Summit Bar Sells City's First Barrel-Aged Cocktail

In a come-from-behind surprise, Gregory Seider's Lower East Side joint Summit Bar has become the first bar in New York to serve an example of the growing national trend known as barrel-aged cocktails. This week, Seider started pouring Lions in London (a variation on the Negroni), which he had been aging in barrel for the past couple months.

Previously, it had seemed that Dram in Williamsburg would be the break-out New York bar for the new technique, which was invented by bartender Jeffrey Morganthaler in Portland, Oregon. But the barrel Dram owner Tom Chadwick told me that the cask he was aging his Martinez cocktails in turned out to have a leak. So he had to start over. He hopes to start served the delicacy in early October.

Meanwhile, this journalist has started aging Negronis at home. More about that in a future post.

UPDATE: Went to tried it. Very good. As with my previous barrel-aged cocktail experiences, it's a well integrated, smooth and deep drink. A downside, someone might argue, is that the cocktail lacks the original spark of the involved liquors. The gin and Campari have been tamed and soothed. Still, if you want a regular Negroni, have one. If you want this, have this.

One warning: the Summit aged Lions in London is $18! Since it contains that same liquors as the regular Lions in London, and the barrel cost is negligible over time, you're paying for scarcity here. There are only so many of the drinks to go around until a new barrel is ready.

The bartender told me Seider is readying an entire line of aged cocktails.

On a Snowy Day, Might as Well Dream of a White Christmas

With a blizzard currently pelting New York City, one might as well make the best of it and pretend it's Christmas, and not mid-February. Offering an assist in this illusion is the East Village's Summit Bar, which currently has a cocktail on the menu called Christmas Morning. The mix is wintery and warming enough: Santa Teresa Rum, Pedro Ximenez Sherry, lemon juice, egg white, and whiskey barrel bitters. But its the last stop that really transports you to Dec. 25—a shower of nutmeg sent through a mold shaped like an evergreen. Joy to the World, folks.

The Situation at Summit

The new East Village cocktail bar Summit has gotten a lot of press in the few months it's been open. I'm going to give it a little more.

I paid my first visit a few days ago and was waited upon by owner Greg Seider himself, a friendly fellow with a laid-back mein who eschews arm garters and vests for a white t-shirt. The debut menu was still be handed out to customers, but Greg informed me that the winter menu would be unveiled the next night. Though I was a day early, he gave me a sneak sip of two coming attractions. I am writing this post because one of the drinks was incredibly good, simply one of the best new cocktails I've had all year.

It's called, queerly enough, the Situation, and one could be in worse situations. It sits upon a base of raisin-infused Rittenhouse rye. To that is added caraway seed-infused agave syrup. (Seider swears by agave as his sweetener of choice.), lemon juice, Fee's whiskey barrel bitters, and a combo of Fee's and Regan's orange bitters. It's shaken and poured over ice. To this frothy end are added a sprinkling of rye-saturated golden raisins, which makes for a nice little dessert at the bottom of the glass.

Now think about those ingredients: rye, caraway seeds, raisins. What do they remind you of? That's right. Raisin rye bread. That's the idea Seider began with. Not that the drink tastes like something you want to wrap around a piece of pastrami. But it's an ideal, warming winter drink. It's goes down like a dream, no flavor out of place. Seider admitted is was one of the favorite drinks he had ever come up with.

The other drink was called She Loves Me, She Loves Me not. Unsurprisingly, rose petals play a part. They're muddled into the Pisco-based cocktail, which is served up and topped with a couple edible pedals. It was a sight to see Greg pull out a plastic contained filled with fresh rose petals from the fridge. Now there's an ingredient you don't see every day. And he had buckets of them, in different shades, too. The petals give the drink a pink hue, which will undoubtably appeal to the ladies. Folks, your Valentine's Day cocktail has already arrived.

I'd like to also say that it's nice to see a New York bar owner actually behind the bar for a change.