Spring Cocktails Bloom at These NYC Bars

Fiona Chandra

As the weather finally starts to warm up in New York City and the threat of snowstorms is hopefully past us, it is time to start thinking of spring. And spring drinking. Get inspired by cocktails made with the flowers, fruits, and vegetables that peak this season. Here are the places you should be drinking this spring:

Amor y Amargo
Just because we think of flowers in spring doesn’t mean bitters are out of season. Even bitters and amaro focused bar, Amor y Amargo, can be the perfect place to embrace the season. Take the lighter-bodied Di Pompelmo, for example, made by combining Citron Sauvage, aperol, tequila, grapefruit bitters). Tea lovers would be wise to get a sip of Good Grief, made with Cardamaro, St Agrestis, Cocchi di Torino, gin, and Earl Grey bitters.

Angel’s Share
This Japanese speakeasy is a gem for adventurous cocktails drinkers, welcoming guests that find its secret door behind the Village Yokocho restaurant in East Village. This season, try the refreshing Garden Mule, which combines mezcal, tequila, carrot, ginger beer, lime juice, cucumber, and thyme. The vegetal Ceora is made with tequila, aperol, orange, red bell pepper, lime juice, salt, palm sugar, and cilantro.

Bar Goto
What could be more appropriate to welcome the season of flowers than the Sakura Martini at Bar Goto?  Award-winning bartender and Pegu Club alum, Kenta goto, infuses his cocktails with Japanese flavors and sensibilities. The Sakura Martini is their house martini, but seems even more appropriate for the season. He combines sake, gin, and maraschino with salted cherry blossom in place of the typical saltiness of a martini’s olive.

Blacktail
It’s been a cold start to spring in the Northeast, but Blacktail invites New Yorkers to pretend they are in the early days of aviation in warm Cuba. The Mary Pickford is a cocktail worthy of America’s Sweetheart’s name and mixes Cuban rum blend, cherry, pomegranate, lime, and pineapple with Burlesque bitters. For a more spirit-forward drink, Armagnac lovers or curious souls should try the Button Hook made with blanche Armagnac, rhum agricole, French bitter, cacao, falernum, apricot, white mint, and absinthe. The Rattlesnake is one for whiskey sour lovers, with Islay whisky, Irish whiskey, sweet vermouth, fennel, cacao, lemon, earl grey tea, and egg white.

Dante
The iconic Dante in Greenwich Village is a registered landmark, but the revamped version of the 1915 café keeps everything current. That includes their cocktails, which always have one drink named after the current season. The Spring 2017 cocktail combines flavors of the produce we associate with spring, from the flowers, vegetables, to the herbs. The drink is made with absinthe, elderflower, snap peas, lemon, and thyme.

Dear Irving
It can always be spring at this time traveling-themed cocktail parlor in Gramercy Park. The four rooms of the bar represent different historical eras, but any era is a good era for cocktails. The bubbly is a nice one to toast the coming of spring. The cocktail has the floral notes of gin, grapefruit, bitter, pamplemousse liqueur, and the crispness of rose cava. For a fruity yet creamy drink, try the Night Café with genever, aperol, lemon, egg white, and absinthe.

Employees Only
The popular Prohibition-style bar in West Village takes you to spring in France with the Provencal cocktail. As the name would suggest, the floral cocktail marries aromas associated with Provence with the lavender-infused gin, herbs de Provence-infused vermouth, and Cointreau. Another way to welcome the first bloom is with At First Blush, made with gin, Coccho Rosato, Chareau aloe liqueur, lemon, and topped with sparkling rose.

Flora Bar
This new seafood-centric restaurant at the Met Breuer comes by way of the team from Estela. Get some oysters to go with the crisp Tuxedo #2, which is composed of gin, blanc vermouth, maraschino, orange bitters, and absinthe. Celebrate the fruits and herbs with Son of Neptune. The drink combines scotch, lemon, pineapple, and lavender honey.

Mace
Spring arrives at this spice-driven cocktail bar in Alphabet City. The acclaimed Prohibition-style bar makes a mean Lavender using brown butter and vanilla-infused calvados, blueberry and lavender shrub, verjus, and champagne. Don’t miss the Asian-inspired Rose Petal, which uses rose petal-infused shochu, rose hip syrup, almond milk, and tapioca pearl.

Up & Up
Up & Up’s low-key vibe is balanced with exceptional cocktails for all palates. Cool off with the Embassy Cobbler, which combines two different sherries with lemon raspberry cordial. This is the season for Aperol, which makes an appearance in Disco Volante alongside gin, absinthe, clarified milk, and lemon juice. The ZuZu’s Petals comes with a kick. The tequila-based cocktail is mixed with ginger, habanero pepper, rose water, lime juice, and demerara syrup.