I walked out of American Whiskey full
of glowing thoughts. Blake, Gina (Who happen to be 2 of the finest
people to share food and booze with in the history of food and booze.
If I could pimp them out as drinking and dining companions, I'd make
serious bank.) and I stood outside the door on West 30th
Street with that warm feeling that you only get from being properly
fed and just the right amount of inebriated. We had ourselves a
fantastic time. We imbibed, consumed and laughed until our faces
hurt.
American Whiskey has a nice long bar
when you walk in and what look to be comfortable and roomy booths
right opposite it. There are tables in the back, which is where we
wound up. Exposed brick walls (which I'm a big fan of) and a big set
of free standing bookshelves loaded with A LOT of whiskey bottles
serving as a room divider round out the rest of the noticeable décor.
Someone working there had an excellent iPod playlist going because
we were dancing and singing along at the table for the entire 3+
hours we were there. Our waitress (who's name I don't
remember...I've got to get better at that) was terrific. She
answered any questions we had. Made suggestions whenever asked. She
seemed to be having a good time bantering with us a bit whenever she
stopped by to check on us. She even brought us a couple of drinks
gratis when the bartender made extras for a different order. She
knew that's what we'd been drinking and decided we were worthy. I'm
sure it didn't hurt that she seemed to have taken a bit of a liking
to Blake either.
 |
| The Strike Me Dead |
Basically, we drank. We drank a pretty
goodly amount at that. There was the Strike Me Dead, which
was rye, vanilla, pink peppercorns and blackstrap bitters (Blake, who
knows all, kindly informed us that blackstrap is a kind of molasses.)
I liked this drink a lot. On a whim and put some hot sauce in it and
I liked it a whole lot more. Took it to a whole new level. The
Whiskey Smash was Evan
Williams Black Label, lemon, mint and your choice of fruit syrup.
Gina went with cherry which was good and I went with grapefruit,
which I thought was better. The Brain Duster,
rye, sweet vermouth, angostura bitters and absinthe. Basically this
was a Manhattan for Hemingway. It was definitely too absinthe
forward, it overwhelmed everything else. I've had much better
versions of this drink at Dylan Prime (sadly closed) and at the Minetta Tavern (I was too lazy to write this up, but had a great time there.) Our
favorite was the So Damn Fine,
Jameson Black Barrel, Jameson Caskmates, Drambuie and reposado. This
was the only drink I remember any of us ordering more than once. And
lastly and unfortunately leastly was Please Press Play,
rye, Single Cut Eric “More Cowbell Please” Milk Stout (which
despite being a mouthful to order was the very tasty beer we were
drinking alongside our whiskey adventures) syrup, coriander and Door
County Hops Bitters. I really didn't like this. It was like
drinking a slightly whiskeyfied IPA. Blake didn't seem to dislike it
as much as I did. I wouldn't have been able to drink more than the
sip I tasted.
 |
| Sliders |
While
we certainly imbibed a great deal of booze, we also ate. If we
hadn't, there's no chance any of us would've been able to get up from
that table. We had lots of lovely snackies. There was Tater
Tot Poutine, which is exactly
what you'd imagine. Crispy tater tots covered in gravy and cheese
curds. I couldn't stop sticking these in my face. If any one person
tried to eat this alone, they'd certainly die of a myocardial
infarction before they made it out the door. (It also made me giggle
to myself that the curds sort of made a tiny squeaky noise when you
chewed them. Don't judge me, it's called Loving Your Inner Fat KID!)
Oysters on the Half Shell
which came with pop rocks and a mignonette. You wouldn't think pop
rocks belong with raw oysters...but they were flavorless and kind of
worked. It was pretty weird. And I think there were Fried Oysters
but I don't really remember much about them. We also tried a few
different sliders. There was the Homer L Ford IV
(no idea who that is), Country Fried Sweetbreads, spicy honey and
slaw. These were pretty good. The Duck Duck Goose
had Duck Confit, Duck Breast and Foie Gras Butter. I expected to
love these but didn't. There wasn't any real Foie taste and the duck
was a little dry. And theAdobe Chicken,
the most basic and the best of the sliders. Shredded chicken,
preserved jalapeno and slaw. Great bright flavor. Definitely my
favorite.
What's interesting
is that I didn't realize until 3 or 4 days later, when I was starting
to put my thoughts together to write this, that there were things
about American Whiskey that I didn't love. We had such a great time
there that it completely overshadowed the negatives. Some of that
was because I was out with great company and we likely could have a
good time sitting in a park drinking 40ozs of O.E and eating dirty
water dogs. But it's also because American Whiskey is most certainly
greater than the sum of its parts. I'll be back whenever I'm looking
for a bite and a drink before or after doing something at The Garden.
247
West 30th
Street
New York, NY,
10001
212-967-1070
