Alley entrance and risquÃ© artwork for Starr's Ranstead Room, opening April 25

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Alley entrance and risquÃ© artwork for Starr's Ranstead Room, opening April 25

POSTED: Wednesday, April 21, 2010, 5:32 PM

Filed Under: Booze | Openings

This Sun., April 25, cultish cocktail folks seeking chilled sips from the '40s and '50s will get their first taste of Stephen Starr's take on the speakeasy, the Ranstead Room (2013 Chestnut St.). Adjacent to the kitschy, Mexico City-themed El Rey (also opening April 25), the Ranstead Room will be a 36-seat Shawn Hausman-designed space (Chateau Marmont, The Standard, Parc, Butcher & Singer) replete with a gilded chandelier, wine-colored walls, vintage wallpaper, polished golden tiling and risquÃ© artwork, accessed through a discreet door marked with their signature "RR" off alley-like Ranstead Street. Sasha Petraske, the brain behind New York's Milk & Honey and Dutch Kills, was brought in to develop the liquid menu, a departure from his previous oeuvre of turn-of-the-century and pre-Prohibition recipes. Drinks like the Boulevardier (bourbon, Campari, sweet vermouth), Williams Fizz (cognac, Poire William, lemon juice, sugar, egg white) and The Sands Cocktail (gin, grapefruit and lemon juices, maraschino liqueur) will all be made with hand-cut ice, housemade mixers and fresh-squeezed juices.

Phyllis Stein-Novack

Posted 2010-04-21 13:15:07

I always thought I should have been born at the turn of the last century. I would have been a full-blown flapper with short skirts, bobbed hair and a taste for speak easies, sidecars, a flask of gin or scotch tucked into my garter and a strong penchant for jazz.

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