Go For Liquid Gold with Cocktails at The Crosby Street Hotel
Olympics or no Olympics who doesn’t love to get their British game on? If you failed to make your way across the pond for all the athletic activity, fear not as there is a place to play. It's a sweet spot in SoHo that is inherently British in every which way.
For starters, it’s not boasting upon arrival. One would almost miss it passing by. Asking for directions in the tony SoHo neighborhood, you get, “I think it’s down there…somewhere.” Yet once in the kitschy Crosby Street Hotel, it’s hard to miss. It is full on, floor to ceiling fun.
You must be a guest in order to enter The Drawing Room. So, waste no time and make your way past the carefully curated original art in the lobby, that doubles for a gallery and check yourself in as whimsy will abound.
There are 86 individually designed bedrooms and sumptuous suites with floor to ceiling warehouse windows that make your surroundings an eclectic urban oasis. Exhale!
Now grab that champagne in the Lobby Bar beside the lush sculpture garden, before heading in to The Crosby Bar and Terrace for that decadent dinner. The only thing more playful and sexier than the setting itself is the staff. Not one to rest on their good looks alone, these beauties have brains. It’s a Brit thing. They can meticulously pair your foie gras and perfectly prepared lamb loin with black olive tapenade with just the right red wine.
No need for athleticism here, we are going for the alchemy as the Brits have always had the competitive cocktail edge. They set the bar at…the bar. So, it should come as no surprise that the cocktail options are wildly inspired. Classics abound. So, feel free to nip in for a Moscow Mule, French 75, Negroni, Pimms Cup or that sexy Sazerac. Second exhale.
If looking for signature sips, the list is broken down by spirits; rum and cachaca, whiskey, champagne, vodka, gin, tequila and mescal.
If you love bubbles, perhaps the St. Crosby champagne cocktail with St. Germain, Remy Martin VSOP, brown sugar, Heidsieck champagne. Yet who can resist Charlie Bronson made with Bulleit bourbon, yellow Chartreuse, Punt e Mes and Carpano sweet vermouth or the Close to the Flame made with rye, Fernet Branca, Bokers bitters and blood orange.
There’s no better way to celebrate England than with a gin-riddled drink like their succulent White Linen made with Hendricks gin, cucumber, egg white, lemon juice, sugar and cracked black pepper or the East of West beautifully prepared with Bombay Sapphire East, coconut water, muddled chillies, cardamom simple, egg white and lemon juice.
If going for the liquid gold, the Bols & Beer is a win-win made with Bols Genever, Lagunitas IPA (Indian pale ale), grapefruit juice and orange bitters.
This was just the British fix you were looking for. Good news you don’t have to wait another four years to do it all over again.
The Crosby Street Hotel, 79 Crosby St., New York, NY 10012
