Tue, Apr 12, 2005 page16

• The world of cocktails is shaken and stirred

  In New York, seasonal collections of cocktails are being introduced to create more excitement in the industry

  • NY TIMES NEWS SERVICE
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  For spring this year, rhubarb is the new elderflower, which was the new green apple last year, says Eben Klemm, director of cocktail development for BR Guest, a restaurant group in New York. Klemm should know. He is one of the few people in the world paid to create specialty drinks. Green apple, as a puree in fruit martinis, is so 2003.

  People who go out are more interested than ever in drinking cocktails, and in an evolving effort to keep them interested, bars, lounges and restaurants are now introducing yearly seasonal collections, as the fashion industry does.

  The spring collections are appearing in the next few weeks. Gone like a closet sweep will be the brown ciders, spices and citruses of winter (for 2004 to 2005 kumquat was the new blood orange which was the new pomegranate) to make way in the liquor cabinet for the sorrel greens and rhubarb pinks of this spring. Look for cocktails that will be brighter or lighter in color, less alcoholic and more casual and appropriate to outdoor drinking. The grasshopper, a pastel "lady's cocktail" popular in the 1950s, is back, lined up last week on the bar at New York's Lever House Restaurant like Kate Spade handbags.

  

  Accents for spring include hibiscus, lavender and thyme, what one cocktail couturier described as a collective industry consciousness to go "beyond mint." Anyone hitting a bar in the next month is more likely to feel like a daisy picker than a heavy drinker.

  "People come out in the spring," said Jimmy Bradley, a chef and owner with Danny Abrams of Pace, Mermaid Inn, the Harrison and the Red Cat. "Think of it like buds on trees. You need new offerings because newness is in the air. The day gets a little longer, a little warmer. You show a new look for your cocktails."

  At Pace that will mean the Aperol Sprizz, a cocktail with club soda and prosecco, an Italian sparkling wine, which is as refreshing to see and as animated as a spring rivulet. Bradley said that classic Gibsons show nicely too in April because of the availability of young onions, which garnish them.

  

  People who go out are more interested than ever in drinking cocktails. In an evolving effort to keep them interested, New York bars, lounges and restaurants are now introducing yearly seasonal collections, as the fashion industry does.

  PHOTOS: NY TIMES

  "Spring is about excitement, longing, anticipation, all part of having your first drink at the end of the day," said Dan Barber, a chef and owner of Blue Hill at Stone Barns in New York, a restaurant with a farm that produces much of the food on its menu. For spring there are pickled ramp martinis, a sorrel margarita, and rhubarb as a cosmopolitan. The squash juice drinks are now out of the picture.

  "People drink more in the spring," Barber said. "It's a direct reflection of people's mood. It's more festive. They arrive, and they want to try something new, sit on the terrace and sip something bright green." Describing his restaurant and lounge as contemporary, Barber added that his clientele expected specialty drinks, as well as the food, to be seasonal, as part of the fashionable modernity of the menu.

  "It increases the energy at the bar," he said, as a diplomatic way of explaining that a vigorous cocktail program helps draw younger people to Blue Hill at Stone Barns.

  

  Stylish drinkers now suffer their own peculiar version of seasonal affect disorder. Rainlove Lampariello, who creates cocktails for Lure Fishbar and Lever House Restaurant, reported depression and tantrums at one bar because blood orange cosmos had disappeared with the short days, darkness and snow.

  "They were really upset," he said of several women. For spring this year, Lampariello is offering a tequila rhubarb-a-rita at Lever House and the Spiked Arnold Palmer at Lure Fishbar, a vodka lemonade that makes you want to put on a daffodil-yellow acrylic cardigan, plaid trousers and cleats, and walk around smiling and swinging a stick.

  "You keep them guessing, reinventing yourself, like anything else, to stay successful," Lampariello said.

  Fashion pays a price. At Gramercy Tavern, drinkers are starting to sweat it out as to what, if anything, will return from spring last year. It's not as if your favorite mojito is going to come back from the dry cleaner, after you find the ticket. Juliette Pope, the beverage director, said there are now nervous inquiries about the Rickshaw, introduced last year. Barry Johnson, the bartender who created it, also has a new collection. It includes the Belle du Jour, a lavender gin drink.

  Like a successful designer, Klemm at BR Guest is thinking ahead to 2006. He has his eye on kaffir lime leaves, a trend surfacing that he said would strengthen, and fennel pollen, a chef's ingredient, which he will try as a rim duster on cocktail glasses.

  "Kaffir lime leaves will be next year's kumquats," he said with confidence.

  At Cafe Gray, Alexander Adlgasser, the beverage director, has his sights set only on summer. With some impatience, he unveiled a sex-red strawberry cocktail this weekend called the Testarossa, as in Ferrari.

  With a top speed of over 200kph, that's Manhattan to Gin Lane in about half an hour.
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