I just got back from the icy Northeast and was kvelling about my favorite bar in Boston to Emma. Always the shameless self-promotor, she said: "you know, that would make a great blog post." So, that's what this is.
Drink is a sparsely-named bar located in Boston's Fort Point district. During the day, Fort Point is a growing business and residential area, filled with enough people to keep you company but quiet enough to keep its charm. At night when you cross the Fort Point Channel on Congress St. from downtown, it looks like exactly what it is: an abandoned industrial park that is
so Northeast to me: bricks, windows, over and over, stacked on top of each other.
Drink is a reflection of its digs many ways. It's two things simultaneously: a froo-froo cocktail bar I travel half-an-hour across town to visit, and a neighborhood haunt where Fort Point locals can stop in for a High Life after work. It manages to do both effectively and unpretentiously. It's located below ground, a little hard to find if you're not looking for it. The bartenders are arguably some of the best in the city. No liquor bottles on the counter; just plants, spices, and tiny droppers filled with exotic bitters and flavorings. I've never heard bartenders talk so extensively about their ingredients. Ours even referred to bitters as "like a stock," in cooking, "that you can basically throw anything you want into." No wonder that they have such a range of flavors at their disposal. In addition to the booze and the big flavors (juices, muddling plants), there are more subtle flavors that make a truly excellent cocktail. For instance, Alana's drink was minty (because she's a hygienist, which the bartender cajoled out of her). To accentuate the "green" flavor in the drink, our bartender added a celery bitters from a little eye-dropper. I had no idea so much went into making a drink, and maybe that's because it doesn't happen that much anymore.
My drink, well...I'd say it was near perfection. I said I wanted a "spicy, chesty" drink, opening up my sternum like an ape at the bartender. "Ginger, too." No hesitation from the barman. I got scotch, "because you wanted hair on your chest," HOMEMADE GINGER BEER, and lime juice. Basically, everything I could ever want to taste in a tall, ice cold glass. The bartender named the drink after
this lady. Now, let's talk about the HOMEMADE GINGER BEER. I had to ask the bartender about this because I drink lots and lots of the stuff. "Oh, it's really easy. Lots of fresh ginger, simple syrup, and then we charge it with gas." Most recipes call for some lemon juice too, but I don't recall if their recipe did because it was so, so spicy.
Of the top ten best drinks I have ever consumed, they've all been here. In addition to being a fantastic place to imbibe, Drink is about connectivity, bringing the entire city to a single neighborhood on one hand, defining a sense of place for the Fort Point community on the other. Of course it's a bar, a place for people to socialize yadda yadda yadda. Drink does more than that, though. You talk to your friends about what you're going to say to the bartender, you talk to your bartender about what you should drink, you talk to your bartender about what they've made you, and you usually share your drink with your friends because its like nothing else you've ever tasted. It gets everyone involved. Buying a drink isn't just a transfer of money from my hand to a stranger's. And they also have food here, which I'm told is comparably delicious. So, it's about socializing and foremost, sensory experience. It ought to be the official bar of this blog, and I'm convinced it would be were it in Los Angeles.
