Passing The Bar: Downtown Polynesian

TIKI CULTURE IS
synonymous with balmy climes—cue the sound of waves breaking, toes
buried in sand and frothy, fruity drinks garnished with a colorful
toothpick parasol. In other words: paradise.

That being said, tiki bars
not actually located in paradise (wherever that is) habitually cater to
dreams of escapism and, for the most part, try to create an experience
that struggles to rise above kitsch.

Not so at the Lower East Side’s Painkiller, where
pedigreed mixologists Richard Boccato and Guissepe Gonzalez are trying
to change the game. (Collectively, these guys have worked at such
cocktail temples as Milk & Honey, The Clover Club, Flatiron Lounge
and Little Branch.)

While
you’ll find skull-shaped shot glasses, a deep list of classic tiki
drinks and, yes, various incarnations of busty island women, that’s
about where the similarities between the old and the new end.

With this latest venture,
the owners of Dutch Kills in Long Island City have given tiki a
makeover, la ZIP Code 10002.

The result is a mash-up of this city’s vibrant booze
culture, tempered by an obsession with tiki-style cocktails (the owners
took a multi-national tour of tiki bars before opening Painkiller) and
New York pride.

“We’re
keeping things on the island of Manhattan, not escaping to the island
of Oahu,” Boccato, who is a Brooklyn native, is fond of saying.

And while you may (or may
not) agree that Manhattan is paradise, the New York influence at
Painkiller reads loud and clear. Think exposed brick paired with thatch
and bamboo; The Ramones on the radio instead of Don Ho; a list of
scorpion bowl drinks named after ’70s New York street gangs and original
graffiti pieces by Joshua Ivory, Tich TM7 and NOC 167 OTB (who coined
the term “style wars”).

And how about those drinks. Shaken, stirred or simply poured over
shaved ice, every cocktail on the Painkiller menu is served in tiki
glassware and garnished in the traditional tiki style, which will please
both the classicists (pineapple wedges, maraschino cherries!) and the
ladies (cute factor).

But keep in mind that these are serious cocktail masters diving
into tiki culture, no holds barred. Those icy piña coladas poured like
Slurpees from a giant, churning vat? They’ve got nothing on the lovingly
crafted one served here.

Also, it’s not uncommon for a drink to have upwards of three
types of booze—the Inglorious Bastard, a variation of the classic tiki
drink the Suffering Bastard, is a half-ounce each of 151 Demerara,
Cachaca, Coruba and Rhum Agricole. So drink thoughtfully, not quickly.
If need be, grab a free hot dog to sop up the excess.

The Painkiller logo is a
swizzle stick and a bar spoon, which are a mixologist’s primary tools,
skewering a tiki mask in an X-shape, with the letters “P, K” and “N, Y”
filling the horizontal and vertical quadrants, respectively. It’s a
direct reference to the New York Hard Core logo Boccato saw around town
as a youth.

It’s
fitting. In other circles—say, a guerilla supper club—the passion these
guys have might be too sweetly referred to as love. Here, it’s just
hardcore.

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PAINKILLER
49 Essex St. (at Grand St.), 212-777-TIKI.