OAK Long Bar + Kitchen Debuts a New Cocktail Menu

THE DESTINATION
It’s 4:30 on a Wednesday afternoon in early August, and the venerable OAK Long Bar + Kitchen (@oaklbk) is packed. I wonder aloud if there’s a conference at the Fairmont Copley Plaza (@fairmontcopley), or maybe traveling hordes of Kansas City Royals fans are dining and drinking here before watching their team play the Red Sox later in the evening at Fenway Park.

Mackenzie Cavanagh, a veteran mixologist at the venue, surveys the crowd. “Nah, most everyone here is a local and a regular,” he says. Because in Boston, when you know, you know.

The restaurant and bar have featured several monikers since Fairmont Copley Plaza opened in 1912 (Copley Cafe, Merry-Go-Round Bar, Plaza Bar & Dining Room and, up until 2011, the OAK room). Still, the grandeur and local bonhomie of this place have remained. I’ve often believed that the best spots exude a sense of the community where they reside, and that’s undoubtedly the secret sauce here. The ceilings are high, the woodwork boasts a rich patina, and natural light bathes the room in late afternoon’s golden hues.

The restaurant’s grand yet approachable aesthetic matches the Fairmont Copley Plaza. While the property’s lobby features jaw-dropping mosaic tile, marble columns and gilded, coffered ceilings, its chief ambassador is a black Labrador retriever named Cori (@coricopley), who is keen on dog treats and belly rubs. She’s a furry metaphor for guests who arrive to marvel at this place and enjoy the pampering.

THE COCKTAILS
Chasing the next great sip that tells a story is part of a mixologist’s Holy Grail. Find something that pleases the crowd, and run with it for a while. But looking to the past, especially in a fabled landmark with so many tales to tell, can unearth some ideas.

That’s precisely what Cavanagh did when developing a trio of history-inspired cocktails that reflect the property’s rich history: Merry-Go-Round, Double P and OAK Martini.

“The new cocktails honor the past but also reveal cutting-edge ingredients,” says Boston native Cavanagh. The Merry-Go-Round pays homage to the restaurant of the same name. From 1934 to 1978, the popular carousel bar made a full rotation once every hour, with each complete turn taking 13 minutes (guests can still see the copper tracks in the hardwood floors). The Fairmont’s marketing team discovered a pristine menu from the bar online, bought it, and Cavanagh used it to riff on a new, eminently refreshing creation that includes Farmer’s Gin, housemade pomegranate syrup, curacao, lemon, foaming bitters and soda.

“It was so fun to manipulate those classic ingredients into a modern cocktail,” says Cavanagh, who subbed out original ingredients like egg white, grenadine and orange flower water, resulting in a more Collins-style cocktail textured with pomegranate boba pearls garnish.

For the Double P, Cavanagh tapped into the ties between Fairmont Copley and New York’s Plaza Hotel, designed by Henry Janeway Hardenbergh. The architect’s double P insignia is a thoughtful detail found throughout both hotels, appearing on everything from doorknobs to intricate moldings. The drink includes Perrier-Jouët Grand Brut, Angostura bitters and demerara; it’s a sparkling crowd-pleaser and one of those sips that pairs well with impressive dishes like curried and smoked cauliflower, sea bream, charred tiger prawns and the Maine lobster roll with Old Bay fries.

The third creation is the OAK Martini, a return to the side carafe (a martini and a half ) paired with blue cheese-stuffed olives. The cocktail includes your choice of Belvedere vodka or The Botanist gin.

Beyond the new trio, the menu includes some heavy hitters, including Bee’s Knees (crafted with the OAK’s signature gin, Vermont’s Barr Hill Gin, and infused with the hotel’s rooftop honey), and the Espresso Martini, a bestselling sip that employs housemade cold-brew espresso.

THE TAKEAWAY
Our great national habit of deciding what’s culturally relevant moves at lightning speed. We embrace the latest and greatest from influencers, celebrities and social media’s backwash, which lasts only a week or two. Then we move on, of course.

So, it’s gratifying to visit a place that understands legacy and uses it to define a moment, mixing history with a modern mindset.

“I love working here,” says Cavanagh. “Between guests telling me new stories and people who used to work here coming in and sharing their experiences, I’m always learning new things about the space. For example, a little Prohibition-era bar is tucked into one of our private spaces that we don’t always discuss. The secrets of this hotel and restaurant keep unfolding.”