Retro drinks with a guilty-pleasure quality—think Cosmos and Fuzzy Navels—are the newest thing in New York City cocktails this summer
When Lamia Funti was looking recently to add a signature cocktail to her Lamia’s Fish Market restaurant in Manhattan’s East Village, she wanted something tasty, boozy and just a little trashy to keep things on a lighter note. And she quickly remembered a drink from the past: the Long Island Iced Tea.
“There’s nothing trashier,” she said of the cocktail, which mimics the taste of ice tea through the potent combination of several spirits, plus mixers. But Ms. Funti also wanted to give the drink a fresher, classier take, so she updated the recipe with such items as sherry and sake. The result is a craft-minded version of the old-school sip that she calls a Manhattan Iced Tea. She serves it with a mini bottle of Champagne to make for a fancier affair.
So it similarly goes at other bars and restaurants throughout the city. The newest thing in cocktails this summer is turning out to be something old, as in retro drinks with a guilty-pleasure quality. But the cocktails are being rethought for an era in which mixologists are constantly looking to outdo each other with their complex creations.in an annual global survey, one of the stars of the current menu is an Appletini , a drink that dates back at least a couple of decades.