CIUDAD
Anne Fishbein
“I’ve got Clara Bow on line 4â€: Eric Alperin at Varnish.
Anne Fishbein
Carrie and Samantha wouldn’t recognize it: The original 1926 Cosmopolitan at Cole’s
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Ciudad is a phenomenon unto itself, the pan-Latin outpost of Mary Sue Milliken and Susan Feniger, whose moqueqa, fritanga and lomo saltado earned in polish and impeccable sourcing whatever they may lack in “authenticity.” Once one of the very few sophisticated restaurants downtown, now Ciudad seems even more valuable as a linchpin of the downtown scene. And while the restaurant may be all things to all people, Milliken and Feniger were in very early on the quality drinks thing — their City Restaurant would have nailed the Weekly’s prize for best margarita back in the 1980s if the tasting panel hadn’t been corrupted by the ex-El Coyote bartender who then worked at the paper as an editor — and Ciudad functions very well as a bar, especially to those whose pleasures include upending an oyster or two and digging into a ceviche plate every now and then: There are strong mojitos, mellow Pisco sours and an inspiring collection of rum. 445 S. Figueroa St., dwntwn., (213) 486-5171.
COLE'S
Cole’s, Cedd Moses’ revitalized French dip parlor that happens to be the oldest restaurant in Los Angeles, has recently been reborn as a meta-tavern. Because while it is still home to a formidable hand-carved pork dip sandwich and a very decent businessmen’s bar, it is also the physical space one must traverse to get to the Varnish, the tiny, speakeasy-like bar hidden behind what looks like a broom-closet doorway in the rear. What this means is that on a crowded Saturday night, you will probably end up drinking a merely superb rye old-fashioned as the preamble to the actually mind-blowing Gin and It you may taste when a table finally becomes free at the smaller bar, or muddle through an order of bacony potato salad and what might have been the best brandy Sazerac of your life if its resinous absinthe smack had not been muted by the knowledge of the liquid nirvana only a drunkard’s stumble away. Does time at Cole’s drag on like the endless D-League games that precede the Lakers when you get to Staples Center too early? Not quite. Cole’s is a destination bar in its own right, snooty enough that former regulars objecting to $10 mixed drinks are regularly sent up the street to King Eddy’s, where the cheap whiskey shots and tawdry City of Night vibe still exist unmolested by the local loft crowd. But still — there you are in Bacchus’ waiting room. At times like these, we recommend a champagne cocktail. 118 E 6th St., dwntwn., (213) 622-4090.
COMME ÇA
Chef David Myers is one of those annoying overachievers your mom always hoped you would be, the kind of guy who goes through intensive SEAL training where most of us would just join a gym, sets up an exquisite bakery instead of buying in bread, opens a pizza parlor instead of settling for the Angeli number on his speed dial. Nobody’s tasting menus are as elaborate as the ones he prepares at Sona. When he decided to stick something homey on the lunch menu at his brasserie Comme Ça, he came up with not just a cheeseburger but the cheeseburger, the Midwestern-inflected patty to which all others aspire.
So when he set up the bar at Comme Ça, it became inevitably a cocktailian dreamland, a place as chef-driven as the rest of his empire. (I seem to remember that at one point, possibly around the time Myers was collaborating with famously demanding sushi chef Kazunori Nozawa, a customer was allowed to specify what spirit she might enjoy in a cocktail, but not what might be done to it.) For most of the restaurant’s life, the menu of bar chef Joel Black was limited to four drinks, chief among them Milk and Honey’s famous Scotch-based fresh-lemon, fresh-ginger and honey cocktail, Penicillin, though also including a kind of bramble that might constitute the one permissible non-breakfast use of blackberry compote. (Milk and Honey’s Sam Ross, the inventor of the drink, came up with the first drinks menu at the restaurant.) The bar menu recently expanded to a whopping 18 drinks, including a very creditable Manhattan, but you are still probably better off just giving Black carte blanche. 8479 Melrose Ave., L.A., (323) 782-1178.
COPA D’ORO
At Copa d’Oro, the ubiquitous Vincenzo Marianella — is working the locavore groove: Patrons at the bar, run in conjunction with Buddha’s Belly owner Jonathan Chu, are invited to select from a list of spirits, fresh herbs and produce bought at the farmers market around the corner, and Marianella and his team improvise a cocktail on the spot. Tangerine, sage and Right Gin? Bell pepper, kumquat and Sazerac Rye? No problem. The drinks menu includes a selection of cocktails invented by Marianella’s friends and mentors from bars in London and around the United States, as well as some of his own greatest hits: the Apple One, his Smoke of Scotland made with 110 proof Laphroaig cask-strength single malt, and his infamous Sour Kraut, a gin sour flavored with almost homeopathic doses of marmalade and Dijon mustard, which are completely imperceptible until somebody tells you what they are. 217 Broadway, Santa Monica, (310) 576-3030.
