restaurantgirl

These days, cocktails have become as important as dinner, and a good mixologist as valuable as a top chef.  Though some revelers are content to sling back beer year round, many enjoy autumn’s produce in their potable (and alcoholic) forms. Think apples, tart cranberries, and fragrant pie spices.  Serious bartenders around Manhattan have stepped up, offering out-of-the-ordinary cocktails that make it nearly as enjoyable to drink in this city as it is to eat.

Death & Company – Maple syrup explores its adulthood in a Maple Julep made with Rittenhouse rye whiskey at this East Village sleeper, which just keeps conceiving first-rate libations.
433 East 6th Street, (212) 388-0882

Gramercy Tavern – Fresh cranberries, macerated until plump and spiced with Goslings rum, add a sweet-tart burst of seasonal flavor to the tavern’s “Drunken” cranberry Daiquiri.  But really anything Juliette Pope mixes up, turns to gold.
42 East 20th Street, (212) 477-0777 

Flatiron Lounge – Like a whiskey-soaked pumpkin pie, Ichabod’s Courage blends rye whiskey with pumpkin, ginger, egg white and aromatic bitters to create a Grimm libation worthy of a misty November evening.
37 West 19th Street,  (212) 727-7741

dell’anima – This new West Village wine bar boasts a handsome selection of Italian wines and housemade grappas, but mixologist, L.R., also keeps up the cocktail end of things.  In a fine homage to cranberries, he muddles fresh cranberries with orange bitters, bourbon and a dash of Galliano. 
38 8th Avenue, (212) 366-6633

Silverleaf Tavern – The Hot Maple-Buttered Rum is like the hot apple cider of the over-21 set.  Replete with a cinnamon stick swizzel, this soothing concoction begins with a spiced compound butter mixed with apple cider and Goslings Gold rum.
43 East 38th Street, (212) 973-2550