Blue Owl's springtime cocktails

A little while back I missed out on an opportunity to attend a party hosted at the Blue Owl Cocktail Room hosted to introduce their spring cocktail menu. So instead, I sat down with Charles Hardwick a little while back to talk about the spring menu, try out a few drinks, and make up for the horrible truth that I never visited the place though I feel like I see Charles all over the place.

Charles said that he tries to keep Blue Owl's menu seasonal, but added, "If a drink is popular and well-suited, it'll carry over."

The menu has a broad range, however "at the same time it slightly subverts what normal patterns of drinking are."

So for people who would not regularly drink gin, Charles said something like the Barrelhouse Fizz would be appealing. Especially with its color and raspberries, from across the room it's visually appealing enough to make a guest ask for it.

Charles usually limits his cocktail menu to 12 drinks, but he still tries to mix it up.

"I try to have several long drinks and not make it all martinis," Charles said. He also tries to showcase a wide variety of spirits such a gin, rye whiskey and cachaca.

Located on 2nd Ave., between 12th and 13th street, the lounge's location seemed like the type of place where where the crowd would vary. It also has a mix of atmosphere going on, because it serves cocktails the quality of those you could find at some of the more buttoned-down, Prohibition-reminiscent places in the city. At the same time if you check out the lounge's calendar online, you see that Blue Owl also hosts regular events with live music and DJs, making it a sort of occupy a plane of existence in between cocktail lounge and chill club. It probably works in the Blue Owl's favor considering the mix of people that populate the surrounding area. It's residential in the sense that people live there, but it's not far off from offices where people work and is in the vicinity of NYU. On top of that, it's got public transportation on lockdown since it's within walking distance to Union Square and then there's the L along 14th that let's people off just two blocks up.

"It's fairly diverse and depends on the day and time of day," Charles said about the clientele, whether it's working professionals or people from the neighborhood.

According to Charles, the bar gets a lot of professional women patrons who find the lounge to be a spot where they don't feel the pressure of unwanted attention and can relax and enjoy their drinks. Charles said that there's also a younger segment of those coming in from Williamsburg who are very much into cocktails and have done their own research or reading into the topic.

What I wasn't expecting to hear was that the spot attracts a lot of people who are on Internet or blind dates. In Charles' opinion, this was because Blue Owl is a place where people can feel comfortable and works as either a starting off or ending point to an evening.

Charles was generous and I got to try out a good chunk of the spring cocktail list. The following are a couple of the drinks I tried:



The first drink I got to try was the Rube, (Plymouth Sloe Gin, Lillet Rouge & fresh Orange Juice, garnished with an orange slice), a drink named after Rube Foster, the famous Negro League player, Manager, and founder of the Negro National League in 1920.

The Kipspringer (Bols Genever, Dolin Bianco Vermouth, Orange flower water, Orange bitters, garnished with an orange twist) packs an orange-scented punch, but has a bit of that little something with the flavors of genever and vermouth, that to me seemed to recreate the flavor of orange in a kind of abstract way. Charles said that when he sets out a cocktail glass and sprays it with a bit of the orange flower water, the scent creates a sort of anticipation and attraction.

Charles called The Ellison (Hendrick’s Cucumber and Rose Petal-infused Gin, muddled mint and cucumber, fresh lime-juice, with a dash of bitters. Shaken and served up, garnished with a slice of cucumber) "the most popular cocktail" on the menu. It's one of the holdovers from the previous season that's also been around the block. The recipe was given to Jim Ryan to be part of a list of recipes for Hendrick's Gin, then Charles was hoping to have it added in the new Mr. Boston's book that Jim Meehan was putting together. It then just sort of spread out from there and roams the wild now like a feral child, with reported sightings every now and then. Charles said he frequently meets customers who tell him, "Hey, do you know they also make this at...?". In an effort to reclaim the drink, Charles tweaked it by adding a spritz of rosewater.

The Madero, made with Milagro Tequila, Green Chartreuse, Cointreau, agave syrup, cilantro & fresh lime juice, caught my attention with cilantro, because seriously, I know some people can really, really, REALLY dislike cilantro. The whole thing comes together in my humble opinion because the cilantro kind of teams with the herbal complexities of the Green Chartreuse. Then the agave syrup and tequila sort of their own flavor going on so really you're not necessarily being hit over the head with the cilantro. It's still there, but it plays well with the other ingredients.

Charles said that his thinking behind The Marisco Sour (Bar Sol Pisco, Marie Brizard Crème de Banane & coconut water) was in trying to create a tropical drink with the flavors, minus the syrupy sweetness. Photographed in the middle.

Flatiron Lounge's spring menu

April 7

I was messing around on Facebook when I saw that Damon Dyer was online. I hadn't seen or talked to him in a long while so I asked him what nights he worked Flatiron Lounge. I was due for a visit to the joint as well as to stop by and say hi to Damon.

My timing couldn't have been any better, because Damon told me that the new spring menu would be debuting on Tuesday. This worked out great, I was going to be (sort of ) in the neighborhood anyway, since I was going to sneak into the School of Visual Arts to listen to one of my favorite artists give a lecture.

So after I was done feeling thoroughly uncool and old surrounded by art school kids, being star struck by how cool and awesome my favorite artist and totally embarrassing myself by tripping over my words and mumbling my way to having my shoes signed (they were the only things I had on me that could be signed), I needed a drink.

I made a quick jaunt from SVA to Flatiron Lounge. I waved hello to Damon over the heads of people sitting at the bar.

"So are these new like spring new or new like new new," I asked over the tops of heads as I stood on the tips of my toes.

"Both," Damon shouted back over the heads. "I got the recipes like two hours ago."

I looked over the menu and immediately saw there were a bunch of spring-welcoming ingredients and flavors like strawberry, rhubarb, cucumber, honeydew and white peach.

For example, the Beijing Peach sounds like a light, floral drink with its combination of vodka, pearls of jasmine and white peach.

I wanted to start off with the Imperial Daiquiri (white rum, lime, rhubarb and strawberries), but Damon said that was sadly the only one I could not have because there was no rhubarb. So I amended my order to the One Inch Punch.

The menu listed a blend of rums, youngberry, fresh grapefruit and lemon as the drinks ingredient. It also said "spiced with abit of velvet and a bit of tiki." I didn't pay good attention to any this latter part, but you should in light of the following realization.

So the drink was really light and refreshing. I could see someone easily sipping it in the middle of a hot and humid summer, just as much as I could see someone enjoying it in the early warmth of spring. But there was something. Something familiar about it.

The more I thought about it, the more it crept up on me. It reminded me of...ginseng tea? Sweet, yet kind of like an herbal tea. And if anyone's ever had ginseng tea or nibbled on a bit of ginseng, you know the spicy herby flavor I'm trying to discuss.

But first things first, I asked Damon what the blend of rums was, and he answered it was aged Barbados and light Jamaican rums in the drink. Good to know. What is this youngberry business?

"Think of a flavor profile that's something like raspberries and blackberries," Damon said.

OK, now for the last question. What is this mystery ginseng-like flavor going on in this drink. It's something I can't put my finger on.

"That's exactly what we want...it's falernum."

Ooooh, the "velvet" was velvet falernum. Though I was surprised because in this drink the falernum took on a totally different flavor personality.

Speaking of mystery complex flavors, I tried out the Gypsy Dancer, a concoction of Damon's featured on the spring menu.

The ingredients list was deceptively simple: rye, Benedictine, yellow chartreuse and lemon.

Damon said that the drink was an equal parts drink that's very loosely related to the last word.

The result is a drink that tastes like you're drinking two different drinks at the same time. As you take the sip, the initial flavors and smells that stand out to you are lemon and sweet, making it like the usual cocktail with citrus and almost reminiscent of lemonade or lemon drink. However, as soon as the liquid touches your tongue, the drink itself transforms so that you feel like you're drinking a spirits-based drink.

I was chatting with bartender Adam Ramsey, I'd forgotten where we met, but he remembered that Alex Day had introduced us before. He was telling me about Phil Ward's new tequila joint that was in the works when I realized I had to cut myself off at just two drinks due to it being a school night. I reluctantly got up, promising Adam I'd stop by again sometime to finish up the others I didn't get a chance to try.