"If your natural charms have failed to convince your date that you’re alluring and mysterious, make a reservation at Sloane’s. From the entrance of the Manner Hotel in Soho, you’ll be escorted to the second floor. There, behind an easy-to-miss door, you’ll find a dramatic waterfall chandelier, colorful patterned rugs, sultry jazz, and spherical crystal table lamps, giving off the kind of dim lighting that makes everyone look good. Sloane’s feels lush and glamorous, splashed in jewel-tone reds, deep greens, and gold, like you’re drinking inside an antique gilded lacquer box. Cocktails are $24, but good, and strong enough that just one might do it for you. Though subtle, the house dirty martini is one of the most interesting versions of the drink we’ve tried in a while. For a slightly sweeter gin cocktail, look to the tart and floral London Calling, which is appealingly murky, and comes garnished with a caperberry. The menu of small bites here is short (sibling restaurant The Otter, downstairs, is where you’re meant to eat dinner), but it’s fun. The main attraction is the chicken nuggets, which, at $18 for six pieces, would be irritating if they weren’t so well made. photo credit: Alex Staniloff photo credit: Alex Staniloff photo credit: Alex Staniloff Food Rundown Dirty Martini The dirty martini tastes like you’re leveraging experimental AR beverage tech to experience olives in a new dimension, thanks to the inclusion of olive leaf gin. The result is smooth and vegetal, and not overwhelmed by brine. (You can upgrade to caviar olives for a mere $35, a casual 150% of the price of the drink itself.) photo credit: Yudi Ela Six-Piece Chicken Nuggets These achieve a near-perfect rendition of crisp McNuggets breading. The best evidence that they’re not the genuine article is that they’re uniformly round, not bell, ball, boot, and bowtie-shaped. They arrive with a trio of sauces: a peachy sweet and sour, BBQ, and a numbing, anchovy-tasting sichuan peppercorn, served in a doll-sized porcelain teacup." - Molly Fitzpatrick
