7 Spring Cocktail Recipes From New York's Best Bartenders

Soho Grand: Adam Robbins

The Soho Grand has been a perennial favorite among the downtown scene for its large, elegant space, attractive crowd, and fashionable events, but it also boasts one of the finer cocktail bars in Soho. Regulars can wax poetic about the whiskey selection, something that became a focal point last year, but the bartenders have a knack for getting the customers exactly what they want, even when they may not know what that is themselves. Adam Robbins has been adept at that for years, carefully honing his craft to ensure the perfect cocktail always reaches his guests. From: Miami Experience: Bobo, Tribeca Grand, The Monarch Room (current) Personal drink of choice: "The cool answer is whatever I'm making for myself, but I'm from Miami so I have an affinity for the Hemingway daiquiri. It takes me back a little bit." Spring cocktail: Vieux Carre "The last 3 big drinks were brown liquor, stirred, stiff and silky: Sazeracs, Old Fashioned, Manhattans. In the 5th season finale of Mad Men, Don Draper walks into a bar, orders an Old Fashioned and as I was watching it I thought 'here we go.' It's already been popular, now it's exploding. It surprised me; I never thought it would be that kind of drink. So I feel like the next drink in line in that category is the Vieux Carré, which means the old quarter. It's like the old New Orleans term for the French quarter. It's similar to a Manhattan in that it has rye whiskey and sweet vermouth, but then it adds cognac, two kinds of bitters, and has a lemon twist. It's like if a Manhattan, Old Fashioned, and Sazerac had a threesome, this is what comes out of it." Vieux Carré: 1 dash angostura bitters 1 dash Peychaud's 1 oz rye whiskey 1 oz cognac 1 oz sweet vermouth 1 bar spoon Benedictine Stirred, over rocks; lemon twist. Grandlife Hotels also has a series of videos demonstrating how to make classic cocktails including the Vieux Carre HERE!