Daniel's orchid ice.Photo: Melissa Hom

Slideshow: Ice, Ice Baby

So fresh, so clean.Photo: iStockphoto.com

Related: Restaurant Inspection Information: Milk and Honey [NYC.gov]

We received some outlandish responses to our promise to award Milk & Honey’s new number to one lucky imbiber. Obviously this place has moved a lot of people in addition to simply giving them the booze sweats. In the end, we narrowed the contestants down to five or six. Let’s review, shall we?

First, a couple of responses cracked us up, but we’re afraid a simple punch-line isn’t going to cut it:

I left my favorite Agent Provocateur panties under one of the booths! And without the number I may never see them again!!!

It’s very simple, I cannot endure another Wednesday night playing the Top Chef drinking game — when Padma speaks, chug until she finishes her sentence.

We’ve received a simply overwhelming amount of responses (some of them real tearjerkers — especially the photo of some guy’s girlfriend in a bikini) to our offer to give up Milk and Honey’s number to the imbiber who proves he needs it the most. What follows are some of the entrants who, though they didn’t push us over the edge, did move us, or at least piqued our interest. (It’s hard to be moved when someone tells us, “You would in fact be helping all of my dates sit thru my boring jokes and lame gossip”!)

We’ve received a torrent of e-mails begging us to disclose Milk and Honey’s secret new number, as we promised, but none of them have pulled at our heartstrings quite hard enough. Not surprisingly, there are a wide range of “romantic” pleas: a woman who “locked eyes with [her] future husband” there and wants to continue stalking the stranger; a woman who “has a hot date with a married man [she] cannot resist”; a married man (hopefully not the aforementioned one) who says he sings for famous people (sorry pal, you’ve just violated Sasha’s “no starfucking” rule) and wants to take his wife there; and finally a woman who pleads, “My boyfriend wants to go there and frankly, I’d eventually like him to marry me and father my children.” Frankly, until we hear whether the boyfriend wants the same, we have more sympathy for the guy who tells us he wants to be free from the clutches of his “douche-bag cousin” who always refuses to give up the number to him. Do you deserve a Moscow Mule more than these candidates? Plead your case by e-mailing us at grubstreet@nymag.com before 5 p.m. today and we might just hook you up.

Previously:How Badly Do You Want Milk and Honey’s New Number?

Dial M for Milk & HoneyPhoto: iStockPhoto.com

Earlier: Delete Milk and Honey’s Number From Your Phone; Prepare for New Petraske Project

A while back we did the unspeakable by releasing Milk and Honey’s number to the masses (sort of). Yesterday a reader wrote in to let us know that the number had been disconnected. Seems the bar is closed while it turns its basement (where it makes its precious ice) into the offices of Cuff and Buttons, the catering service run by former bartenders Christy Pope and Chad Solomon. The good news: A new number is being released today (even more exciting than a new edition of Harry Potter!), and the bar should reopen sometime next week.

Milk and Honey owner Sasha Petraske is keeping busy as ever. His planned beer-and-wine bar didn’t go over well with Community Board 3, but he still intends to open it initially as a café. He’s also still searching for a space in Long Island City. As it turns out, Sasha’s empire may extend far beyond even Queens. Responding to a tip we received that he’s going to have an opening on the West Coast, he says, “Yes, either a quiet little wine bar in Laurel Canyon, if we can get permission, or … a very small, maybe eight-room, hotel with a lobby bar. I’d rather do the wine bar, but if we can’t get planning permission, then downtown is the only part of L.A. that gets my heart racing. It’s like Skid Row and Wall Street have collided!” He would’ve dished more, we’re sure, but he was BlackBerrying on the fly.

Earlier:
Neighbors Tell Milk & Honey's Sasha Petraske, ‘Welcome to the East Village, Now Leave’
Milk and Honey Owner to Do Beer and Wine — and Queens!

The mythical mixologist does his thing.Photo: Robert Hess; drinkboy.com.

Earlier:
Milk and Honey Owner to Do Beer and Wine — and Queens!
Zagat Fails to Number-Close Milk and Honey

Sasha Petraske, owner of Milk and Honey and Little Branch, not to mention one of the city's most revered mixologists, plans on expanding his mini-empire. Shockingly — for those who aren't aware that Petraske worked at Von before conquering the cocktail world — the new venture will be a wine-and-Belgian-beer bar; he's calling it the Mighty Ocelot ("I really like cats," he tells us). Petraske first applied for a beer-and-wine license at 226 Broome Street, around the corner from Milk and Honey, but the rent would've busted his "shoe-string budget." So in January he'll taking over the former Jack's Luxury Oyster Bar space in the East Village; come March, he'll be offering cheese plates and light food. Not only this, but a project in Long Island City is also in the works. —Daniel Maurer