Last Friday, I re-entered the high heeled shark-infested waters known as the New York dating scene… to the great delight of more geriatric friends who love to live vicariously through me. The gent & I were meeting up at Union Square and winging it from there, and being a 21st century woman and all, I figured I should contribute some ideas for dinner & a bar afterwards. A New Yorker friend recommended a hidden bar, Angel Share, haphazardly located in the middle of a busy Japanese restaurant.First of all, let me say… this is not a bar for first dates. Or second dates even. Unless you’re 100% sure you’re madly in love with this guy/gal. This bar has romantic down to an art form, to the point where you’re going to want to take your pants off, regardless of how unattractive, uninteresting and repulsive your date might be. It’s insta-hook-up in bar form.

Three restaurants, 1 bartender with a chip on her shoulder, 1 run-in with a friend, and a flight of stairs later, we found ourselves inside a sushi place, standing outside a wooden door that could’ve easily passed for the entryway to a storage cabinet

“Are you sure it’s here?” my date asked. “I’ve been to this restaurant a couple times and never noticed a bar.”
“No no,” I insisted. “My friend said it was completely unmarked.”
I opened the door…

and found myself staring at a cute Japanese hostess lady.

“How many?”
“Uh… uh… two,” I stammered.
“That’ll be about 15-20 minutes.”
I look at my date.
“Yeah, that’s fine,” and with that we settled awkwardly in the middle of the tiny room.

The bar was a small narrow room, with maybe about 20 seats, just barely lit by flickering lights and candles on each table. Above the bar area hung a huge Michaelangelo-style mural of an impossibly angry looking asian toddler with a crowd of caucasian cupid-like angels gingerly staying far away of him. Beneath the mural was an impressively stocked bar, with three serious-looking Japanese mixologists complete in tuxes and awesome hair. Pretty much all the customers were obviously on dates.

Within 10 minutes, we were seated, in a cozy niche in the back (right, like it could get more romantic) and presented with a binder of cocktails and spirits. This place is pretty serious about their cocktails. For the first round, the gent got a mojito, while I girled out with a daiquiri. The mojito came straight from its muddling, while my daiquiri was poured out of a cocktail shaker into my glass at our table by a waiter with said serious demeanor and awesome hair. Both were quite delicious, though I’ve decided daiquiris simply aren’t my type of drink.

Half an hour of conversation later, we were ready for a second round. The gent really enjoyed the mojito, so I suggested a caipirinha for him. Meanwhile, now that I figured out we were in a fairly serious cocktail bar, I thought I’d try something I’ve always wanted to and never found appropriate at the local irish pub or dive bar. I tried a singapore sling, after months of looking at the history and recipe on Wikipedia. Ooof, delicious! I simply can’t describe the taste of the concoction, which I guess isn’t surprising considering it has 29038409234 ingredients. Either way, I know what I’m ordering next time I’m at a nice bar.

The date went OK/well/decent/I’m-ambivalent-but-will-probably-meet-him-again, but the bar? Blew all my expectations. I’ve already promised my married friend a double date here sometime. It’s simply too nice a place not to visit again… soon.

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 13th, 2008 at 12:26 am and is filed under Bar, Cocktails, New York, Review.