Mace

"Walk a few steps down Avenue C and you’ll arrive at Mace, which has the benefit of being a new-ish East Village cocktail bar your date probably hasn’t already been to 27 times." - katherine lewin

"If you want something a little fancier after Esperanto, try Mace. It’s a little bar a few doors down where they take their drinks very seriously. The cocktails here have ingredients like rooibos, masala, and wasabi salt - and this should provide topics for conversation if you’re on a first date and have already discussed such things as siblings, college majors, and your dreams from the previous night. This bar also isn’t as pretentious as it sounds, and, most importantly, it’ll take you less than thirty seconds to get here from Esperanto." - bryan kim

"East Village chill cocktail destination Mace is moving to a slightly bigger space at 505 East 12th St., between Avenues A and B. Owners Greg Boehm, Jeannette Kaczorowski, and Nico de Soto are bringing their bar, located at 649 East Ninth St. since 2015, to a new space with 61 seats, adding about 20 more seats from the original. For the re-opening drink menu, Mace is bringing back 12 of the most popular cocktails from throughout the years, including the eponymous “Mace” cocktail, made with Aperol, aquavit, beet juice, orange acid, a Thai coconut cordial, and mace mist. Other drinks incorporate lavender, wasabi, curry leaves, and kimchi. Food comes from chef Nick Sorrentino, the director of culinary operations at Cocktail Kingdom, the cocktail and bar company that the Mace team is part of. It will be a menu of bar snacks with flavors inspired by the drinks. The menu is still being finalized. Boehm and de Soto opened Mace in 2015 as a bar with a lineup of 12 cocktails inspired by flavors from around the world. Boehm, an owner at Boilermaker, and de Soto rose to cocktail fame after working at all three international locations of Experimental Cocktail Club, remaining one of NYC’s top mixologists. Mace will close on Ninth St. after service on March 2 and will open in the new location on March 7. The original Mace location will be turned into a new bar concept from the team, with details to come, so stay tuned for updates." - Kayla Kumari Upadhyaya

"Mace is a stylish but low-key cocktail bar that experiments with ingredients like scotch infused with shiitake mushrooms, basil seeds, and bee pollen. Its signature, namesake cocktail blends Aperol, aquavit, beet juice, orange acid, a Thai coconut cordial, and spicy mace mist." - Kayla Kumari Upadhyaya, Serena Dai

"Cocktail lovers can find expertly made drinks with experimental ingredients running from pink peppercorn to banana peel at Mace. The low-key drink destination comes from a team who ran acclaimed spots like Experimental Cocktail Clyb and Boilermaker. Try the eponymous “mace” cocktail, made with Aperol, aquavit, beet juice, orange acid, a Thai coconut cordial, and mace mist." - Alexandra Ilyashov