City Bar, Lenox Hotel, Boston

You know this is a good sign, right? I don't usually do much enhancing on my photos but did turn this one into black and white.

But on to the report on The City Bar, 61 Exeter Street, Boston. When we first walk into City Bar on a Wednesday night, it is jam packed with 30-somethings. Hostess tells us it’s a private party that should be breaking up soon. So we swim through the crowd towards the bar getting these dismayed looks from men who will barely move an inch to let us pass even after we say “Excuse me.”

Man, oh, man. It was just hours after I read the suggested maximum daily intake strong spirits is 1.5 ounces and the disclaimer that you cannot save up your servings for the weekend and I get the big gulp manhattan. Come on, it’s prepared it a large iced tea sized glass; what else can you call it? It’s binge drinking any way you look at it. But folks, the manhattan on the menu lists Old Overholt Rye and sweet vermouth as the ingredients so how can I quibble. There are even a few (two?) non-vodka martinis but there are the usual chocolate martini type concoctions in abundance.

No snaps of the food which is a shame. I get yakking with my friend and get presented with the fig/duck flatbread and all that silly stuff is forgotten. This just might be the best cacaphony of flavor (sweet fig, salty duck) and texture (gooey fig and chewy duck) that I've had in a while (until two nights later when I get the polenta with wild mushrooms from Tavalo in Dorchester (not even a photo of the cocktail from that outing). Prices are reasonable for the 'hood ($11-12 cocktails and appetizers were about the same.