Best new cocktails: Maison Premiere

OTHER NOMINEES: The Beagle, Booker and Dax, Bourgeois Pig Brooklyn

Thanks to the efforts of tongue-clucking Prohibitionists, no spirit in history has more sinister associations than the anise-flavored liqueur known as absinthe. So you’ve got to hand it to Maxwell Britten, the chief barman at Maison Premiere, who dedicated his entire menu to the misunderstood hooch. In dismantling the green stuff’s enduring fictions—no, guys, it’s not a hallucinogen—Britten created the year’s most appealing new barroom, earning your votes over boîtes both classic (the Beagle, Bourgeois Pig Brooklyn) and avant-garde (Booker and Dax). You flipped for the spot-on staging, referencing New Orleans’ French Quarter with creaky wooden floors, a languid soundtrack and icy platters of oysters. But it was the drinks, of course, that really caught your eye: 30 international varieties of absinthe, served as a milky mixture with sugar and water, or worked into studious cocktails like an unusual frappe, bolstered with cream, pine liqueur and crème de cassis. It takes a master to turn the tides on a vilified spirit. At Maison Premiere, absinthe finally got the booster she’s been waiting for. 298 Bedford Ave between Grand and South 1st Sts, Williamsburg, Brooklyn (347-335-0446, maisonpremiere.com)

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