First post, first review!

Happy Friday! For my first entry I wanted to share a review for those looking for a new bar to try up here in the Upper East Side. As those who have lived in the upper 90's know the past year has shown some major improvements in the bar scene thanks to the owners of Earl's Beer and Cheese, ABV, Vinyl and Kaia. Each specializing in their own drink types, Earl's being the place for beer and ABV, Vinyl and Kaia all for wine, the one piece missing was a cocktail place. Well thanks to The Guthrie Inn we now have a cocktail place and it is conveniently located right next to Earl's. For those of us at Mt. Sinai this may be a reason to never leave "the bubble".

I'm going to preface this post by saying this venture was for a first date so I may be missing some details of the place as I was trying to not embarrass myself more than assess my surroundings. Walking into The Guthrie Inn it looks like a classy version of Earl's. My favorite deer wallpaper (the same one as in Parks and Rec intro!) is missing, and instead of a deer's head hanging on the wall you have a chandelier hanging from the ceiling. You are no longer cramped into long benches for tables but big booths and instead of a kitchen in the back there is additional seating in the form of large U shaped booth (may get tricky once it starts to get crowded).The original plan for the evening had been to go grab beers at Earl's since both of us agreed we were beer people, but as usual it was too busy. Upon approaching the bar we were handed a long list of cocktails ranging from classic drinks like Sidecars and Moscow Mules to some of their own concoctions like a "Stirred and Boozy". Being in the mood for beer still we chose to stick with their bottled beers. The only have 2 available being a cocktail place so it made our decision fairly easy. Being in date mode I can't remember the specific name of the beer but we started with their "farmers ale". Still being new and somewhat unheard of there was actually room to sit and so we grabbed the booth in the back. Luckily we were able to have the whole booth to ourselves the for the whole time. The lighting was a little dim (maybe a good thing for a date) and music slightly loud but overall it was a nice place to sit and talk for a while. Following the first round of beer we gave the other bottle a try, this one was a belgium ale that tasted a lot like a light version of Guinness, my favorite of the two and recommendation if you are going to drink the beer here. The date was going well up to this point so we decided to get one more round but this time venture into cocktails. I chose a moscow mule knowing it is one of my new favorite drinks and my date followed my lead and had one as well. I will definitely be returning for these! The drink only consists of three ingredients, ginger beer, vodka and lime juice but they are delish! I'm so glad there is finally a place close by to have a good Mule.

I've learned after three drinks its probably best to end a first date here so we ended the evening before too many cocktails were consumed, after all it was only Thursday. I must say though after looking at the menu I will definitely be returning here. Being across the street from me I have no excuse, but even those who do not live in the UES I recommend trekking up here to check it out. Ive added a link to the Time Out NY review as well.http://www.timeout.com/newyork/the-feed-blog/the-feed-first-look-the-guthrie-inn Cheers!