I love well-crafted, high quality, and fancy cocktails. I prefer cocktails over beer, wine, and even bubbly. The whole history, creativity, and art of making cocktails are fascinating to me. I attended a fun event at a furniture showroom in SoHo, a mixology class! At the event, they had two mixologists (a.k.a. bartenders), teaching us all about cocktails, while whipping up some tasty cocktails for us to drink. It was quite a fun event! At the end of the event, we asked them which bar was their favorite one in NYC. They had a few favorites, but the number one choice was Mace. I had my eye on Mace for a while, but haven’t had the chance to visit them…now that we know it was an awesome spot to get some amazing cocktails, we had to go!
The inside was quite small, but to my surprise, they used to be even smaller… They have recently moved to this new location, with a bit more space. With its popularity, their space gets filled up quick!
We got a couple of small bites to go with our drinks. We ordered Potato Crips ($5) and Spiced Nuts ($6). The potato crisps were basically potato chips, but nothing like regular chips you get from your grocery store. This one was obviously made with love and care, so tasty! It was accompanied by buttermilk jalapeño ranch, which was delicious! The nuts were good too, very addictive, and went great with their cocktails.
Out of hundreds of bars in NYC, what differentiate this spot from others? Well, they offer “spice-themed” cocktails. That’s right, the name “mace” is not something you carry in your purse in case you have to protect yourself against some dangerous weirdos. But, here, it refers to a spice called mace, a part of nutmeg that is. I loved their menu, with spices stealing all the spotlight. Everything else plays the supporting role to the main spice here.
The first drink we tried was Thai Chili ($15), made with gin, cucumber, Bird’s Eye chili tincture, lime, elderflower liqueur, egg white. Its flavor profile was “spicy + bright” and came all dressed up with a bright chili pepper on the side. It certainly had nice kick to it, but not overwhelming. Elegantly spicy, if that makes sense. The egg white was creamy and velvety, calming down the spicy flavor to a milder, relaxing flavor. Nicely done!
The second one we tried was Ghost Chili ($16), made with white cocoa fat-washed aquavit, passionfruit purée, coconut milk, ghost chili tincture, egg. This one was indicated as “Tropical + Spicy” and they were right. With passionfruit and coconut flavor, it certainly was tropical! Even though this one also had some kick to it, but much sweeter than Thai Chili. It was almost like a spiced coconut milk. I really liked it.
The last one we tried was Ginger ($15), made with marshmallow milk-washed bourbon, carrot acid, ginger-maple syrup, cider. Just by reading its ingredients, I felt as if we’ve become a bit fancier than when we walked in the bar… LOL. It had one large ice cube, super clear, beautifully made ice cube. It was nice and strong, with sharpness from ginger. A bit of sweetness that went great with the ginger flavor. Balanced, high quality, wonderful drink.
Their drinks are a bit pricy, but you get amazing cocktails of the highest quality. I would love to try all of their drinks! So interesting and creative, tasty and innovative. They will raise your appreciation level for cocktails higher. The staffs here were really nice and friendly, we had a good time here. Can’t wait to visit them again! If you want some fine crafted cocktails, you know where to go!
Mace – 505 E 12th St, New York, NY 10009