Remember Not Remembering the Eighties?

As remarkable as the speed of technological innovation is in our present day and age, it is nowhere near as breakneck as the pace at which fancy cocktails have progressed over the last several years. After spending the early-to-mid-aughts firmly rooted in the aesthetics and paraphernalia of speakeasies and other pre-Prohibition motifs — austere Old Fashioneds and Corpse Revivers and whatnot — the cocktail scene finally began moving forward, decades at a time. There was tiki — a look that is admittedly only just now peaking outside of NY and SF — with its oceans of juice and rum. And then, for a brief moment, the baroque grotesqueries of the sixties and seventies, with refined Long Island Iced Teas and upscaled fruit-packed Old Fashioneds and lots of brass and ferns.

Now — so soon! — we have already arrived back at the eighties, judging by this flyer and promo for Pouring Ribbons, one of the more forward-thinking cocktail bars in New York City.

We unapologetically love the 80’s. How could you not appreciate the decade that gave us adventures like The Goonies, any band the chance to have at least one solid hit, and the cinematic promise of true love to any nerd that ever pined after the most popular babe in school? If only the cocktails had followed suit with an adequate level of awesomeness. Well, now we get the best of everything, because we’re grown-ups that don’t have to be embarrassed at rocking out to Johnny Hates Jazz, and we also know how to make a damned tasty drink. So dust off those pastels (or, you know, just buy something new at American Apparel) and join us on February 8th for the first of a monthly event that seeks to prove that an Appletini can be rad, a Slippery Nipple can actually be sexy, a Pink Squirrel can be anything other than gross…you get the idea. Neon-lit optimism is our noble goal and simply embracing the fun of one of our favorite periods in pop-culture history.

At this rate, kids who were born in the late nineties should be old enough to drink just in time to put down “reinvigorated” versions of the Cosmopolitans their parents drank when they were in their twenties, for only three times the price. Time is a flat coaster after all.

Photo by Emily Hager