PDT, or Please Don’t Tell in New York City has been called everything from a “secret bar” to a “speakeasy”. To get into PDT, you walk down St. Marks Place, follow a flight of stairs into the Crif Dogs restaurant, enter a phone booth, pick up the phone and press the buzzer once. Once you are “approved”, the back wall of the booth opens and you are allowed in. Somewhat silly made even sillier, as you can make reservations. Still, it has lots of cred, and in 2011 was named “The Best Bar in the World” by Drinks International, and the “World’s Best Cocktail Bar” at the Tales of the Cocktail Awards in 2009, as well as the 2012 “Outstanding Bar Program Award” from the James Beard Foundation. Their signature drink is a bacon-infused bourbon sweetened with maple syrup.
Why do you care? Because Jim Meehan, a partner in PDT and formerly a bartender at Pegu Club and Gramercy Tavern as well as the author of The PDT Cocktail Book, is pulling up roots and moving to Portland.
From Eater, “So does this mean Portland is going to have a new bar from Jim Meehan? “Eventually, yes,” he says. “But I couldn’t even give directions in Portland … It’s important that I get to know everyone. I want to be a part of the community and the city. I want to meet everyone and get vetted by them first before opening a place … I’ll figure out how to get involved and I want it to happen organically.”
This is another plus for the Portland cocktail scene, which already features notables such as Kevin Ludwig, Kelley Swenson, Daniel Shoemaker, Jeffrey Morganthaler and Blair Reynolds among others.
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