(Hard) Liquor-free libations

Spur Tree | Dark 'n' Stormy

Ideally, in a dark 'n' stormy you'll see stiff rum paired with spicy ginger beer. But sleek, Caribbean-themed haunt Spur Tree's lack of a full liquor license requires a creative runaround, resulting in oddballs like the "sorreltini," made with dried hibiscus flowers. For the ersatz dark and stormy, this sleek Lower East Side new(ish)comer substitutes rum with soju, a Korean spirit fashioned from fermented rice—like vodka's lower-rent cousin. Thankfully, the homemade ginger beer is sensationally bracing. ($8)

Drinkability: 2 stars (out of 5). Hmm…perhaps rum would be a better bet. Though the ginger beer is zesty as all get-out, it barely masks the soju's notes of low-grade auto fuel.

Spur Tree (76 Orchard St., 212-477-9977)