The folks behind Bar and Books and Le Bateau Ivre bring you Drunken Munkey NYC, a really fun one-room cocktail bar slash Indian eatery that isn't quite like anything else in town. With an ancestor who was a customs collector for the British East India Company, owners Arun Mirchandani, Raju Mirchandani and Chirag Chaman have melded all their international zest and storied history into this spot. From a love for British rock and London gin-based cocktails, to their penchant for collecting vintage bar spoons, shakers, and glamourous glassware, it all comes out in this spot where the décor is wooden bistro but with distinct flares, such as the Nehru jacket-wearing monkey chandeliers, the phalanx of tiny bicycles, an antique gramophone, an old piano accordion and the cricket-ball door handles. Drinks become small works of art here with curls of cucumber and slow-melting whiskey spheres, shaved ice for swizzles, to go with the tinctures, bitters, and fresh squeezed juices. There are the classics, the Pimm's cup and the Singapore Sling, but also uniqueness such as the 'Paanch' of the month mixture of the five elements—sweet, sour, spice, fruit, and alcohol—that make up a cocktail. Great dishes include the tomato and mustard seed railway chicken curry, a better version of what was served on the Great Indian Peninsula Railway; and a butter chicken tikka masala, a merge of chicken tikka and murgh makhani; and a Goan pork Vindalu, that has no potatoes but is pork shoulder in spicy chili vinegar tomato sauce. Essentially the chefs who hail from such spots as Fatty Crab, Saffron and Tulsi, have taken traditional and given it flare. It can be hard to tear yourself away from here, whether you came for dinner or cocktails. Open till 2am (3am on weekends) this spot makes you wish you lived right on this block so that you could make it your local.

$$

terms of use
© Copyright 1998-2024 Hipguide