I’ve now been eating and drinking in NYC for 15 years and it's a lot of fun to look back at trends and phases our city’s beverage scene has gone through. When I first moved to New York in 2008 (what a year…), the food and beverage scene was obsessed with anything involving pork belly and the savvy drinks of choice were, without a doubt, coming from cocktails. By ‘08 the cocktail scene already established prohibition style programs by now-legends like Death & Co (AMAZING BOOK, STILL), Angels Share and Pegu Club, and was onto a more free wheeling era of cocktails.

IMO this was the height of popularity and diversity for cocktail bars. And, if you could get past the overly serious mustaches and suspenders, it was a very cool time to be visiting small bars in NYC. Ice became a whole topic of conversations and top talents like Eben Freeman (Tailor on Broome - that basement bar was incredible and should get more cred for its influence) were practically creating new categories behind the bar. And NYC was there for it. In the background, natural wine was simmering while collectible wine had gone the way of the dodo bc of the financial crash. 

A lot has changed since. It's fair to say wine has shouldered past cocktails for where NYC’s experiential drink but cocktails haven't gone anywhere. They took a hard left into agave for a while then landed firmly into aperitivo-culture the last couple of years. And, right now, it seems like we’re entering into a new phase that embraces the bombastic fun of 90s drinks. Drinks that care more about the final product than the spirits that build them. These are self-aware cocktails that take themselves way less seriously than the trends before. And, they're delicious!!

Get ready to make your favorite Carrie Bradshaw or Lebowski joke, these cocktails are meant for fun. It's great to see them popping back up.