Dan's Papers - November 2, 2007

At the majority of bars and cocktail lounges in Manhattan one can choose from a wide selection of drinks, ranging from excellent vintage wines to high-end sake and delicious martinis. Groups with mixed preferences are easily pleased by this wide selection. However, if you want a more memorable experience, a high quality specialized selection and an expert bartender, you should head to a niche bar. Try a place that only sells wine from South Africa, only pours beers from Austria or only serves specialty homemade cocktails.

A good start for a specialized selection is the newly opened Xai Xai (pronounced shy shy), a South African wine bar in Hell's Kitchen. Almost all of the 100 choices can be ordered by the glass, quartino or bottle and the expert pourers here can explain each offering in detail. If wine alone doesn't convince you to stop by, perhaps the bar's rustic décor will. Wood dominates here as tree-like pillars and arches welcome at the entrance and white birch adorns the booths and tables. If you are going for a pre-dinner cocktail the small plates including sandwiches, meat pies and cheese assortments will keep that hunger at bay.

If Italian wines are your weakness, try Il Posto Accanto down in the East Village. They specialize in some of the tastiest wines from all regions of Italy and the bartenders/sommeliers here seem perversely obsessed with all of their selections. They relish the deep flavors of some wines and the surprising nuttiness of others. Ask to sample some and they will pour you tastes until you find one you love. Again if you get a bit peckish, they offer excellent snacks from the same kitchen as Il Bagatto, the ever-packed restaurant next door.

For those who prefer hops to tannins, take a quick walk down to the Lower East Side's newest niche bar, Café Katja. The small 25-seat bar and restaurant offers excellent Austrian brews and specialties. Beers include a large variety of pilsners, malts and white ales both on draft and in the case of rare finds, in bottles. The menu includes homemade pickles, spaetzle, goulash, homemade bratwurst and the requisite mustard and pretzels. If you have a mixed group that includes non-beer lovers, Café Katja also has Austrian themed cocktails like spiked cider, vodka with elderflower infusions and gin with bitters and creme de violette.

The next two specialized bars will be a better fit for the beginning of a classy evening. For high-end delicious - shall I say artisanal - cocktails, head to the Village's swanky Pegu Club. The people behind the business as well as behind the bar see mixing cocktails as an art form, so don't be surprised at the amount of care that goes into each drink. They can make your favorite cocktail, but I highly recommend trying one of their innovative concoctions. I also recommend sitting at the bar as opposed to at the lovely soft booths. Your service will be faster, and you can watch the magic behind the bar. The prices will still be steep (about $12-$18 per drink), but the quality merits the expense.

If you consider brandy, whiskey and single malts more deserving of your pre-dinner cocktail dollar, try the Brandy Library in Tribeca. Walking in here is like entering the ultimate civilized gentlemen's club complete with green leather chairs and banquettes, wood paneled walls, endless shelves filled with bottles of liquor and a bar populated with men in suits sipping tumblers of expensive cognac. As its moniker would suggest, the Brandy Library offers one of the most extensive top shelf brandy menus in the city. If you don't already have a favorite scotch or cocktail, the bartenders here really know their stuff and won't gouge you on the price. And like the other niche venues on this list, Brandy Library offers an assortment of delicious small dishes including proscuitto-wrapped figs, mini pizzas and cognac-cured foie gras.

So if you only go to the experts when you shop and only dine at restaurants focused on one cuisine, try drinking at establishments that are known for a certain expertise.