Coordinated variations on a strong milieu are good for any party, whether at a home, a restaurant, or somewhere bigger and grander.  The Plaza’s setup allowed for a calmer, well-lit, introductory space with gorgeous architecture in which to have a drink and settle in.  Guests could then move up to a darker, swanky lounge and nightclub atmosphere – complete with a bar made out of ice!

Did the ice bar really add a lot?  Was it worth reviving memories of sea-sickness in cruise ship casinos?  I’m not sure, but it definitely beats the perfunctory folding table covered with cheap white linens.

The ice-encased cocktail menu atop the bar made of ice

I had high hopes for the home of the fabled Oak Room (which I like extra because they have a website background similar to ours here), not to mention of ELOISE.  I was a bit disappointed, but the mixology was definitely a step in the right direction.  There was a cocktail menu (encased in ice) – a clear sign that someone’s heart is at least in the right place.  The menu tended toward the sweet, vodka, and champagne.  None of these are my thing.  No worries, they had a full bar, so you could call your drinks, almost.

If you, gentle reader, should soon find yourself with the task of negotiating a hotel bar package:

It is unfortunate that even the home of such a great bar can’t pass my simple dive-bar sizing test with their party bar package.

In classic “full bar package” fashion, there was plenty of great booze, but no liqueurs, bitters, digestifs, aperitifs, fresh fruits or juices.  One of the bars managed to not have dry vermouth (they were very ashamed of that, to be fair).  I don’t believe that hotels should be allowed to sell bar packages without guaranteeing at least a bottle of Angostura bitters.  This one correction would open a world of simple classics any bartender should be able to make.  Imagine what would happen with the introduction of Campari.

This is the kind of detail over which to get serious.

Brides, grooms, and mother-in-laws to-be, listen up! Bertessa says: Bitters and Campari at the bar(s) = better than flowers in the bathroom.  Not that they were present at my my own reception (the Campari, not the flowers – which were most certainly there).  But I have since gotten a little bit older and a whole lot wiser, maybe…

For all the shortcomings of hotel bar packages, it is fun to see more people wandering around with martini glasses (even when filled with green apple martinis – I was really shocked to see that early ’00s trend) than beer bottles.  We are heading the right direction.  And the Plaza is a sweet place to party.

Water from ice both chills the drink and, obviously, adds water.  Notice that I did not say, “it waters down the drink”.  While a poorly made drink may be too watered-down, a well made drink incorporates that water as part of the drink.   We are not high-schoolers looking to see how much we can drink as quickly as possible.  We want drinks that make people happy.  How does water make people happy?

Time to return to my Theory of the Cocktail – Aspects of Happiness edition.  First and foremost, the drink should make people want to consume it for the flavor.  Next, it should enhance the atmosphere.  As a chaser, it should never inhibit people from attaining their goals.  Water is the lubricant that brings together

• Flavor – obviously the most critical element of drink
• Style – sometimes a drink needs volume to look right, or at least to keep people from interrupting the flow of an event for a refill
• Inhibition – lowering your own a bit is relaxing, but getting so drunk that you are inhibited from making it to dinner, bed, work, or a functional life is completely unacceptable

Add water, and the Flavors have a medium to mix in, the drink is volumized a bit to have the right Style, and people can drink appropriately to loosen Inhibitions without inhibiting their lives.  Pleased with the balance of Flavor, Style, and Inhibitions, people are happier.

Now that we know water properly belongs in cocktails, what sort of water should we put in?  Clean, filtered, tasteless water (another post will address flavoring the ice).  If you don’t like the water out of your tap, then don’t make ice out of it.

OK, so does it really matter what shape the ice is in?  Well, sort of.  As the article in the first line suggests (article) the more surface area exposed, the faster the ice melts.  So, if you only want a little water in the drink, then the bigger the cubes you can make the better.  Is it worth creating a gazillion types of ice?  I vote no, but I am pretty far along on the spectrum of laziness when it comes to things that are supposed to be fun.  I do think it is worth having a large and a very small size cube ice tray.  You can mix the two if you want a midsize.  For absurdly large whole glass cubes: there has to be a reason to go to fine cocktail establishments.

Of course, shaking a drink does a great deal more to break down the ice and introduce water than stirring, which must also be taken into account.  Somewhat surprisingly, I actually find larger cubes to be better for shaking than smaller.  I think the larger cubes fracture more and release even more water, plus they break up any fruit or other non-liquid items more effectively by virtue of their heft.

Fruit in the shaker brings up my final point: ways to cool a drink other than water.  You can freeze anything you want and put it in a drink, but it should be something that makes the drink look better (possibly influence the taste), and IS EDIBLE. 

Rocks DO NOT BELONG IN DRINKS:

Add ice or drink your whiskey straight.