The Lowdown
Frozen Egg Nog, Appletinis, Screwdrivers, Pigs in Blankets, Pizza, Crab Louie...
Welcome to The Lowdown, an expanded edition of what I’m drinking, eating, reading, writing, watching, and listening to. This paid subscriber exclusive is sent out on select Fridays.
Drinking
Frozen Egg Nog (The Long Island Bar)
Once the chilly weather hit, The Long Island Bar sent their popular Frozen Cosmo and Frozen Piña Colada on a well-deserved tropical vacation. But, after some fine-tuning, a Frozen Egg Nog recently made its glorious debut and you’ll see one in front of most guests at the bar throughout the evening. It’s served in a double Old-Fashioned glass but a smaller size is wisely offered as it’s quite rich, in the best way possible. The holiday spices come through nicely without distracting and its fortified with Cognac Park VS Carte Blanche, Old Forester Signature 100 Proof Bourbon, and Plantation OFTD Overproof Dark Rum. And if you order one when when Toby Cecchini Is behind the bar on Tuesday nights you just might have it presented in a vintage glass.
In December 2021 when Omicron kept many potential holiday revelers at home, I spent most of that quiet week leading up to Christmas hanging out in the Lombardi Room with Toby watching basketball and having dinner and drinking sake and Kölsch. When I mentioned I had never made egg nog before he put me to work in the downstairs kitchen the next afternoon to help mix up 44 liters of holiday egg nog. I still have some of the now-vintage ‘01 batch in a 2-liter mason jar in the back of my refrigerator.
Screwdriver (Tigre)
I was invited to a preview of Tigre, the new bar from the team at Williamsburg’s Maison Premiere, the night before it officially opened to the public. Tigre marks their first foray into Manhattan, and what MP did to evoke the spirit of a lived in, been-there-forever New Orleans via Paris cocktail bar and oyster house, Tigre mainlines a ‘70s/’80s downtown NYC after-party vibe in what has to be the sexiest room in town. I had a blast but felt a bit out of place among the gold accents, mirrors, chainmail curtains, long banquettes, private nooks, and all the beautiful people gliding across the room. I have a feeling I wouldn’t be able to get past the bouncer at the unmarked, sticker- and graffiti-tagged door as a civilian, but I was definitely taken with Tigre’s unabashed The Last Days of Disco vibe.
I sat at the horseshoe-shaped bar and chatted with co-owner Joshua Boissy for a while and he pointed to one of several pieces of artwork depicting Grace Jones, calling out the iconic Jamaican singer, songwriter, model, and actress as an inspiration for Tigre and a throwback to a time when suits, cool kids, and celebrities would mingle and mix together in the downtown club scene late into the night.
The cocktails from MP bar director William Elliott take inspiration from 1971’s Playboy’s Host & Bar Book and there’s a whole section devoted to “Martinis by Ratio.” I respected the precision and attention to detail but found it confusing compared to the usual wet, dry, 50/50, dirty, etc (math was never my forte). I started off with a spirit-forward, reconstructed Screwdriver with Haitian orange and citrate (a drink I hadn’t tried in decades) and also tried their Cigarette Martini, Mister Softee (Singhani, Sage, Piña), and Cherchez la Femme (Chartreuse, Coffee, Vodka). I ran into some friends and felt like sticking around but it was time to give up my seat as there was a line of guests outside waiting to get in.