Mayahuel - A Spanish speakeasy on E. 6th Street

These are some notes I just posted on e-gullet about Mayahuel, a terrific new bar opened on E. 6th Street by the former head bartender at Death & Co. 

-----------------------------

We visited Mayahuel last night. Didn't have too much trouble getting in - the fellow at the door led us to a small standing alcove near the umbrella depository first, but quickly got us over to the bar.

I'm probably the least knowledgeable person about cocktails in this thread, but I loved the drinks. The Italian Inquisition was fantastic - to be honest, it tasted a little like my favorite standard cocktail, the martinez. Laugh at me all you like. But I have to give my prize for the night to the Whoopsy Daisy, which is outrageously good, and the Division Bell(sp?), which I got when I asked the bartender for something with more pronounced mezcal. The DB reminds me of the Laphroiag based drinks I order sometimes at D&co - almost peaty. 

We were starving, so dug into a quesadilla - although small, it was darned tasty. A nice combination of spicy and sweet (it's topped with mango,I think, though by that time I was getting a little shaky). Makes me excited to consider a more full menu. 

So, one little complaint - if you could catch swine flu from air conditioning, I swear we would have caught it sitting at the bar right under the look through to the top floor. I think the seats at the bar nearest the door don't have this problem. 

8 shots?

If I'm reading this right, the Washington Post's food critic (Tom Sietsema) drinks eight shots of expresso a day. Yikes.

Sulking Salad

I was sulking about something or other this weekend when my fiancee suggested that we have a nice, light, salad and sit outside on my porch. A quick shopping trip and some half-hearted rooting around in my fridge yielded this salad - a sort of pseudo greek take on panzanella.

There's no reason whatever for there to be a recipe, since you can just put anything you want in such a salad, but for the record, I seared some Murray's chicken breasts dressed with smoked paprika, fried cubes of stale pain au levain and soaked them in a vinaigrette briefly, tossed some asparagus and zucchini in oil, and added some dodonis feta and giant kalamata olives from Astoria (the best feta we can get easily). Toss together and munch.

Pegu Club

Saturday night, we found ourselves in a bit of a yuppie conumdrum. We wanted nice cocktails. But it is flatly impossible to walk into our favorite cocktail bar/speakeasy, Death & Co., on Saturday night. So we went, for the first time, to Pegu Club, another in the 5 or 6 strong pantheon of bars that can plausibly claim the title of best cocktails in New York City.

(I think the consensus list of the top 4 is Pegu Club, Milk & Honey, Death, and Please Don't Tell. I haven't been to all of these).

Anyway, the vibe at Pegu Club is completely different than at Death & Co. Younger, I think. Less solely cocktail focused. The place is a lounge rather than a sort of pseudo speakeasy. But the drinks are indeed terrific and worthy of their comparison to the best cocktails I ever had. And, even better, Pegu Club is easier to get into, and in a better location than Death.

My martinez was delicious, but I have to say I was very impressed by the Pegu Club Cocktail, apparently revised from a 1930's drinks manual. It was extraordinarily potent, but tasty, balanced, and a pleasure to drink.