Kevin Armstrong has returned from New York. In its new-found penchant for savoury drinks it has diverged from London – and convention, he says
I've always loved New York. My first trip there was in 1999 and I’ve gone back as frequently as work and finances have allowed. New York is my personal cocktail capital, despite never having worked as a bartender in the city. The opportunity to do that came and went in the mid-2000s and it is probably my only career regret. In the very early 2000s I paid my first visit to what was then Milk & Honey, now Attaboy, and this remains a truly memorable experience. Milk & Honey London, had been open for a short while, and I’d frequented that bar plenty, but being in the place where the concept began, behind that discreet door in the Lower East Side, was something else.
There was a magic in being able to ask for a classic. I chose a New York Flip as my first drink, and then waited to receive a world-class version of it – which it duly was. The same was happening in London, but perhaps because I was a visitor in New York it felt both different and extraordinary.
Between the two outposts of New York and London there was common ground, with both cities together forming the beating heart of modern cocktail culture during that period. Now, however, it seems there are sizeable differences. I’ve just returned from the Big Apple back home to London and everything from guests, to cocktail programmes, to just how both cities do bars are different.
A culture of cocktails
First, cocktail consumers of New York revere their bars in ways I have yet to see in London. High-profile openings within the city are often greeted with queues around the block, a stark contrast to new openings in London, which often build slowly, even when the most high-profile of operators are involved.
But this phenomenon is not just reserved for new openings, it’s the established operators too. The elite bars of New York all have people waiting, and it’s hard not to be a little envious that London doesn’t quite share that same demand.
Sure, at peak evening, I’ve stood in queues to get into London bars, but at 5pm on a Monday, you will simply never see 80-100 people waiting to enjoy a mixed drink, unless there’s something else going on, or you have Giorgio Bargiani behind the bar.
Perhaps this is because Manhattan feels like a giant version of London’s Soho with a never-ending stream of guests or tourists, but perhaps it is just because the response is itself different, with cocktail culture much more ingrained in the national psyche.
Spread the good word cocktail
I’ve thought this for a while now too, but one of the reasons I feel New York has outstripped London in terms of its generation of modern classic cocktails, and its consumer culture, is that as a city it is simply better at shouting about its bars, bartenders and recipes. Dedicated, direct-to-consumer options, think Punch or Vinepair, or Robert Simonson’s The Mix Substack, share the good word of the cocktail better and more readily than we do on home soil. 2-0 NYC.
Drinks or dinner?
One thing that struck me this time around was the number of New York bars that have leaned into a savoury agenda for their beverage programmes; from mushroom Margaritas, to drinks that deliver like a Thai salad dressing.
I know this is not new, but it felt more overt than it has done on previous visits and from the conversations I had, it is gathering momentum. On the one hand, some of these drinks are exceptionally clever in their execution, and require both skill and nuance. On the other hand, some (not all) of these drinks would be more at home as tasters between the courses of a set menu, a showcase of what can be achieved if you like, rather than standalone cocktails.
These are flavours that you expect to deliver satiety, and whilst you get those flavours it is without having eaten anything delicious, and as a drinking experience I haven’t yet come to terms with this idea, but I will keep trying.
I’m used to the fast, bright, cold, sharp hit that cocktails bring, and then quickly wanting another, something I’ve experienced in New York many times. My consumption of savoury cocktails however, while certainly not in its infancy, has so far failed to yield that same response. I’d still rather eat my bruschetta than drink it, and I’m probably not ready for your Tuna Salad Negroni. The irony, only worth mentioning in passing, is that New York bars seem to have great food as standard, another serious plus point.
There are savoury drinks in London but it’s not the culinary cocktail experience of New York and for now I’m relatively pleased that this trend hasn’t fully gripped our bars the way it has across the Atlantic.
That being said, the prevalence with which these drinks featured on menus did not change my enjoyment of the many bars I visited or the quality of the hosting I received, and if you want to find a plain old Martini, there are dozens of bars that will give you just that.
These culinary informed creations stimulate an interesting discussion about what cocktails are becoming, how we consume them, and how that changes the drinking experience, and while I’m personally yet to be convinced, the queues of keen New Yorkers would suggest that maybe I’m in the minority.
So remember, next time you’re in New York, if someone asks if you would prefer drinks or dinner? You can probably say both.