The Ladies’ Room, at least in name, calls to mind an everlasting ladies’ night, designed to draw women into a meat-market bar scene with discounted drinks. But that’s far from what Fat Rice chefs Abraham Conlon and Adrienne Lo have delivered with their new cocktail lounge in the restaurant’s former waiting room—they’re interested in a more international flavor of sleaze. The bar is inspired by the gambling dens of Macau’s red-light district a century ago, places where hookers and drugs were easy to come by. (Both are in short supply here, but there are playing cards on the tables in case you’re determined to gamble.)
All those house-made liqueurs that make appearances in the cocktails are also available as a tasting flight, which is well worth it just to appreciate the chartreuse, which smells like chamomile and tastes of jasmine and herbs. The velvety creme de cassis is the essence of black currants, a revelation to anyone who’s only had the bottom-shelf variety.
