Small Hours
Sample price 9- verjus
- chamomile honey
- saline
- soda
Zero proof, full ceremony. Proper glass, proper ice, proper coaster. Nobody at the bar will know or care, which is rather the point.
The bar that asks first.
Nightjar is a small green room with low light, a patient record player, and a menu that starts as a conversation. Tell us bitter or bright. We will take it from there.
Ask the bar
First question
Evening. Leave the menu closed a minute. One question tells me more than that card ever will. Bitter or bright?
Bitter: second question
You said: Bitter.
Thought so. You came in like a Tuesday. Second question, last one. Stirred and short, or long with ice and nowhere to be?
Bright: second question
You said: Bright.
Good. There's still some evening left in you. Same second question we ask everyone: stirred and cold, or long and lively?
Your pour: Small Hours
You said: Soft tonight.
Respect. The best seat in the house has never once asked what's in your glass.
Your pour: The Second Shift
You said: Bitter.
You said: Stirred. Short.
Then we're done talking. This one is yours.
The Second Shift
Sample price 16- rye whiskey
- amaro [set your pour]
- sweet vermouth
- orange oil
Named for the hour the aprons come off. It drinks like a decision already made: dark fruit up front, gentian holding the door on the way out.
Your pour: Porchlight
You said: Bitter.
You said: Long. I'm staying.
Porchlight, then. Bitter and cold and in no hurry. Neither are you.
Porchlight
Sample price 14- amaro [set your pour]
- dry sparkling wine
- soda
- grapefruit peel
The drink equivalent of sitting outside until the streetlights come on. Low proof on purpose; the second one is part of the design.
Your pour: Hour of Pearl
You said: Bright.
You said: Stirred, please.
Hour of Pearl. Pale, precise, and colder than the walk over here.
Hour of Pearl
Sample price 17- gin
- blanc vermouth
- fino sherry
- lemon oil
Our quiet answer to the martini question. Sea air instead of brine, and it stays cold to the bottom because we keep the glasses in the freezer like we mean it.
Your pour: Paper Lantern
You said: Bright.
You said: Long and lively.
Paper Lantern. Bright all the way down, and it keeps its fizz to the last inch.
Paper Lantern
Sample price 15- gin
- lime leaf cordial
- verjus
- soda
Built tall so the ice does half the work and you do the rest. The lime leaf comes from a neighbor with a greenhouse and opinions.
The short list
Sample pricesEach name above opens its chapter of the conversation. The rest of the shelf, the amari, the whiskies, and the wines by the glass, live on the full list.
The room
Twelve seats at the bar, four booths in the back, one record player with seniority over all of us.
The nightjar is a night bird that hunts by ear. We work the same way. You talk, we listen, and the drink that arrives is the one you meant, not just the one you named. If you already know your order to the quarter ounce, wonderful; the full list is on the table. If you don't, that is what the bar is for.
Voices at candle height.
The room is small and the record player is doing its best. Keep it low and everyone hears their own table.
Phones are welcome. Calls are not.
Take them to the door. The night will hold your seat.
Not knowing what you want is an order.
It is our favorite one. Start with bitter or bright and let the bar do the rest.
Find us
- Tuesday to Thursday
- 6pm to 1am
- Friday and Saturday
- 6pm to 2am
- Sunday and Monday
- The room sleeps
[set your hours]. Last conversation starts forty minutes before close.
Look for the green door under the unlit sign, [set your street], [your city]. If the sign is lit, we are closed; the nightjar only sings in the dark.
[set your phone] seats@nightjar.example [set your map link]Hold a seat
Pass us a chit and we will keep a seat until a quarter past your hour. Parties of six or more should write a line in the note so we can push the booths together without ceremony.
We answer every chit before we open. [set your reply promise]
Prefer to write directly? seats@nightjar.example reaches the same hands.
While you are writing, this chit is kept in your own browser on this device so a stray tap does not lose it, and it is torn up the moment you send.