The Frozen Cosmo at Long Island Bar

As futuristic as New Yorkers are, they have a strong sense of nostalgia and are quick to reawaken the past before it is lost to history. The same might be said of the restaurant and bar scene, where old haunts are being revived left and right. Examples include the storied Hemingway hangout Minetta Tavern and the boisterous Minton's Playhouse. Toby Cecchini's retrofitted bar, which replaces the Long Island Restaurant, a 1960s greasy spoon, is rooted in a revivalist attitude. The cocktail vet, however, does more than just unearth old bones; he gives the joint flesh and blood, creating a totally new person.

• DRINK THIS: A cocktail that was expertly made. The menu replaces the tortas that used to fuel the local blue-collar workers with Cecchini's well honed list of six staple drinks ($12). Cecchini, a real bartender's bartender, is somewhat of a legend in the cocktail-drinking community; in addition to inventing the modern Cosmo at the Odeon in 1987, he also owned and operated the popular bar Passerby until it closed in 2008. Such skills are on display in two cocktails: a tart gimlet with a scorching kick from ginger sliced into the lime cordial, and a stinging but balanced rye-and-Campari Boulevardier.

• GOOD FOR: A buzzy throwback to the 1950s. Even the faded cigarette burns that still cheetah-spot the dazzling Art Deco bar have been kept, along with the original interior's terrazzo floors, Formica walls, and renowned signage. The vinyl barstools, three of which memorialize past owners Emma Sullivan, Pepita, and Maruja Fernandez, are one example of how recent additions evoke the original room.

• THE CLINCHER: A far cry from the days when wharfies went to this corner place for hair-of-the-dog cure-alls, the compact barroom is a thinking man's watering hole with Cecchini's literary attention to detail and a smart, bespectacled audience reading New Yorker stories. Cecchini is as comfortable behind the bar as the diner's lit-up marquee is on that Cobble Hill corner, so it's a classy comeback for both the neighborhood landmark and Cecchini. We wish you both a warm welcome back.

Address: 110 Atlantic AveBrooklyn11201

Phone: 718-625-8908
Price: Average cocktail: $12. MC, V
Opening hours: Mon–Thu, Sun 5:30pm-midnight; Fri, Sat 5:30pm-2am