The Parlour Room is 'paradise for whiskey lovers' with elegant food made to match

NEW YORK CITY -- A lot of bars claim to be the best in this city, but this one has a special device that might just prove it, in addition to a menu that fits the cozy, elegant, and eclectic space.

The Parlour Room is located on West 36th Street in Midtown.

"When we started we wanted to create something unique an homage to the timeless elegance of old-style New York and give something back to Midtown, and we felt like a beautiful whiskey bar was missing and we wanted to create this beautiful whiskey emporium," said David Orellana, Beverage Director.

He said The Parlour Room is known for giving people a great first impression when they walk in.

"At this point, we have about 450 different labels," Orellana said. "We really specialize in finding very unique items."

They work hard to travel around to find the best of the best for their establishment.

"We have a special program we go to distilleries, we taste very different barrels and we choose one, and we get a barrel and it comes here and we make really fun cocktails," Orellana said.

Their not-so-secret weapon?

"This is the champion shaker, it's a really cool device that is made to highly chill cocktails, especially whiskey sours or any classics," Orellana said. "The company only works with one venue in every cosmopolitan place and we're the only ones in New York City, so you can only find it at The Parlour Room here in New York City."

"It is absolutely paradise for whiskey lovers," he added.

The drinks set the bar high for those working in the kitchen.

"We're just trying to match the food with the dining room and the whiskey collection that we have. We want it to feel elegant and nice, but not too over the top and no extra frills," Chef Luther Dowdy said. "So we're highlighting the truffle arancini which is just a truffle rice ball with parmesan cheese, we deep fry it until it is golden brown and pair it with a brown butter aioli, that's finished with a bit of Banuls vinegar so it has a really nice kick and then we top it with fried sage to keep it seasonal."

One dish has special meaning for the chef and now he's sharing it with the restaurant's patrons.

"The spicy tuna tartare is actually a little inspiration from one of my previous mentors. It's a little harissa and cucumber labneh which gives it the spice and the cucumber evens it out. It's topped with black olives and a little Rice Krispies," Dowdy said.

They also have the classics, changed up.

"The steak frites is one of the first things that I kind of changed up a bit since I came in," Dowdy said. "Super great flavor very tender, in my opinion, one of the best steaks you can get and we serve it as a New York strip with a chimichurri compound butter and French fries on the sides, and when the butter kind of melts and gets into the steak and gets onto the fries really, really wonderful."

There's even some whisky inspiration in their burgers.

"And then the burger, which is one of my favorites is very classic we use our secret sauce which we call P36 its essentially a whisky tomato mayonnaise and then we add fresh onions shaved thin pickles cheddar cheese," Dowdy said. "We add two slices because we think the more cheese the better, and grill it to whatever temperature you like."

If you'd like a smaller plate, they have that too.

"The specific deviled egg recipe is very light very fluffy so when you bite into it it's not going to be overpowering or any crisp note except for the pickled onion but the addition of all the eggs, the bottarga is like a cured fish roe that we shave over top and then the caviar is fish eggs so there's a lot of briny funky kind of flavors that make the egg yolk kind of pop," he said. "I could talk about food all day long. I think walking in the space for me it begs for fun, snackey food so that's what we're geared towards."