Night of Joy

Night of Joy is located underneath the BQE on a grimy corner of Williamsburg, but it’s almost worth making the trip just to tease the owner about giving the bar a name already taken by Disneyland’s annual Christian-rock festival. Thankfully, that’s the only similarity between the two: Joy’s draw is vice, available as precious thimblefuls of cocktail elixir. There’s a woodsy rosemary-and-ginger-infused bourbon, for example, and a chilled beet vodka with dill and a gimlet of basil and lime. (Astute drinkers may notice a trend here, and wonder if the cocktail menu will progress toward pickling-spice Gibsons and Manhattans with lamb seasoning.) Here, the granny mode of design is in full effect. There are ottomans and throw pillows to recline upon, shelves holding exquisitely decorated urns and flasks and eggs (no touching!), and an old refrigerator-sized TV that has been repurposed into a DJ stand. Still, drinking at the gold-plated bar under a cornflower ceiling traced with forgotten animals of the zodiac is not a bad way to waste away the evening; nor is appreciating the real-life celestial dome from the upstairs deck.