

Richard Lilley, head barman at the Crosby Bar, credits his wife, a former bartender in Chicago’s fabled Division Street, with the creation of this spicy/creamy concoction 17 years ago. (more…)