Below West 14th: Craft Cocktails

Surprises in our own neighborhood...

The view south from 6th Avenue: a combination of the old (Jefferson Market building, to the right, built circa 1877) and the new (One World Trade Center, aka The Freedom Tower, completed in 2012 and now the tallest building in the city at 1,776 feet, surely not a random height.)

Three Great Cocktail Bars…

Ann and I realized an uncommon cluster of craft cocktail bars were right around the corner from us after reading a Condé Nast Traveler story on North America’s best cocktail bars. One of them, Katana Kitten, at Charles and Husdon, was in the top five. We had never heard of this bar! And yet it’s right next door to Red Farm, where we eat fabulous, if pricey, dumplings. My post office is next to that. Bayards Ale House is on the corner. I’ve passed one of the best bars in the world countless times without even knowing it.

Katana Kitchen

The unassuming front of Katana Kitten just before opening last week.

How does that happen? That we don’t know our own neighborhood?