We hadn’t done elegance in a while so decided to treat ourselves to a cocktail hour on Saturday night. I donned a shirt with a collar and long pants that required a belt, then at 5:30 Bonnie and I rendezvoused with our friend and cocktail consultant, the redoubtable David Downing.
Beforehand, though, we had to select a cocktail for this edition of Friday Booze Fight. Having previously done Manhattans, Old-Fashioneds and straight bourbon, I leaned toward something lighter and brighter, and hit upon the cosmopolitan. Bonnie informed me, with a wry grin, that the cosmo is, ahem, a womans’ drink, a favorite among the gal pals on Sex and the City.
I almost switched, but thought, “No. Let me stake a cosmo claim for hetero, cisgender males. I don’t care if the drink is pink. I like vodka. Not as much as Bud Light, but still … I like cranberry juice — sort of — and lime juice. I’m cointreau-curious. Bottoms up!”
We chose two St. Pete establishments to minimize driving: Rococo Steak, which is its own upscale outpost in downtown St. Pete, and Juno & the Peacock, a three-month-old concept on Beach Drive that has generated considerable buzz.
ROCOCO STEAK
Rococo, which occupies a large former YWCA building, looks resplendent at night. As we walked past the pillars to the front entrance at 6:15, two gentleman opened the doors for us.
We took seats at the corner of the restaurant’s small bar, which is separate from the dining room. The space was quiet, at least as restaurant bars go. Our charming bartender, Colleen, wasn’t terribly busy, so we had had time to kibbitz. She informed us that not all cosmopolitans are the same, and that her recipe includes vodka, cointreau, cranberry and lime juices, garnished with an orange peel.
Appetizers were certainly in order for our Saturday cocktail hour. From the Happy Hour menu, we selected Meatballs ($10) and housemade Rococo Chips ($8), with a bleu cheese sauce. Our cosmo cost $16.
Appearance
Served in a martini glass, the cosmopolitan was an alluring dusty pink, fairly begging to be sipped.
Three medium-sized meatballs came in a bowl with brown sauce and a couple pieces of crostini. The chips were drizzled with sauce.
Texture and Taste
Before I took my first-ever sip of a cosmpolitan, I cleansed my palate with a 3 Daughters Rod Bender Red Ale ($6). I picked up the martini glass with care, protruded a pinkie for effect, and drank. … Quite tasty. I particularly liked Colleen’s artful bend of sweetness and tartness — which added up to refreshing.
Unlike the brown-liquor drinks that have appeared in this column, the cosmo masked its liquor taste. My guess is that’s part of the point.
The tender meatballs were accented by a sweetish sauce that made the flavor pop. We all complimented the potato chips, which didn’t try to be anything other than potato chips, and got a nice boost from the bleu cheese. We wished there were more. It didn’t take much effort for three adults to lay waste to our appetizers. And our drinks. We were out in less than an hour. Onward to …
JUNO & THE PEACOCK
At 7:15, we found a parking spot right around the corner on 5th Avenue North. Let me pause here to say that miracles come in many forms. Juno & the Peacock — its name comes from an Aesop’s Fable — was lit, man. The large dining room was packed, every seat at the bar taken. I think we commandeered the last available high-top near the bar.
A random server stopped by and put a glass of white wine in front of each of us. “Complimentary,” he said, smiled, then moved on. A gaggle of service employees hustled to and fro, whizzing by our table. We ordered a Juno Cosmpolitan ($16) and I got a Mastry’s Brewing Breezy Tropical Blonde ($8) as a palate cleanser. For appetizers, we chose Crispy Brussels ($15) and Spinach-Gouda Mornay ($12).
Our server, Tiffany, returned with the drinks within a couple of minutes. I don’t know how she did it.
Appearance
This cosmo came in a champagne coupe (aka glass). It was a bit lighter in color and frothier than the one at Rococo, and had a lemon twist.
I raised a suspicious eyebrow at the bright orange sauce that accompanied the Brussels sprouts.
Texture and Taste
This cosmo was fruitier and sweeter than its counterpart. There wasn’t much tang, and it had a slightly syrupy texture. I couldn’t detect much in the way of vodka flavor — no surprise there. In all, the drink went down smoothly.
The appetizers were exemplary. A half-dozen crostinis gave us plenty of real estate on which to spread the luscious spinach-gouda dip. That eyebrow-raising orange sauce turned out to be an ideal sweet sidekick, offsetting the bitterness of the sprouts.
We finished everything and were out in less than an hour.
And the Winner of the Cosmopolitan Confrontation Is …
Rococo Steak.
Rococo wins on the Cosmo. (Downing signed off on this.) Juno wins on the food.
As far as atmosphere, well, let me put it this way:
Ask two Baby Boomers and a Gen X’er if they’d prefer an early-evening cocktail at a quiet restaurant bar or a similar drink amid the bustling energy of a packed, trendy new restaurant. Which one do you think they’d choose?
Ask some younger folks and you’re likely to get the opposite answer.
Had I to do this exercise over, I would have flipped the sequence, hitting Juno & the Peacock first, to take in the vibe, then heading over to Rococo, where we would’ve kicked back and probably ordered another round.
Hey, drink and learn.
Top photo by David Downing.
