2 Cocktails Are Named Best Among City's Sidewalk Cafés

By JILL GARDINER, Staff Reporter of the Sun | May 24, 2007

Those looking for a good mixed drink to savor in a sidewalk café now can aim for the top: The city's Department of Consumer Affairs and the New York State Restaurant Association crowned the best alcoholic and virgin beverages during a competition at the Institute of Culinary Education yesterday.

The contest, limited to restaurants with sidewalk cafés (which are licensed by the consumer affairs department), included 14 "mixologists" whose original concoctions made it to yesterday's finals.

The competition was stiff, so to speak, and, in the end, the two winning drinks both hailed from Manhattan eateries.

A barbeque joint on East 27th Street, Blue Smoke, had the winning alcoholic beverage, The Porch Swing. Bubby's in TriBeCa took home the prize for best virgin mix with its Watermelon Lemonade.

The wine and beverage director at Blue Smoke, Jay Doran, who first concocted the gin and Pimm's-based Porch Swing last June, called his drink "refreshing, full bodied and effervescent." He said the judges referred to it as "masculine."

"The competition was really impressive," he said during a brief phone conversation. "I had my stuff packed up and I was ready to walk out the door. I knew my cocktail was good and that it was what they were looking for — a summertime, sit-on-the-patio-type drink, but there were some great cocktails." The city now has a record 900 sidewalk cafés, a 50% increase versus five years ago. Twenty-five of those cafés entered drinks into competition.

BEST COCKTAIL

The Porch Swing from Blue Smoke

1 1/2 ounces of Hendrick's gin
1 1/2 ounces of Pimm's no. 1
4 ounces of fresh lemonade

Pour into a tall Collins glass. Add a splash of 7 Up. Finish with 10 finely sliced half-moon cucumbers.

BEST VIRGIN COCKTAIL

Watermelon Lemonade from Bubby's

2 ounces of fresh-squeezed lemon juice
4 ounces of fresh watermelon puree, strained through a course strainer to remove seeds
1 1/2 ounces of simple syrup
6 ounces of water

Shake and serve over ice with a big wedge of fresh watermelon garnish.