August 5, 2024 Issue

Hooray! “Bar Tab” is back! Is it just a one-time appearance or is it back for good? Time will tell. I vote for the latter. I love “Bar Tab.” I was shattered when it was discontinued in 2018 (see my farewell salute here). This week’s “Bar Tab: Another Country” is by Jiayang Fan. She’s written some of the column’s classics. Recall her wonderful “Bar Tab: Fat Buddha,” May 23, 2016 [“At Fat Buddha, an East Village Asian-fusion ultra-dive, the eponymous Buddha (corpulent, imperious, swathed in mini disco balls, and encased in a glass box stuffed with cash) looks like a reincarnated bouncer who opted for an off-book route to enlightenment: namely, booze, hip-hop, and a jovial no-holds-barred policy on happy-hour pork buns”]. In “Bar Tab: Another Country,” she mentions two drinks I’d like to try: a C’mon Dad Gimme the Car (“a tequila-forward, lip-tickling strawberry-and-jalapeño cocktail named for a Violent Femmes song”); and a I May Destroy You (“a smoky mezcal-and-Aperol number inspired by the HBO show”). Mm, great names, great drinks! More “Bar Tab,” please.