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| - Society Lounge is a welcome addition to East Fourth and fills the role of a dedicated cocktail establishment quite nicely. Service was friendly and attentive. The environment does take some getting used to, but the drinks were all well-crafted and top notch.
My own visit was for after work drinks--not too long after the lounge opened at 5pm. The space was empty except for one table, but I was first struck by how overwhelmingly dark the room was. How did people in the 1920's read drink menus without the light from iPhone screens? Screw it; I put the menu down. "I'll have an Amaretto Sour (with egg whites)," (somehow communicating the parentheses). This is my favorite drink at Velvet Tango Room, and one I've started making for myself and instructing on how to make to anybody behind a bar willing to listen. After a minute or two, the bartender came to the table and explained that they didn't have amaretto but could put something together using their house-made almond syrup. The end result was pretty good: I still think it would have been better with amaretto, but he absolutely nailed the rich, frothy top that makes the cocktail memorable.
When it was time to order drink #2, my eyes were more attuned to the darkness and Kelly (our fantastic server) happily assisted me in navigating through the menu to something I might like--a Blood and Sand. As awful sounding as that title may be, it was an excellent drink--one of the best I've had in recent memory--and had some added flair from the perfectly spherical ball of ice inside and the orange zest flamed as it was being served.
After that, more customers started to file in, and the lounge singer started to do her thing with the piano player playing along. Drinks #3 and #4 were wholly omakase ("One drink, please!"): A refreshing Cucumber Gimlet and a Kentucky Mule served in a copper mug and copper straw. Both were very good, and fit the pace and moment just right.
And as I sat there wondering why the metal straw market hadn't taken off, it was time to go and find something to eat.
* Comparisons to Velvet Tango Room are inevitable. The location of Society Lounge is substantially more convenient for downtown activities, and I get the sense that Society Lounge is more focused on mixology whereas VTR has a full stable of well-made (and well-described) cocktails. In any event, it takes more than one visit to reach those heights. I'd be interested in the future to see (a) how far this mixology can go, and (b) how Society Lounge handles big crowds.
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