MidNights Bar is a tucked away spot just off Bedford Avenue in Williamsburg. This slice of Brooklyn has a reputation as the defacto capital of Hipster Town, USA. The proliferation of beards and plaid shirts seen on the streets don’t help much. But that’s a superficial look at the neighborhood. If you look a little deeper you’ll see vibrant mix of the “rough around the edges” Brooklyn, the affluent new comers and small businesses working hard to accommodate them. In steps Midnights, which opened 6 years ago.
I’m a regular at MidNights. Literally, every single meal on their menu is worth a feature. But, we’re talking about cocktails and MidNights “Lime Al De Time” is one that I continue to order. It’s what I get if I come after work and sit at the bar, here with friends, sitting down for dinner with my partner, and everything else in between. Lime All De Time is a reliable as an old friend with perfect timing and great advice.
We sat down with the bar’s co-owner Raffaello Van Couten a lawyer by education and restaurateur by practice to talk about the cocktails origin. As we sit in Mid Night’s corner booth, Raf says the cocktail is a mix of the kitchen and the bar. The eye catching and tasty rim salt is the product of secret recipe from one of the kitchen chefs, “He’s from Tijuana. He had a brown sugar rim dust, but he would not give us the recipe. Only he can make it. We loved the stuff so bad that we…let him make the rim for the chile salt. So it was one part kitchen and one part bar,” Raf tells me.
The cocktail itself stems from the co-owner Dev borderline obsession with Mezcal. Raf says they, “wanted a cocktail that could incorporate tequila, mezcal, but also be simple like a take on a margarita.” The crew created a smokey and complex drink that softens the mezcal and makes it much more approachable. And gentlemen, let me warn you. It’s pink. Its color will be the last thing on your mind once you get a sip of the salted rim and the elixir in the glass.
Lime All The Time.
1/4 oz Pomegranate
1/4 oz Sugar (simple syrup)
1 oz Lime
1 1/2 oz Tequila
1/2 oz MezcalBrown sugar chili salt
