Fine & Rare, Manhattan

What to order: Light as a Feather ($110) is a combination whisky flight/small dish, featuring a trio of Glenfiddich whiskies—the 15-, 18-, and 21-year-old expressions. Each whisky is paired with a pickled quail egg highlighting the flavor of the dram, and finished off with a bowl of cock-a-leekie soup fortified with Glenfiddich, all prepared tableside.

The speakeasy’s secretive, insiders-only nature from Tommy Tardie, who opened its doors in Manhattan’s Murray Hill just last year, is rolling out a small but potent new private menu. Available by request only, the menu offers opulent, eye-catching cocktails and food, along with a selection of rare vintage spirits.

The most exciting of the three private-menu cocktails is the White Star Line ($80). Named after the shipping company that operated the Titanic, it’s only fitting that the drink sports a Champagne meringue “iceberg” in its center, along with a dusting of gold flakes—perhaps a tribute to the well-heeled passengers on the ill-fated cruise. Made with Appleton 21 Year Old rum and 25 Year Old Delord Bas-Armagnac—along with fresh-squeezed grapefruit and lemon juice and a house-made cinnamon, orange, and lemon oleosaccharum—it’s a fascinating take on a tropical cocktail that mixes summer and winter flavors.

For fans of vintage spirits, a quartet of rare American whiskeys, distilled from the 1940s to the ’60s, will be available by the pour. The roster will change as new bottles become available and others get drained, but the current lineup is Old Grand Dad 6-year-old bourbon bottled in 1963 ($76/ounce); I.W. Harper 7-year-old bourbon bottled in 1968 ($55); Kentucky Tavern 6-year-old bourbon bottled in 1953 ($76); and, most intriguingly, a rye from the famed bourbon distillery Four Roses, bottled in the 1940s ($131). These whiskeys may not match the sophistication of today’s extra-aged small-batch fare, but they’re delicious in their own right—and it’s a rare opportunity to drink the actual booze our grandparents may have had 50, 60, or even 70 years ago.

Fine & Rare’s secret menu is available starting March 5. No code words or elaborate hand signals are required—simply asking for it will do the trick.

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Light as a Feather cocktail

Photo: Courtesy Fine & Rare

White Star Line cocktail

Photo: Courtesy Fine & Rare

Surf & Turf dish

Photo: Courtesy Fine & Rare

Porcini Chocolate dish

Photo: Courtesy Fine & Rare

From Russia with Love cocktail

Photo: Courtesy Fine & Rare