Apotheke

9 Doyers st.

New York NY 10013

212.406.0400

Apotheke is a destination bar in Chinatown in it's final stages of sneak preview prep for NYC's need-to-knows. Boasting a cocktail list of 250 drinks organized by Albert Trummer, the new lounge is located on Doyers st. off Bowery. The space was formerly a dumpling house, and even further back, a famous opium den. The building, as well as the neighborhood, has extreme character.

I didn't puff that night because I knew I would be sampling many cocktails. But for future visits I would not be afraid to light up in Chinatown, especially on a street so small and absent of foot traffic as Doyers.

Walking through the front door of Apotheke, which has no marking's indicating a lounge, one feels like they are passing through a secret doorway. But what one see's once through the doorway completely shatters the illusion.

The space is small and slightly multi leveled as the back curves to the right and the floor slopes up into another space. The bar is made of a beautiful Onyx Carreras about an inch thick spreading across the back of the lounge. However I noticed when leaning over to peer at the antique apothecary accoutrements, there were multiple cracks between the slabs of Onyx that still needed to be sealed. And quick, because underneath lay rows of track lighting illuminating the bar from the inside, and if any liquid happened to drip down and...well I think you get the point.

I turned my attention to the rest of the decor, and became confused. The bar was strait forward: Made to look like an Apothecary, yet there were bed like couches spread out, tacky curtains with big fake jewels hanging from the ceiling, tile patterns everywhere, un-hemmed material draped overhead to the right of the bar, and dance music, the kind you would hear at a B list club in San Tropez. I understood the attempt to merge the principles of an apothecary and how they correlate with Mixology, with the vibe of a New York speakeasy. But I was sitting in a potential euro trash dive. Would New Yorker's venture out of their respective neighborhoods to try Apotheke? I say no.

In spite of boasting a cocktail list of 250 drinks, the ones I was given to try were all very similar: Cava or champagne based with fruit and in house pressed cane sugar (an idea I appreciate, it's so much better to have natural sugar). But they were all too sweet! I ventured to request a rye whiskey drink. I couldn't hear what the cocktail waitress said was in the drink when she handed it to me, but it was delicious despite the sugar still being to strong.

I think a bartender's personality heavily influences his drinks, and Trummer's concoctions let you know he spent seven years under the rigors of Bouley. So really the big question is can a cocktail offering that has all of the frivolities of the South Beach scene draw the crowds in a speakeasy setting in the heart of a not yet gentrified Chinatown? Time will tell.

I give Apotheke: no 's.

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