#DeuxMoiMadeMeDoIt…a restaurant guide for millenials
Porchlight
Cocktail Bar with Southern Soul Near Hudson Yards
Porchlight is known for its tasty cocktails and Southern spin on supper and on sips. Located on 11th Avenue between 27th and 28th Street, Porchlight is a great place to stop when you are exploring the High Line or around town to observe views of the Hudson River.
Porchlight is easily accessible if you are coming into the city by public transportation with both Penn Station and the Midtown/39th Street Ferry Station a quick 15 minutes by foot. For those already in the city, the A,C,E subways stop at Penn Station and the number 7 subway stops at 34th and Hudson Yards. The M12 bus also makes stops on 11th Avenue so you can get off at either 26th Street or 29th Street and walk a block or two. Once there, it is worth adventuring toward Hudson River Park and Pier 64 at Hudson which are both a quick 7 minute walk, while Chelsea Piers is 8 minutes, and the Javitz Center 10 minutes by foot.
Porchlight is open daily at 3pm. Sunday through Wednesday they close at 12am and Thursday through Saturday they close at 2am (with the kitchen closing at 1am). Happy Hour is also served daily, being offered from 3pm-7pm Monday through Saturday and all day on Sunday. Be advised that the Happy Hour menu offers a few cocktail specials, a beer special, and a flask of punch special…but no food specials. Do not let that deter you from sampling a little bit of everything on the menu.
The menu at Porchlight is my idea of the perfect bar food. Broken down into snacks, “somethin small”, “somethin’ more”, and “somethin’ sweet”…you are going to want to bring your appetite. The snacks (bourbon bar nuts, sugar & spice popcorn, potato chips, smoked olives, and house made smoked beef jerky) are small enough to share and get a bit of flavor started for your tastebuds. The “something small” section of the menu offers Southern favorites such as pimento cheese and fried saltines, fried oysters, hush puppies with hot honey, smoked cheddar biscuits, collard greens and cheese dip with toasted baguette and Nixtamal nachos, firecracker chicken with habanero honey, Nixtamal Nachos and Arkansas Cheese Dip,onion dip served with crisp vegetables, and crispy chicken sliders with hot honey.
Although inspired by the South, not everything on the menu is heavy, deep fried, or topped with habanero honey…but everything is bursting with flavor. The “somethin’ more” menu has a spring market salad (option to add grilled chicken, crispy chicken, fried tofu, or fried shrimp for an additional cost), chicken soup with buttermilk herb dumplings (add chicken for an additional cost), Texas Red Chili (add half a po’ bo shrimp or chicken for an additional fee), fried tofu banh mi, and fried eggplant sandwich (add bacon for an additional fee).
The snack options average $7 an order, ‘somethin small’ average $14 an order, ‘somethin more’ average $17 an order, and ‘something sweet’ options are $7 (warm chocolate chip cooking) and $10 (strawberry shortcake and pistachio and whipped ricotta cakes bites). Extra points for Porchlight: there are gluten free, vegetarian, and vegan options available and it is clearly stated on the menu.
The drink menu is a lot more extensive than the food menu…which may mean you need more time just to choose. The cocktail menu alone is broken down into five sections, giving a brief description of the overall theme of the drink: spring forward (“a little spring in your step!”), guzzlers (“light and easy…maybe too easy”), sippers (“not for the weak of heart”), tried and true, classic and modern classics (“canonized concoctions and new creations”), and boilermakers (“beer and a shot!”. The beer menu has plenty of draft beer options as well as bottles and cans. There is a great selection of locally brewed beers which is nice for those of us who are draft beer lovers. The wine selection is not as extensive as the other drink menus but what is available is top shelf (and available by the glass or bottle).
And we won’t even get started on the liquor options…we will just tell you that they probably have whatever gin, rum, and tequila you want. If whiskey is your thing, you will no doubt be introduced to some you never knew existed because there is a long list of options for bourbons, ryes, American made whiskey, and International whiskey. We didn’t forget the rest…there are a few vodka, brandy, vermouth, amaro, cordials and liqueurs on the menu as well. Finally, there is a nice selection of bottled sodas, water, and non-alcoholic beverages (the house made mocktail menu “free-spirited cocktails and wine” is worth a check!).
Porchlight has over 800 reviews on Google and averages 4.4 stars from these reviews. Google rates the menu as $$$ (expensive) but from viewing the prices we would say it is more $$ (moderately expensive) with the real cost coming from the high quality liquors. We find that pricing for the food is affordable for all…leaving some extra cash for another round of drinks. The most highly rated items is the whiskey menu, the sugar and spice popcorn (gluten free and vegan), the spiked seltzers (citrus spiked seltzer serving 2-5 people for $36), the ranch water (cimmaron tequila, topo chico, lime cordial serving 2-5 people for $36), as well as the atmosphere and the patio seating area. If this isn’t enough to sell you on Porchlight, stop in on Mondays for live music on the porch! We will be there and hope you will be too!
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