Rum House

Address: 228 West 47th Street, in the Edison Hotel , New York, NY, 10036, United States
Tel: +1 646-490-6924
Website: view Rum House’s website
Style: Hotel bar

Review

The Rum House is an example of urban renewal in action; this Ward III-helmed spot in the formerly seedy Edison Hotel reboots a piano bar that had been showing its age. The newly-sparkling Rum House is a welcoming, fun room where one feels that anything can happen. The bartenders crack wise, the piano player sets the mood with standards (and everything from Sinatra to the Ramones blasts when he's on his break), and the drinks that cross the copper-topped bar are top-notch.

The menu emphasizes the classics, particularly rum and whiskey drinks, and offers choices of base spirit for Old-Fashioneds and Manhattans. Originals such as the George Cohan were spectacular, with bourbon, Cocchi Americano, bitters, and an egg white creating a complex, smooth, spicy melange. The Rum Old-Fashioned matched it in elegance, though; the dark Cruzan 5 Year's caramel-vanilla nose shone through, and I wished for a Bogie-style felt fedora.

Late at night, one well-dressed gentleman with salt-and-pepper hair found himself in prolonged amorous embrace with a fire extinguisher, but after it was explained to him that his date was in fact an inanimate object, he settled in at the end of the bar for a few more drinks without a trace of embarrassment. We can't guarantee that you'll score with the required safety equipment, but retro-sophisticated fun can be easily had in Times Square.