Often when a cocktail bar serves food, the drinks or the grub stands out. Rare is the joint that offers both done equally well. At this New Orleans–inspired Williamsburg watering hole in the old Fatty ’Cue space, both menus are thoughtfully appointed, with dangerously drinkable cocktails and chiefly bayou bites designed for sharing, though you may not want to.
ORDER THIS: On-draft cocktails created by Nico de Soto (Mace, Paris’s Experimental Cocktail Club) add unexpected twists to textbook classics. Using all house-made syrups and custom-infused liquors, the Bamboo Sazerac ($12) blends tequila and absinthe with earthy black-tea bitters in a twee 1930s glass, while the generous Loosie’s Cup ($12) combines custom Pimm’s with crisp, summery cucumber juice. And the rummy frozen daiquiri ($11) gets a savory-sweet base courtesy of roasted plantains (seriously) with a brightening pop of lime and green tea.
GOOD FOR: Ending the night. The kitchen churns out just the kind of booze-sopping Louisiana-meets-Brooklyn eats you’ll be happy you wolfed down when morning breaks, including a heaping shrimp po’-boy sandwich ($13) and crisp-edged slips of blackened catfish nestled inside lettuce cups ($12). The wittily named, golden-brown Oysters Bloomberg ($9) stuffs Blue Point half shells with Cajun-spiced bread crumbs, Herbsaint butter and Parmesan.
THE CLINCHER: Aside from the menus’ Creole accents, nods to N’awlins are elegantly subtle—a mint-julep cup filled with toothbrushes on the bathroom sink, the occasional French rap song popping up on the bar’s soundtrack. The rest of the space is more Scandinavian-sleek, all white walls, dark woods and geometric lines. That’s not the only surprise here—Loosie Rouge is a destination bar disguised as a neighborhood joint, a place you can easily pop into but also worth a journey over the bridge. Beats a flight to Louisiana.