Digging through cocktailing's back catalog

Discovering a forgotten classic can completely change your life, especially if it combines the discipline, timing, and power of gymnastics, with the explosive force of karate. Going all Gymkata on cocktails: Rum Club.

From longtime friends whose booze-service has ranged from the culinary cocktailing of Beaker and Flask, to the rock madness of the Doug Fir Lounge, Rum Club combines their skills in an intimate Dashiell Hammettian atmosphere where drinks rescued from the back pages of dusty cocktail books are served in mismatched vintage glassware across a smallish horseshoe bar under a low tongue-and-groove wood-paneled ceiling, and walls papered with birds-of-paradise (so… Phoebe Cates?). Among a list of 'tails that're more recognizable (like an on-the-rocks Rum Club daiquiri with added absinthe, and a "Fancy" John Collins with gin, peach, quinine, and soda) are serious back-catalog numbers like the rarely seen Quarterdeck Cocktail with Black Seal Rum, sweet sherry, Scotch, and orange bitters, and the Chilcano feat. Pisco, lemon, turbinado, bitters, and ginger beer (so… anything that Rupert Grint is drinking at the pub?). And because you can't just drink cocktails made with butterbeer without something in your belly, Rum's rocking an ever-changing chalkboard menu riffing on '50s cocktail-party bites, like beet-pickled eggs, housemade chips, and more substantial options like a peel n' eat shrimp cocktail with citrusy/ spicy sauce, or light egg salad sandos on crustless bacon-jam-shmeared Franz white bread (so… just kidding, that joke only works twice, but otherwise would totally riff on how the British hate the Germans).

While the soft-opening menu is a touch brief, they'll be bringing the goods in full effect over the coming weeks, with a cocktail menu expanding to 13 unique drinks, and special smoked meat nights featuring pork shoulder and ribs, also what'll break if you get anywhere near the pommel horse that seems to appear anytime Johnathan Cabot needs to fight. GYMKATA!!