Passing the Bar: Dutch Kills

Cocktail bars perform a curious type of magic: they manage to take the same booze, fruit and mixers I use to make drinks—OK, probably nicer booze—and make them taste twice as good, so good that I don’t even feel like a sucker paying $12 for a glass of hooch and ice.The other bit of alchemy in action is their ability to take the low-level alcoholism practiced by any and every out-and-about New Yorker and transform it into something like good taste. As in, “I didn’t just spend $50 on Schlitz and Mr. Boston’s Coffee Brandy, I drank something special that a regular old alcoholic couldn’t appreciate.”

Dutch Kills, a bar that Milk and Honey alums Sasha Petraske and Richard Boccato recently opened in Long Island City, admirably performs both tricks and adds a third. Even though Dutch Kills is one of the most anticipated new bars in New York this year, going there makes you feel like the most awesome, in-the-know hot shot ever. Located between Court Square and Queens Plaza on an unlovely stretch of Jackson Avenue, Dutch Kills is convenient to the city via the E,V, 7, N and R trains and to Brooklyn by G train, which is actually less of a hassle than you might think. From the outside the bar is a simple, low-slung brick building with minimal signage. Inside, the cozy dark wood paneling, old-timey bar and chandeliers make it feel like a secret hideaway, somewhere you have to know someone to get into. It’s the kind of place you should take someone you want to go home with at the end of the evening.

At just $9 a drink though, we’re talking affordable seduction—considering that at most restaurants a $9 glass of wine is from a bottle that would cost $11 at your local liquor store.

And without exception the drinks are delicious.The short and sweet menu offers house specialties based on Old New York cocktails with lots of swizzles, brambles and punches in the mix. Unlike your typical mixed drink, these seem to last forever—a combination of ice, booze and metal straws that improve the flavor as you go. When I went with my favorite gay date, we each ordered the Bartender’s Choice— which is more structured than it sounds.The server asked what kind of liquor we wanted and what kind of a drink we were in the mood for. I asked for something fruity made with gin, and my date asked for, “Something with rye that’s icy and fantastic.”

The blackberry bramble I received hit the spot and the other drink, indeed, tripped the ice fantastic. Both drinks were served atop tiny ice lozenges, which I smushed to gether with the remaining blackberries once the liquid was gone, creating an alcoholic Italian ice. Another friend, a longtime frontof-the-house type who prides herself on knowing what should be in pretty much every cocktail, reported that the Manhattan she ordered was the best she’d ever had. On the menu, the Queens Park Swizzle I tried was what I wish a mojito would be: Rum, lime, tons of mint muddled with sugar and bitters with lots of ice.The flavors are bright and distinct, recognizable but also a combination of several elements into a novel entity.That’s right, I’m talking about cocktails the way I would talk about fancy wine or food, just another bit of Dutch Kills magic.

> Dutch Kills

Let’s get old-fashioned(s) at Dutch Kills.

27-24 Jackson Ave. (betw. Queens & Dutch Kills Sts.), Queens, 718-383-2724