Town Center

It’s cocktail hour — the end of a grinding day — and Alex, human resources manager for a hot-performing New York–based hedge fund, is sitting at the bar at Town, inside the Chambers Hotel, with some colleagues, sipping and schmoozing. “This is our after-work oasis,” she says, “beautiful, sleek, yet cozy.”

The bar’s following isn’t limited to thirsty Wall Streeters. In fact, Town (15 W. 56th St., 212.582.4445; townrestaurant.com) is actually a two-story classic restaurant with a cool, 50-seat curved balcony and three hard-earned stars from The New York Times. But the 19-seat bar is where the adrenaline congregates.

Town isn’t exactly unknown; Sex and the City filmed some scenes here. But don’t go thinking this is a frivolous or trendy place. Town is a spot where the cocktails are serious creations and collaboration is the name of the game. Every day, the bartenders make a pilgrimage to the kitchen of John Johnson, executive chef of Town’s restaurant, for their fresh purees, tart mint, infusions, and squeezed juices — lemon, lime, orange, and cherry to name a few.

Like the best chefs, Johnson sources local ingredients. Town’s caipirinha, a sweet twist on Brazil’s national drink, uses muddled strawberries, not from California or New Zealand but from New Jersey. Add potent Brazillian cachaça, fresh mint, and a touch of sugar, pour on the rocks, and garnish with a fresh lime and you’re in Rio for $13.

The bartenders at Town reach back into history to create cocktails that change with the seasons. For spring, they serve a cherry lime rickey, a more potent version of the old-fashioned soda fountain drink. They start with fresh pitted cherries and cherry juice, add mint-infused Belvedere vodka, a touch of Meyer lemon zest, and slices of key limes. The ingredients are muddled by hand, poured over ice, and topped with a splash of soda. All that handcraftsmanship is worth the $13 tariff, a bargain by New York saloon standards.

Town maintains a long list of wines by the glass; the big sellers are a Sancerre chardonnay from France at $16 and the Victoire cabernet-syrah blend at $14 a glass. Beers include Chimay, a Trappist monk brew from Belgium, and Hoegaarden, a crisp, unfiltered Belgian wheat beer. Both are $10 a bottle.

 You can have that wine with a lot more than bar nuts and pretzels at Town. Both a light fare menu and a full dinner menu are served atop the limestone bar. Selections range from a smoked salmon mini-pizza with horseradish cream ($21) to a robust beef tartare with fig mustard ($22) to a spiced duck steak with soba buckwheat pilaf ($32).

Town, Johnson claims, “is the essential New York experience for all ages, with an atmosphere that welcomes the young European style set, downtown hipsters hanging out in Midtown, or businesspeople having a Scotch.” The décor, especially the lighting, helps pull it off. Soft amber light boxes from Brazil along the back bar reflect off custom-made Austrian crystal chandeliers and a polished limestone bar top. The entire back wall of the restaurant is a cascade of backlit liquid panels.

Meantime, you never know what might happen in here. During New York’s blackout in 2003, the bartender mixed drinks by candlelight and, says Johnson, quite a few strangers met each other in an intimate setting. Friendships, engagements, marriages? Who knows. Nobody was filming.

This month, Continental Sommelier David Gordon, who lends his award-winning expertise to New York’s Tribeca Grill and other restaurants, recommends three wines from Argentina, an up-and-coming wine region offering some great values.

Sagta Torrontes 2007, $10
Torrontes, the most widely planted white grape in Argentina, is most similar to Spain’s Albariño grape, with tropical fruit and floral notes and a crisp, refreshing acidity. Sagta is a winery in the province Salta in the Calchaqui Valley, whose high elevations and dry climate provide ideal growing conditions.

Durigutti Malbec, Mendoza 2005, $11
This is a modern, fruity style of Malbec, Argentina’s best red grape and an important blending grape in cabernet sauvignon. Durigutti makes an unfined and unfiltered wine with tobacco, cedar, and black currant flavors and a soft, smooth finish.

Susana Balbo Malbec, Mendoza 2006, $31
Susana Balbo has more than 20 years of winemaking experience. This wine has 10 percent cabernet sauvignon blended in and comes from 30-year-old vines. It’s deep and rich with blackberry, chocolate, and mineral flavors.