Manero

Going Backyard

June 29, 2011

Why, it seems like only yesterday you craved being pampered in a secret underground cocktailing lair.

But here we go. One of your famous changes of mood. Now you choose to flaunt your cocktailing in full public view. Though pampering remains strictly nonnegotiable.

Therefore, we offer you The Backyard Bar at the Whistler, a new tiki-tinged garden of alfresco mixology, now open.

So, the Whistler. You probably know it as a place where drinks are taken seriously, earnestly, reverently. Worshipped as gods. And you appreciate that. But you’re equally glad it’s also a place that hosts the occasional tiki night, with bartenders unafraid of lighting a rum punch ablaze—hazards to hipster beards be damned.

But as we reach that point of the year when drinking indoors seems almost perverse, they’ve given a good spiffing-up to their backyard—formerly just a square concrete yard of beer and shots. But this little patch begged for more. To be invigorated. A string of lights here. A bamboo bar there. And everywhere else: the steady whir of blenders crushing ice as your Martinique Swizzle (rhum agricole, lime juice, cane sugar, absinthe, bitters, magnificent quantities of mint) is whipped up to order.

Finally, drowning out those damn crickets.