Inside Woodson & Ford

Last night we made our way into the bastion of secrecy that is Woodson & Ford. There was some blog pandemonium a couple weeks ago when Boozy NYC broke the story of its existence, and it does indeed seem to be a tightly run ship. It's down a set of nondescript metal stairs near the corner of Bleecker and Broadway, past a bouncer requesting a party-specific password, and into a comfy underground lounge that we felt like a jerk for photographing, but we caved and took this terrible photo of the bartender. Perfect.

Decor: Woodsy, WASPy and slightly broken-in, with taxidermy (deer heads, foxes, wolves) on the walls, dimpled and crackling leather armchairs and sofas on old rugs, paintings on the walls and lots of space—the whole place is like a rabbit warren of living rooms.

Drinks: The cocktail menus come pasted inside old-fashioned hardcover books, which makes you go "oh neat" and then immediately "wait, this is dumb." If the menu section in the book isn't bookmarked, you end up flipping through the book and feeling like an idiot, especially since some books don't have menus in them but are check-holders instead? Or maybe we just didn't get it. But the cocktails themselves were phenomenal. Think Clover Club-esque (and apparently the bartenders were trained at PDT?), with similar wait times. A $12 cocktail that's delicious enough to warrant its price also takes at least 10 minutes to make (hand-cracked ice, swizzled syrups, muddled herbs), and although the bartender was handsome and fun to watch, that's still quite a while to wait for a drink. We particularly liked the Clara Bow: bourbon, lemon, mint, St. Germain liquor and grenadine, in a rounded, goblet-style martini glass.

Getting in: Be invited by someone throwing a private party, or get in touch with them at drinksat6.com. Good luck.