We walked into Nudibranch, a warm and clean space, a respite from the grunge of the avenues of East Village. A bit early for dinner, we sat at the bar for a cocktail, and was accidentally served a really good dirty martini. It had great umami flavour without the salty harshness often found in dirty martinis.
The accident was that it was made with gin rather than vodka, as had been requested. The tip was to use an olive brine sold as olive brine, not left over olive juice from an olive jar. 2 parts gin and 1 part olive brine, and you have the most perfect umami dirty martini.
The bartender also made me a vesper martini but with a quarter part Cocchi Bianco vermouth rather than Lillet, which may be sacrilege if you are a true Ian Fleming fan, but I found to be much smoother.
Last but not least, when we shared with him how we are finding the espresso spritz taking over town, he told us about the bartender's mocktail, a shot of espresso and tonic (not seltzer) water. We will be making that at home next time.
I'm not so sure about the food here - the chicken sandwich got rave reviews from our neighbour but our much anticipated uni soba with bottarga was a bit lacking in flavour - but the environment is great and staff professional and friendly. If you find yourself in the East Village and get thirsty, I would definitely pop in for a civilised drink here and avoid the standard, mediocre grunge in the area.
CONTACT
125 1st Ave., New York, NY 10003, USA
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