This Downtown Boston Bar Lets You Preorder Drinks and Seats
Better Sorts Social Club's new Decanter Program is just an app tap away.
At Better Sorts Social Club, decanters of shareable cocktails can now be preordered. / Photo by Peter Holmgren
If you’re in downtown Boston, need a speedy drink (or a few) and don’t want to wait for seats for your crew, rejoice: Better Sorts Social Club, a new cocktail lounge inside the Kimpton Nine Zero Hotel, will now let you preorder a large-format cocktail and snag a reserved spot at the bar. If you’ve ever tried—and repeatedly failed—to establish eye contact with a busy bartender while simultaneously preparing to pounce on the first vacated stool, you’ll agree–this is a good thing.
Here’s how it works: Better Sorts Social Club, which took over the former home of Highball Lounge in the fall, just debuted its so-dubbed Decanter Program, allowing users of the online reservation system Tock to request custom-made cocktails in advance. Guests fill out a quick questionnaire about their drinking preferences (favorite types of spirits and flavor profiles, for instance) and let the spot’s head bartender, Naomi Levy, come up with a shareable surprise that fits the bill—and serves two to 10 imbibers, at $20 per person. For instance, when one guest wanted a white spirit in something “seasonal,” “citrusy” and “savory,” Levy made a cocktail with gin, carrot, thyme syrup, and lemon and pear juices. There’s actually an entire pear-themed section on Better Sorts’s new winter cocktail menu, which also includes warmed drinks and potions that make use of root vegetables like parsnip and sweet potato. Hashtag-basic vodka sodas, these are not.
Order a decanter cocktail in advance, and it will be waiting. So will your seats. / Photo by Peter Holmgren
Not only are the decanters ready and waiting to be poured upon arrival, but Better Sorts will also include reserved seating with your Decanter Program preorder. When you’re thirsty and on a tight schedule—say, trying to squeeze in drinks before a dinner date or live show—this basically eliminates the two most time-consuming tasks at the bar (besides the actual, fun drinking part). If Better Sorts ever introduces a bathroom line-cutting component, you may never want to raise a toast elsewhere again.
90 Tremont St., Boston, 617-772-5834, bettersortsboston.com.
