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“Park Blue”
Occasion: | Cuisine: | Area: | Cost: | Rating: |
Night Out | New American | Midtown | Moderate | Good |
Midtown has no shortage of spots to go for drinks after work—but most fall into the “martini-toting suits piled in shoulder to shoulder” category. Few offer a place where conversation can occur, where wine (good wine) can be poured, where cocktails are made with care and served in Reidel stemware, where the food is both decent (and really quite fun to eat) and reasonably priced, all in a setting that is both sexy and civilized. If you have been itching for a bar like this, but have been drinking at sardine-cans like PJ Clarks, China Grill, or Zarella’s (Note: I haven’t worked in midtown forever, so I have no idea where people go for “happy hour” anymore, but that’s where I used to go back in the time when Dinosaurs roamed the earth and I was a corporate lawyer at Shearman & Sterling), allow me to introduce you to Park Blue, a wine, tapas, and cocktail lounge owned by Fonda Tsironis, a big sweetheart of a guy—think a more refined Tony Soprano with more hair, and dressed in Valentino—a veteran front of the house guy.
Park Blue has a gentle softness to it—warm amber lighting, lamps cloaked in chocolate brown ostrich feathers, cozy bar couches built for two—but at the same time has a masculinity to it—suit fabric walls, navy banquettes, and sconces fashioned from what appear to be cattle horns—that makes it equally a man’s bar and a cocktail-seeking woman’s lounge.
Aside from the super-fine setting, the hook at Park Blue is the wine list, which comes in at just under 100 half bottles from around the world—Alsace, Oregon, the Loire Valley, Pomerol, Provence, Piedmont, Rioja, Rias Baixas, New Zealand, and more—along with a list of classic cocktails, an extensive selection of beers (including one of my all time favorites, the Hitachino Pale Ale from Japan—it’s got that cartoon owl on the label), and a globe-trotting menu of smartly designed small plates by chef Eric Simeon, a bohemian guy with a mess of dark curls who most recently worked at Aquavit with Marcus Samuelsson.
I stopped by last week with a few friends to check it out and attempt to shake off the effects of the hundred-degree heat. It’s amazing how a few half bottles of white—a Gruner Veltliner, a Pinot Gris, and a Sancerre—can take you from hot and bothered to cool and content in no time. As we settled into the room and worked throu ... [more, click below]
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