Critics’ choice

Beet sangria with orange salt at Tailor

Best restaurant you were sick of before it opened
Tailor
Months of breathless posts on the food blogs numbed us to Sam Mason’s savory-sweet experiment long before it opened—ages after he promised. So upon Tailor’s Soho unveiling, pundits anticipated with schadenfreude that Mason would tumble from his perch. But skeptics became believers after nibbling pork belly with miso butterscotch and sipping Eben Freeman’s chem-class cocktails. The Waylon features bourbon and smoked Coke, while his “solid” concoctions blur the line between appetizer and aperitif: A tart Ramos gin fizz is reconstituted as a poofy marshmallow, and a White Russian becomes booze-infused Rice Krispies swimming in milk. It’s snap, crackle, genius.

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