Barton G.'s Liquid Nitrogen Drinks - is a little smoke worth 40$?

R and I went to Barton G.'s friday night, which we hadn't been to in forever. We used his boss's name and got a prime 830 reservation last minute. I don't know what impressed the Maitre'd more, my husband's job ( he is the head of paint and graphics at Cigarette, the Offshore boating legend and number one exclusive fast boat manufacturer worldwide, which brought us to Miami in the first place) I'll have to post about him and his fascinating rise from a graffiti writing kid in Queens to being the internationally known painter he is now- or the fact that we had just woken up at 1 pm on a friday afternoon. I told her I'd show her Miami Miami Style! Erica Braver, who is in the PR dept at Cigarette told us we absolutely had to get the liquid nitrogen drinks, b/c the alcohol freezes and as it melts the alcohol releases in some special way and you get really drunk. Not that I ever need the help - I get really drunk on 2 glasses of Pinot Nior!
The Barton G website, www.bartong.com, calls the drinks the "Below Zero Nitro Bar"
"liquid nitrogen, a cyrogenic fluid with a temp of -320 degrees F, is the key element in creating these new high octane cocktails"

BTW, WTF does that mean? In my opinion, it was a 40$ Martini with a lot of flash, and worth it if someone else is paying that's not your husband...
In the spirit of Journalism, though, I ordered two.
Richy got the BlueBerry 8 Ball, which made me think, our drink bill is going to be way more than a real one! The drink description is "Tanqueray 10 Gin, Muddled blueberries, lime juice, simple syrup, and a Tanqueray 10 and blue curacao pop." It also cam with a magic 8 ball on a big plate. We had fun asking it stupid questions - "Am I going to have fun tonight?" - hello - when does a night out with my darling Richy Rich ever not involve fun, and lots of it? My second drink was a Sin - Sation, which in my opinion is the drink to get if you are into spending 40$ on Martini's, which I definitely don't think I am, OMG, you all might never believe this, but the shuffle of my Itunes just put on Rockstar by Nickelback - is that what I get for this shameless voyeuristic look into our own consumerism? BTW, why does my face look fat in this photo above? It is so not!

Moving on, the Sin- Sation is Nitrogenized Absolut Vanilla and Rose Petal Nectar topped with champagne. If any of these drinks seemed slightly worth it, this was the one. Not only was it delicious, but it got me toasted and was served with a frozen closed beautiful rosebud and rose petals were poured all around the plate and all around her and me on my second drink, and it was very lush and indulgent.. In short, I loved it!

My first drink I wasn't incredibly impressed with was the Zen Tini. I don't remember it being served with anything special - is that a part of being Zen? All I could think was I'm not gonna be so Zen when I get this bill! Man I am such a Jew ( sorry Grandma, if I thought you could actually turn on your computer and I hadn't worked on 41st St in Miami Beach for a year I'd never say something like that). It was Absolut Rasberri, Triple Sec, Fresh Rasberries, and an Absolut Rasberri vodka pyramid... Hmm... Dont remember that. Just rasberry, vodka, and a big chunk of ice in the middle. Guess that was the "Pyramid"... We also had shrimp, beef carpaccio, and various other small plates, since we were going out dancing afterwards... Location undisclosed to protect the guilty!!!

Verdict: Barton G $40 Martini, kindof worth it if you've got the money and you know which one to order, kindof worth it if you don't order more than one and ridiculous to order on top of a full dinner I recommend going for drinks and apps like we did - our bill was still almost $300... but you still can't complain because you got to go to Barton G and it was your idea..... And because the atmosphere, the fanfare, the presentation, the service and the quality is consistently top notch. And that impresses me. Our waiter told me he was going to commit suicide if I smiled at him one more time... That my friend, is worth the $!