Donna

This breezy, rum-soaked drinkery, secreted away near the Williamsburg waterfront, is charming, refined and a little subversive—an enchanting nook that feels worlds away from the industrial streets outside. The cocktails alone could coax aficionados from their habitual perches, but it’s the transporting staging that seals the deal—a fever-dream vision of Central America that takes its inspiration from Spanish-colonial cathedrals, Art Nouveau parlor rooms and the sailor’s flophouse that existed on this site in the 1800s. Rum anchors the cocktail list from bar manager Jeremy Oertel (Dram, Mayahuel), who expresses the colonial theme with drinks that match tropical ingredients (pisco, Mexican Coke) with old-world amari and liqueurs (Ramazzotti, yellow Chartreuse). The OJ-splashed Brancolada elevates that tiki warhorse, the piña colada, with herbal and minty Branca Menta—the result is at once sophisticated and dangerously easygoing, like a Ph.D. student gone wild on spring break. Stick around for bar snacks such as a patatas bravas–style dish of chili-dusted baby potatoes, smashed on the plancha and paired with a smoky ancho-chili relish.