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Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/121046
SCENE Nashville, Bar Seven Five in New York, and Violet Hour in Chicago. Sidle had worked with the Alchemy folks at Violet Hour; they convinced him to come to New York and help them do a complete rebuild to create Pouring Ribbons. VINTAGE SPIRITS Pouring Ribbons��� cocktail list includes innovative quaffs, like the Form of Flattery���made with El Dorado 12-yearold rum, pineapple, house-made nutmeg falernum and beets. Presented as a riff on a tiki drink, it���s served in a tall glass piled high with ice and a mint sprig garnish. The bar doesn���t neglect the classics, however: It offers more than a dozen cocktail lynchpins, such as the Dark & Stormy, Sazerac and Moscow Mule. Cocktails at Pouring Ribbons are priced at $14, which is in line with the competitive New York drinks market. The bar serves cocktails over flat, inchthick cylinders of ice. These take up less freezer space than ice balls and have the same effect on cocktails in that they don���t dilute the drinks too much. To go with the cocktails, Pouring Ribbons serves bar snacks such as charcuterie, cheese and p��t�� and a handful of desserts, all priced from $4 to $9. The bar offers a handful of beers, 16 | APRIL 2013 wine and non-alcoholic drinks���such as the Down by the River, made with pineapple, lemon, orgeat and soda ($7). The bar also features an extensive selection of Chartreuse, including vintages of the herbal French liqueur that date back to the 1950s, which can be purchased in 1/2-oz. or 1-oz. pours. Prices range from $6 for 1 oz. of 2012 green or yellow Chartreuse to $125 for antique yellow or green Chartreuse. Most guests, according to Sidle, drink the Chartreuse straight up and often compare and contrast them to each other. And whenever guests order the older vintages of the herbal liqueur, Pouring Ribbons also provides them with a taste of the current Chartreuse vintage. AN EFFICIENT BAR WORKSPACE The tight space behind the bar at Pouring Ribbons is organized to give the bartenders as much room as possible so that they can get drinks out quickly. Design firm Warren Red created a shallower bar and higher floor for better reach and visibility. The bar seats 88 guests at ideal capacity at a combination of bar stools and tables. Pouring Ribbons also tries to keep crowds down on busy nights by cutting off capacity below the legal limit of 99. The cocktail tables near the bar include cubby-sized rectangular holes designed to fit the menus. Servers provide guests with a graph that charts where the different drinks fall in the ranges of refreshing to spirituous and comforting to adventurous. Pouring Ribbons��� vast selection of specialty spirits warrant the unusually tall back bar shelves, which include a set of built-in steps. So when bartenders need to fetch an esoteric bottle of Chartreuse, they can step into the shelves to scale the wall like Batman to reach the top shelves. A bartender���s bar indeed. ��� www.cheersonline.com PAUL WAGTOUIC The bar at Pouring Ribbons is designed for maximum drink-making ef���ciency. At right, the Lust for Life cocktail (Vida mezcal, pineapple, Lustau Peninsula Palo Cortado sherry, orgeat and cocoa).