Theater Bar
114 Franklin St., nr. W. Broadway; 212-334-3733
Ex-Apothéke madman-alchemist Albert Trummer’s histrionic new Tribeca bar will eventually host sideshow acts—knife swallowers, jugglers, trapeze artists, and other vaudevillians—but for now the drinks take center stage. Guests can sit in the main space and be served by a waitress decked out like a modern-day cigarette girl, or travel up to the elevated bar, framed by a lit-up proscenium. A jazzy twenties soundtrack wafts as vested bartenders don’t so much play with pyrotechnics (Trummer’s still going through litigation for the last time he played with fire at Apothéke) as concoct strong cocktails with house-infused elixirs.