(Photo: Noah Sheldon for New York Magazine)

Sometimes the only thing standing between a hopeful applicant and a full bar is an intractable community board. Other times, as in the case of Terroir, it’s the mere proximity of a school. Even though Terroir’s focus (and partner Paul Grieco’s passion) is wine, the owners saw no reason they couldn’t penetrate the lucrative cocktail market, and so they tasked Marshall Altier, the talented barkeep of their uptown restaurant Insieme, to work around the hard-booze deficiency. His concoctions incorporate port, sherry, vermouth, whipped egg white, and bracingly smoky Lapsang Souchong tea. They even display a touch of molecular mixology in the La Terra Ferma’s Nebbiolo-porcini spuma—otherwise known as foam (413 E. 12th St., nr. First Ave.; no phone).

Related:

• Archive: “Food Features”
• Articles by Robin Raisfeld | Rob Patronite
• Table of Contents: Apr 21, 2008 issue of New York | Subscribe!