OTB — Restaurant in New York

Came to this place last night at the suggestion of a cool Yelper I've met at 2 Yelp Elite events. I'm giving them 4 stars for the drinks and for the overall ambience and for the decent food, but if for some inexplicable reason if someone told me that I was not allowed to ever return here again...I would be A-OK with that.

OTB is a kinda-sorta-but-not-really fancypants cocktail bar & restaurant with a slightly pretentious, Williamsburg feel. I feel like they try to be fancier than they actually are, but whatever - dim lighting, candles on the tables - lots of dark wood furniture - yeah, we get it, you're OH SO POSH. SO POSH.

The cocktail list here is pretty darn fantastic. I will give them that. Was going to stick with a classic Old Fashioned (made here with demeara sugar, old overholt rye whiskey, angostura bitters, stirred, on the rocks), but decided to go rogue and order a drink called a "Staycation" which was Del Maguey Mezcal, Old Overholt Rye, Fresh Orange Juice, Rasberry Syrup, Angostura and Bittermans Tiki Bitters.

I didn't even know what two of those ingredients were, but decided that after tons of Moscow Mules earlier I wanted something decidedly sweeter as my nightcap and sweet it was...without being disgustingly so...but definitely interesting. I do appreciate that it didn't taste syrupy and think that using Rasberry Puree would have given this drink a nicer texture - I did like that it was garnished with fresh mint because that always smells nice and adds an air of aromatic pleasantness and automatically makes anything refreshing so that was a nice addition.

The other two gals I was with also got cocktails. One ordered a Hemingway Daiquiri (goslings rum, fresh lime juice, fresh grapefruit juice, luxardo maraschino, shaken, served up) and if I remember correctly, described it as "this tastes like sex in a glass!" and my other friend ordered a Oaxacan Wino (Del Maguey Mezcal, Red Wine Reduction, Antica, Carpano Vermouth) which was also interesting and I wasn't crazy about it upon sampling it, but I think she liked it.

Being hungry, but not too hungry we also ordered a cheese burger with fries to share amongst the 3 of us. We ordered it well-done (since 1 out of the three of us doesn't like any sort of rare-ness to her burger) and it was surprisingly juicy.

I'm more of a medium-rare kinda gal, yet the meat wasn't dry or burnt so I was pleased with the small piece of burger I got to consume. The fries were ok. Not the best, not the worst. Overly seasoned and my bestie commented on finding them salty and that was definitely true.

They're a little thicker than shoestring fries and they left the potato skin on them which in my book is a plus, but if they can learn to lay a little off the seasoning and salt then they would be significantly better. Here's a good motto I just created: "Be heavy handed with booze, not salt". Yeah, I'm a marketing genius.

Service here wasn't all sunshine and lollipops, our waiter was slow in asking us for drink orders, slow in bringing us our check...no refills on water...dunno man, I know it was late, but that's not how to build a fanbase or repeat patrons. There goes my marketing prowess again, heh.

Overall this place is...

We came in for the brunch happy hour which was great. The place was pretty quite inside although we both thought it had a pretty cool atmosphere. They also have an outdoor space with seating infront which we enjoyed after we were done eating.

Highlights: The wings were excellent. Probably our favorite wings in NYC so far. If you like breaded wings which are our go to for their sauce sponging ability. These were 10/10. The sauce was really good. Not too spicy but just really flavorful. The actual wings were not small and really juicy!

Oysters were great. For the happy hour special they were $1.50 each!

The happy hour margarita was very good. I'm always a little apprehensive when it comes to happy hour drinks because they are usually pretty low quality- premixed or just thrown together to kick out volume vs quality. Definitely didn't have that reaction to this margarita

Negative: I don't remember the exact prices but I believe most of the craft beers were all over $10 a piece. There was an IPA for example that was $14. Craft cocktail price for a beer is a turnoff. They do offer some cheaper beers (shitty beers) which luckily are my speed as well, love me some Narragansett.

The staff were super friendly and generally speaking gave off a pretty cool vibe.

We would go...

AMAZING

Hands down the best bar in Williamsburg, if you are into sophisticated drinks and high brow food that has been dumbed down for us peasants!

Sister bar of Post Office, same comfort feeling but with a little bit of more sophistication. A grown up Post Office, if you will.

The kitchen is bigger so the chef gets to put his full array of cooking talents to good use. The burger is amazing but I really love the specials they serve up from time to time, so keep coming back and follow them on instagram to learn what they are up to.

Recently I had the bacon wrapped romain lettuce with blue cheese and I have never been so happy to clog my arteries.

One New Years Eve my wife and I came and met loads of great people and ate an entire Pig that Chef Sammy had spent all week preparing. I will never forget that night (or the little i remember since i got pretty darn drunk)

Love the staff, love the food, love the drinks. What else do you need to know?

Pro tip: do a bar crawl and visit their sister bar POST OFFICE on...