Painkiller
49 Essex St., nr. Grand St.; 212-777-8454
Concealed behind freshly spray-painted doors emblazoned tiki bar, this just-opened spot in the old East Side Company Bar space is wedged into a narrow, windowless room thick with bamboo shoots and red suedey booths, all intended to make you lose track of time—think decades, not hours. Many of the sixties-kitsch swizzles, frozens, and daiquiris ($12 to $16) are prepared by the bartenders omakase style (meaning you pick a category, they pick your drink). Another selection, called “The Bastards,” requires customers’ morbid specifications as to how they want it: “suffering” (gin and bourbon), “dying” (gin, bourbon, and cognac), or “dead” (gin, bourbon, cognac, and rum)—each treatment coming with a flourish of crystallized ginger, cucumber, mint, and orange.