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First Look: Sable

By Anthony Todd in Food on Mar 24, 2010 4:00PM

Yesterday, we got a chance to take a look at Sable, the restaurant and bar for the new Hotel Palomar helmed by former Atwood Café chef Heather Terhune. Sable is going to focus on "social dining," with a lot of small plates, shared appetizers and home-made snacks. Mike Ryan, formerly of Moto and the Violet Hour, is the head bartender, and he showed off some exciting new cocktails.

As cocktail lovers (and frequent ranters), we liked a lot of what we heard from Ryan - a focus on REAL martinis (with no fruit), a large selection of gins and over 200 scotches and bourbons. The bar is doing a lot of things that seem like great ideas: stirred martinis, smaller cocktail glasses (and correspondingly lower prices) and a cocktail menu arranged around flavors, rather than base spirits. Mixology stations have at least 15 different kinds of bitters, including Ryan's home-made bacon bitters.

We'll be keeping a close eye on Sable once it opens, but until then, enjoy the pictures!