Nathan

so I revised this with some, ahem, experimentation this weekend. I'd say my preferred is 2 gin, .5-75 Luxardo, .25 violette, and .5-.75 lemon juice.

I've certainly heard advice to tip the sommelier separately. at some restaurants I think they're in the pool. personally, I don't think the onus is on me as a diner to track down and tip three different groups of people: the wait staff, the sommelier and the kitchen. however they want to arrange matters at a particular restaurant, they should be able to do with my tip as it is.

glad you enjoyed it! the guanciale is baked into the sauce.

weird. all of the bartenders make a decent Martinez. (it's on the menu.) so they definitely have Maraschino.

I stopped in on Friday and had: 1. the scallops. superb. this was in the same league as (if just shy of) the scallop with rock salt at Yasuda. served raw with salted lettuce and plum. 2. sugar snap peas in ham broth. pretty good. excellent ingredients. 3. Sichuan squid salad. terrific. they weren't afraid to let it have some heat either. 4. pig's head. I'm not an offal-head. this was pretty good...I think I was a little bored with it (and full) by the end of the dish. and then for dessert I had the pork buns. I don't know why anyone would ever order anything sweet when you can have pork buns.

Mina, the chef who had a devoted following follow her to Angon, left a year ago. I haven't been back since.

so I stopped into Warehouse Liquors on University place and 7th yesterday for some, um, essentials, and I noticed that they've greatly expanded their liquor collection...a bunch of ryes and bourbons they hadn't had before as well as some harder-to-find liqueurs. they've always had the lowest prices in Manhattan but over the last six months they've been expanding their selection a great deal (i.e. they only used to stock Stock maraschino and now they've added Luxardo...etc.). exceptional deals on gin as well. it's still not Astor Place or Sherry-Lehmann but it's getting there. (and the prices: Plymouth at $14 for a 750ml, Lagavullin 15 at $40 ($60 elsewhere)...etc.) and though I'm stocked up for now...since creme de violette is supposed to be distributed to New York starting July 1...I'm going to harp on them to stock that as well.

I also see the Aviation as a really effective "gateway cocktail," in that it's inherent ingredient simplicity can show people maraschino's contributions to a drink. It's so easy to start from there and move someone on to a more complex, but similar in some respect, cocktail like the Last Word. ← yup...it was the Aviation that first turned me on to serious cocktails. it's kind of remained a "first love"...

I think Les Halles does a bunch of things for Bastille Day. the food quality, of course, varies.

I'd hypothesize that the "modern" Aviation has essentially become a showcase for maraschino liqueur....and in that sense is probably closer to an Allen than to the "original" Aviation. (I'll admit thought that I've enjoyed virtually every Aviation I've ever had...and the proportions used have varied widely.)

My Aviation is 2 oz beefeater or Tanq, 3/4 oz lemon, 1/2 oz luxardo, 1/4 oz simple (1 to 1). I like to thow a few dashes of orange bitters to make a Casino. ← well...that's virtually a 2:1:1 (in fact...that's a little sweeter)...so I'm not alone...

only from the really tall bald guy. there's two tall muscular bald guys...its the tallest, oldest looking one...he knows his stuff. some of the other guys can make a decent enough Aviation...though they freepour so you never quite know how it's gonna turn out. but with Little Branch close by...why bother? the house drinks at EO are generally pretty good (some of which are standards like the Martinez and a Pimm's Cup cocktail)...

luxardo!

any other ingredients? I have both the peatmonster and germain...

that sounds awful although 2 gin, .5 germain and .25-.5 of lemon juice sounds pretty good. then maybe top with champagne? or soda on the rocks for a summer quaffer....

well...EO was marketed more as a restaurant first as well. (with the exception of one bartender)...I'd say that EO has always been middling in both food and cocktails and I imagine the same would be true for S&M.

I think for most of us who prefer the Allen-style Aviation...it's not that we don't mind or like tartness...it's that we like the "funk"!

I don't get this. I agree that it's sad to see landmarks close....but, by and large, they're being replaced by new and unique restaurants (some of which have and will become institutions in their own right)...Gertel's may have closed...but Shopsin's just moved to the LES. outside of Times Square, the city is hardly becoming filled with chain restaurants.

my take on I & L can be seen above. edit: I enjoyed my first visit to I & L. and certainly some of the popularity is due to their very friendly staff and chef. but on subsequent visits I realized that everything (literally) tasted the same.

[moderator's note, moved from the Savoy Cocktail Book Topic - eje] the story of this cocktail intrigues me. these are the proportions that I have adopted in my Aviation at home...and the addition of a touch of creme de violette primarily adds the same color impact (along with a nice hint of florality). these proportions are also similar to what most bars seem to be using...rather than the early (quite tart) book takes on the Aviation. so, is the Aviation that has become so popular really the Blue Devil?

well...2nd Ave Deli was in the EV, not the LES. and it's going to reopen. Katz's is a concern

Good answers already. I don't have a handy picture of it, but a liquid appeared a few years ago and surprisingly became popular in parts of the US -- it was a mixed, fruit-flavored cordial, blue, smelled to me like Hawaiian Punch, and came in a frosted bottle with scattered characters around (and an allusion somewhere to Russia) and a name that if, you took the letters as Roman, spelled something like "Hypnotic" but if you took them as Cyrillic -- and I don't know if this was a clever joke or just a coincidence -- was more like "Nurotic." I would call this less annoying, the more you know about the word "liqueur."A youngish crowd of spirits hobbyists and bartenders has taken this word lately to mean only what it has usually, but not always, meant in North America, namely a sweetened flavored spirit, or cordial. (That narrow sense was reflected in Wikipedia, for instance, last time I looked -- one of many examples of Wikipedia offering a confident, incomplete explanation.) More traditionally there was a wider sense of the word: a spirit, usually with strong flavor. For decades I've seen, for instance, recipes suggesting you flavor a dessert with "rum or other liqueur." "Absinthe," explains a standard medical reference (illustrating uses of the Compositae herbs), "is a liqueur containing angelica, anise, marjoram, and wormwood oils." This wider sense of "liqueur," in other words, has long and respectable history. While it's not the way I usually use the word, a little more awareness of this wider sense might aid understanding. ← Hynoptique? there was a whole spate of (not so good) cocktails about 10 years ago using that....

I don't care for desserts...and certainly not the more traditional ones at Chickalicious. but with that said, I fail to see how the proprietors of Chickalicious can be blamed for their restaurant's popularity. Room4Dessert is more interesting for its menu...but the fact that it is somewhat easier to get into (or was) doesn't, of itself, "raise the bar"

edit: I should note that I'd feel more comfortable giving suggestions on this topic if a total meal cost was provided...there are a zillion restaurants that have SOME entrees under $20....i.e. Balthazar, Perry Street, etc....but where the average check will range from $50-100 per person.

whoops...didn't see that under $20 an entree: hmm...: Otto, New York Noodletown, Shanghai Cafe, New Green Bo, Schiller's, Momofuku Noodle Bar, Minca, Spotted Pig (only if you get the burger...but it's worth getting), August (some entrees), Deborah, Ino/Inoteca, Little Owl (taking your criteria very literally), Bread, Gitane, Happy Day, Grand Sichuan, La Nacional, R.U.B. there are a couple of cheap BYOs as well (Ivo & Lulu comes to mind)...but they're overrated by a certain set (not on egullet) because they're BYO and cheap, not because they're good... that should get you started. one pedantic note: you'll confuse people if you refer to Chelsea as Lower Manhattan. you can call it "downtown" but "Lower Manhattan" usually refers to below Canal Street.