Flatiron Lounge (37 W. 19th Street) has become sort of an also-ran among today's fancy cocktail places. It doesn't have the cachet of PDT/Death&Co/Milk & Honey or a cool East or West Village location and it's older than all the other speakeasy type places. Yet somehow it soldiers on, neither showy nor particularly innovative. Since it had fallen off our radar, we recently popped in to see what they're up to. A pineapple fetish for one thing.
The drinks never blew us away at Flatiron but this time they seemed oddly out of sync. Technically still summer, we expected lots of fresh drinks and certainly the plethora of pineapple threw us for a loop. But we persevered. First up - Maiden's Swizzle (rum, campari, st. germain & a touch of velvet falernum) and Captain Cook's Folly (muddled fresh tarragon, pineapple, lime and pisco). The former was passable while the latter was way too sweet and no attempt to fix it could rectify this folly of a drink. Rathbone's Delight (12 year Highland Scotch, cynar, campari, pineapple) continued the pineapple train - it was also fairly bitter, no surprise considering it contained 2 amaros. Quiet Village (blanco tequila, fresh lime, grapefruit and cinnamon bark) didn't offend but did not wow us either. Cocktails were $13 and not worth the disappointment on this visit.
Flatiron Lounge
37 W. 19th Street, 212-727-7741
www.flatironlounge.com
The drinks never blew us away at Flatiron but this time they seemed oddly out of sync. Technically still summer, we expected lots of fresh drinks and certainly the plethora of pineapple threw us for a loop. But we persevered. First up - Maiden's Swizzle (rum, campari, st. germain & a touch of velvet falernum) and Captain Cook's Folly (muddled fresh tarragon, pineapple, lime and pisco). The former was passable while the latter was way too sweet and no attempt to fix it could rectify this folly of a drink. Rathbone's Delight (12 year Highland Scotch, cynar, campari, pineapple) continued the pineapple train - it was also fairly bitter, no surprise considering it contained 2 amaros. Quiet Village (blanco tequila, fresh lime, grapefruit and cinnamon bark) didn't offend but did not wow us either. Cocktails were $13 and not worth the disappointment on this visit.
Flatiron Lounge
37 W. 19th Street, 212-727-7741
www.flatironlounge.com
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