Sweet Blog O'Mine

Tag: Lani Kai

  • Booze You Can Use: Tequila & Cocktails Workshop

    I just returned from a weekend in Mexico to celebrate Lauren & Jorge's wedding. There was certainly no shortage of tequila; in fact, we officially toasted their nuptials with a delicious Clase Azul reposado.  It was the perfect mid-winter getaway.

    If you can't make it to Mexico, take a shorter trip to Lani Kai, where Liquor.com is holding a Tequila and Cocktails workshop this Saturday, March 10th from 2-4 pm. Proprietress Julie Reiner will be joined by Herradura ambassador Mark Drew for an afternoon of tasting, education, and snacks. $50 tickets also include a goodie bag for the road.

  • Booze You Can Use: Whisky and Women Unite!

    Lupecwhisky

    Mark your calendars! On March 8th, Compass Box and the New York Chapter of LUPEC (Ladies United for the Preservation of Endangered Cocktails) are joining forces for the third annual Whisky and Women Unite, a cocktail party benefitting Bottomless Closet. The first one started as a piggyback on the tweetups I had been doing, and it was such a great success that they did a second event last year.

    This year, Lani Kai hosts the fête, and LUPEC members Meaghan Dorman, Lynnette Marrero, Abigail Gullo, Eryn Reece Karin Stanley, and hostess Julie Reiner will create cocktails for the event featuring the newest relase from Compass Box, Great King Street – Artist’s Blend.  The cocktails will be $8, and a portion of the proceeds will go to Bottomless Closet, which helps disadvantaged NYC women become self-sufficient through comprehensive programming and support.

    March 8th, 6-8 p.m., Lani Kai, 525 Broome Street between Thompson and Sullivan. See you there!!

  • Booze You Can Use

    – Lani Kai is starting brunch service this weekend and man, it looks good!!  I particularly like the one-egg option for some of the dishes.

    - There's spirits shopping galore on Saturday between the Astor Center Holiday Gift Bazaar and the Dizzy Fizz Holiday Bazaar, which also benefits the Museum of the American Cocktail

    – Finally, if you haven't been there yet, head over to Carmine Club Cafe, which recently opened in the West Village.  Find out more about the team behind it on my latest post on Serious Eats New York, go get some prosecco on tap, and tell them Laren sent you!

  • Booze You Can Use: Leblon at Lani Kai

    Often I am invited to attend events that don't completely mesh into something I can write about for my current freelance columns, but which are great for gathering information, getting pitch ideas, increasing my knowledge, and making contacts.  I'm going to do my best to write about them here instead.  I figure that between those of you who read my blog, plus 800+ of you on Facebook and 1200+ of you on Twitter who see my blog posts via feeds, at least someone will be reading them!

    Last week I went to a Leblon event held at the soon-to-be opened Lani Kai in SoHo.  Lani Kai, Julie Reiner's newest project, is a tribute to a beach in Hawaii, with modern tropical decor and menus that reflect flavors of the region (More about all this from Julie in the not-too-distant future is in the works).  The food, by chef Craig Rivard, was fantastic, starting with an ahi poke (something I haven't had since my trip to Hawaii a few years back), a pork bun slider with "Lani Kai secret sauce," a fried whole red snapper with a selection of dipping sauces, and steak served with bibb lettuce, bean sprouts, friend shallots, fried purple potatoes, hoisin, and ginger scallion sauce, made to be wrapped. 

    Snapper
    snapper!

    The cocktails served that night were all made with Leblon cachaça.  Many people don't know much about cachaça beyond the caipirinha — Brazil's national cocktail — but this spriit, distilled from sugar cane juice, and in Leblon's case, aged in XO cognac casks, has a delicate, somewhat floral flavor that plays well with others.  Joe Swifka, who I first met when he worked at Elettaria (RIP), is running the bar at Lani Kai.  Joe has a flair for tropical flavor and is one of the nicest guys around.  I'm quite excited to see what he has in store there.  He created a Leblon cocktail that was served with the ahi poke and will be listed on the opening menu. 

    The Tides

    2 oz. Leblon cachaça
    1 oz. Falernum
    3/4 oz. fresh lime juice
    3/4 oz. fresh grapefruit juice
    1/4 oz. cane syrup
    2 dashes Peychaud bitters

    Shake with ice and strain over fresh ice in a collins glass.  Garnish with a lime and grapefruit twist.