MAKING THE SCENE...
By JUSTIN ROCKET SILVERMAN
Posted: 2:00 am
July 6, 2008
Clover Club
210 Smith St., Cobble Hill, Brooklyn; (718) 855-7939
ARTISAN cocktails have arrived in Cobble Hill with the recent opening of the eminently classy Clover Club. Named after a writers' drinking club that flourished in Philadelphia more than a century ago, the Victorian ambiance and sophisticated cocktail menu create a perfectly relaxed atmosphere for imbibing. The massive mahogany bar dates from 1892, and was rescued from an old miners' bar in Pennsylvania. Altogether, the scene hearkens back to the motto of the old Clover Club itself: "Who enters here leaves care behind, leaves sorrow behind, leaves petty envies and jealousies behind.
Enchanting cocktails like the Perthshire, Gin Blossom and Bermuda Swizzle average just $10 each, a real bargain by Manhattan standards.
The kitchen remains open until an hour before the bar closes, meaning this is place to go if you get a craving for caviar shrimp toast at 2 a.m.
The genius behind Clover Club is master mixologist Julie Reiner, who gained fame in the late 1990s for elevating the apple martini to gourmet status. More recently, she crafted the Flatiron Lounge's celebrated cocktail menu.
For larger groups, order a punch bowl, which serves four-to-six people for $42. The bowls and cups are antiques collected by Reiner, and flavors like Clover Punch or Pimms Punch make it very easy to drain the whole thing.
The Clover Club plays a selection of classic swing tunes from the '40s, so be ready to sing along with the Andrews Sisters' "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy."
