Best New Restaurants 2015: #14, Mr. Flamingo

By Mark Pupo | Photography by Dave Gillespie

When I’ve had my fill of the fried chicken at Bar Fancy, I hightail it a couple of blocks north to this other cool new bar-restaurant hybrid. Chef Fan Zhang, a disciple of the nouveau Asian fusion pioneered by DaiLo’s Nick Liu (they cooked together at the Niagara Street Café), serves small plates like baked oysters loaded with lobster-hollandaise, pickled celery and tobiko; roasted golden beets with silken, à la minute burrata; and shimeji mushroom risotto. The cooking is great, but the even bigger draw is the cocktails. Bartender Dan Tavares is a whiz at fizzes and flips, those creamy drinks that are super-trendy once more. My weakness is the Fugazi Sour, a bourbon-citrus concoction laced with walnut bitters, sweetened with a few drops of orgeat syrup and capped with a cloud of egg white foam. It comes in a vintage patterned glass, for the full retro immersion.