Not Every Bar's Worried About the Angostura Shortage

Not every barkeeper in New York is fretting over the Angostura Bitters shortfall.

Yesterday, the owner of Bamonte's, the age-old Italian restaurant in Williamsburg, was leaning over his bar, reading an article about the shortage in the New York Post, which had just gotten wind of the story.

"You see this?" he asked his longtime bartender. "Bitters shortage."

The bartender, there since 1965, scoffed. "Who cares?" he said. "How much of that stuff do you need? You use a bottle a year, you're lucky." He strode to the center of the bar and plucked up a jumbo Angostura bottle. It didn't look like it was in danger of hitting empty anytime soon.

"What about Old Fashioneds?" asked a barfly. "And Manhattans?"

"Old Fashioned, yeah," said the owner, who remembers decades past when his bar used to be lined with drinkers who would linger for hours, all drinking straight booze and buying rounds for one another. "But Manhattans, people don't like them with bitters. We leave 'em out."

Chances are Champagne Cocktails are none too popular at Bamonte's, either.