The New York Nights Venue of the Year for 2010 Goes To…

By Gamal Hennessy

As a nightlife native, I have been to several new venues in 2010 that are very good. From the tiki craze of Painkiller and Hurricane Club, to the upscale Midtown scenes of Mad 46 and Lambs Club to the hidden pleasures of Vintry to all the other spots I wasn’t able to visit yet, New York nightlife continues to offer variety, quality and pleasure. But for all the good venues we have seen in 2010, one of them has made more of an impression that any other.

Imagine a venue that offers elegant high quality service without forcing you to buy a bottle, wait on line or deal with unnecessary attitude. Think about a place that offers live shows where established, professional artists like Si*Se, N’Dea Davenport and Tito Puente Jr. sing, mingle and drink with the crowd both during and after the show. Consider the venues you like that are easy to get to, impressive to look at and comfortable to entertain in. Now combine all that together and throw in cocktails large enough to be served in fish bowls and you have Salon Millesime.

Since it opened in the Fall, the Salon has quietly been raising the bar for midtown venues. It doesn’t have an established high profile sister venue like Plunge in the Gansevoort Park Avenue, but it has better service without the automatic tips. It doesn’t have the Las Vegas cache of a spot like Lavo, but unlike that venue you won’t be trampled by a desperate imitation cougar trying to get inside. It might not be the next big thing in New York live music like Don Hill’s, but it is one of the hidden gems of New York nightlife this year.

There is a lot of competition in the hotel lounge market, so all the great music and good service at the Salon isn’t a guarantee of longevity or success. But if New York gets more venues like Salon Millesime in 2011 then nightlife natives will have a very good year.

Have fun.
G

Painkiller: A Cocktail Lounge for the Rest of Us

By Gamal Hennessy

Speakeasy style cocktail lounges have been a staple in New York nightlife for the past five years. These venues have all shared two distinct features until now. They all featured crafted drinks made with fresh ingredients instead of artificial concentrates from a soda gun. They were also famously difficult to get into, enforcing a list of rules longer than the health care reform bill. This month there is a new lounge jumping into the cocktail market that is trying to keep the drinks and lose the rules. At first glance, Painkiller is succeeding.

Painkiller resides in a space formerly occupied by the East Side Company on the corner of Grand and Essex Streets. The space got a make over from operators who got their training and influence from established lounges like Milk and Honey, Little Branch, Dutch Kills as well as East Side Company itself.

You won’t miss the place if you look for the wall of tiki masks and spears as you walk down Essex Street. You might have to wait a few moments to get in so the host can check the size of the crowd in the room. Unlike other spots that keep you outside just for show, you’ll realize when you go inside it is more of a necessity here. There is often a throng of patrons at the bar when you first walk in the door. You’ll need to use all the skills you developed in your yoga classes to contort yourself past the huddled mob to reach Nirvana in the back room.

The décor of Painkiller is tiki inspired graffiti (or graffiti inspired tiki depending on how you look at it). Polynesian style masks and bamboo touches on one wall face Beat Street style tags from established local artists on the other wall. The lights often brighten and dim randomly (which can be a little disconcerting because you might think your drunken eyes are playing tricks on you as you sip). The music is mostly remixed old school hip hop with a dose of chill out thrown in. Several of the owners are steeped in New York music history from The Bronx and Hollis, Queens which gives overall space a very East Coast hip hop feel. That, combined with the tiki decorations separate the bar from other cocktail lounges that often go for a strict Prohibition Era vibe. The crowd is a mix of the younger LES/ Williamsburg set along with some older hard core drinkers. It is a very different scene than a spot like PDT or Flatiron Lounge.

The drinks menu is printed on paper placemats that only give you the name of the drink and the shape of the glass it comes in. You won’t get a hint of what is in any of the cocktails, how strong they are or which one shows up on fire (hint: It’s the Cradle of Life). If you really need to know what you are getting into, the waitress will give away the show and tell you the ingredients. If you want to substitute one ingredient for another, they can do that for you too, but it makes sense to try the drinks in their original form at least for the first round. The drinks will arrive encased in deep goblets of ice or weird looking tiki mugs. Pushing the straw into that mini glacier and sampling your cocktail is a rewarding experience whether you pick the mai tai, the zombie or the venue’s namesake drink.

Painkiller offers strong, complex drinks without the elitism of more established cocktail lounges. It is cash only. There are no passwords, secret entrances in phone booths, last minute reservations or pit bulls guarding the door. Some people will miss that sense of taboo that comes from pretending liquor is still illegal and from a service standpoint there is a case to be made for keeping the number of patrons in a cocktail lounge small. If the bartender has to spend several minutes measuring, cutting, muddling and otherwise crafting your drink, there are only so many people she can serve before the delay between ordering and drinking becomes a problem. At this point management feels their bartenders can deal the increased volume without sacrificing quality but the real test will come during the summer when everyone wants a drink buried in ice.

Painkiller: http://www.painkillernyc.com/

Have fun.
Gamal