The Standard Hotel’s barkeep Cory Mason serves up twists on classic drinks.
In a compendium of things that make life worth living, a cold, well-crafted cocktail on a hot summer day makes the short list. On a recent sun-drenched July afternoon, my search for something beyond the usual gin and tonics, daiquiris and mojitos took me to the heart of Manhattan’s Meatpacking District where, under an old sign hawking frozen oxtails, tripe, beef livers and pork tenders, I stood gaping up at the monumental Standard Hotel. Nestled next to the lobby, beneath the massive concrete stilts that lift the open-book shaped bulk of the hotel over the High Line park and ultimately the Hudson itself, rests the Living Room, the Standard’s newly opened bar where 28-year-old Cory Mason is mixing some of the freshest, most inventive, and satisfying cocktails of the summer. – From WSJ