Chinato

"Ray Zhou, an alum of Double Chicken Please, and Zhaojin Dai, the sous chef at the Michelin-starred restaurant Jungsik, are behind the menus at Chinato, a new bar at 108 Stanton Street, at Ludlow Street, on the Lower East Side. Cocktails mixed with corn, bell pepper, clarified yogurt, and other unusual ingredients are named after songs by artists like Snoop Dogg and Brad Paisley; they start at around $20. The owners are Teng Huang of Midtown’s Shinjuku Ramen and Xiong Ying behind the rooftop bar at Flushing’s Parc Hotel." - Luke Fortney

Most of the cocktails at the new bar Chinato — run by the former research and development head of Double Chicken Please, Ray Zhou — have a song pairing. I ordered the “Pancakes for Dinner,” an average tune, but a thoroughly enjoyable beverage — flavorful, strong, satisfying. Small plate offerings were developed by a Jung Sik chef. Chinato lacks the pageantry of DCP, but its cocktails live up to the hype. –Drew Sussman