Bathed and Infused Cocktails at the LINQ
Discovering 3535's Crafty Cocktails at the LINQ Hotel & Casino
Manhattan
Folks seeking a vastly different type of bar experience will find it at 3535 inside The LINQ Hotel & Casino. Where else can you down a Skittle shot, Sriracha-infused tequila and beef jerky-flavored Jack Daniel’s Tennessee whiskey? And that’s just the tip of 3535’s diamond-shaped ice cube.
Thomas McNally, the resort’s beverage operation manager, heads a team that infuses fresh fruit, herbs, spices and just about anything else you could find in a refrigerator or pantry—including blue cheese, butternut squash and Nutella—into jugs of bourbon, vodka, rum and tequila to create the bar’s 35 distinctive cocktails. The bar’s creative spirits include espresso bean-infused Maker’s Mark and banana clove-infused Zaya rum. “Everything is fresh,” McNally explains. “There are no artificial flavors. We use cloves, actual mint Oreo cookies, fresh fruit and pure vanilla bean, not substitutes.”
Barbecue Bloody Mary
A simple twist to a classic morning cocktail, this ultimate hangover helper has some smoky BBQ sauce for bite and a little maple bacon to boot. Let it kick-start your morning.
EXPERIMENTATION AND DISCOVERY ARE AT THE HEART OF 3535—WHERE UNIQUE COCKTAILS SURPRISE WITH EVERY SIP.
The ambitious beverage program serves the drinks in half- or full-size portions, as shots or in flights—consisting of three 2-ounce pours—while barrel-aged cocktails are served over diamond-shaped ice cubes.
Wat-A-Pear
This “very light, very refreshing” cocktail combines watermelon and rosemary-infused Tito’s Handmade Vodka with St-Germain elderflower liqueur and fresh watermelon juice. “It’s our most popular cocktail, and a great drink to start off with,” McNally admits.
McNally says the opportunity to do something inventive at 3535 has been rewarding. “We see people coming back more than once,” he says. “With so many drink options on the menu, it can be a different experience every time.”
Pig Newton
Everyone loves bacon, so why not in a cocktail. That was McNally’s logic behind this conversation starter—a mix of anchoand bacon-infused Jim Beam, fig-infused Jack Daniel’s Tennessee Honey, sweet vermouth and orange bitters, topped with a smoked-bacon salt rim.
Thin Mint
For fans of Girl Scout cookies, this is a must taste. McNally nailed it right down to the Oreo cookie crumble on the rim, along with his combo of crème de menthe, crème de cacao and mint-Oreo-infused Skyy vodka with a splash of cream. “It’s a twist on the original grasshopper,” he explains.
