PDT’s winter cocktail menu debuted last night, and we are still hung-over. Mixologist Jim Meehan consulted his peers for the menu, which includes contributions from Pegu’s Audrey Sanders, Tailor’s Eben Freeman, “International cocktail maven” Charlotte Voisey, and others. There’s even a nod to Adam Platt in the description of PDT bartender Don Lee’s Benton’s Old Fashioned, a combo of bacon-infused bourbon, maple syrup, and angostura bitters: “the crossroad of Haute Barnyard and Barroom.” (If this keeps up, we’re going to have to add Haute Barnyard to the banished-words list soon.)
Eben Freeman’s influence spills all over the menu with a bevy of infusions: buttered popcorn-infused rum, rose-infused gin, and walnut-infused cognac. And then there’s the “high roller menu,” a group of $22 cocktails that will knock you on your ass faster than they empty your wallet. Our favorites were the Staggerac, made with 140-proof bourbon and absinthe, and the Mt. Vernon, a kind of cherry sour created by Meehan and named by a visiting Post reporter. How all these drinks pair with tater tots and bacon-cheese dogs is another story, but as long as our constitution holds out, we’ll keep going.
