Play opens inside the Museum of Sex

Steamy exhibits have you working up a thirst? In mid-September, the Museum of Sex adds Play, a three-way café-bar-lounge to its ground floor, featuring cocktails from veteran drinks-slinger Jim Kearns (Pegu Club, the NoMad). By day, find Balthazar pastries (black-pepper shortbread) and elevated sandwiches (Italian tuna loin) in the marble-walled Nice & Sweet café. After 6pm, the front bar turns from Viennese coffee to French bubbly, with glass doors opening onto a graphic-print lounge where drinkers can page through erotic sketchbooks. Along with lambic beers and biodynamic wines, the ebony bar is stocked with Kearn’s creations—savory cocktails made with mushroom infusions, tomato water and fish sauce—and “artist-designed” quaffs: British food-art duo Bompas & Parr offers a No. 1 Foot Fetish cherry cocktail, featuring fruit stomped on by celebrities. Bar bites include East Coast oysters, meat skewers and crispy tempura. 1 E 27th St between Fifth and Madison Aves (212-447-7529)

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