Hell's Kitchen introduces Craft Cocktail Wednesdays

Hell's Kitchen's creates cocktails personally designed for each patron

If you're looking for a new way to get over the midweek hump, Hell's Kitchen has recently created a new option. Hopping on the same bandwagon as other major Twin Cities restaurants, Hell's Kitchen is invading the craft cocktail scene: From 9 p.m. until close every Wednesday night, you can head down to the restaurant's back bar and experience Craft Cocktail Wednesday.

The way it works is fairly simple: The bartender asks you what kind of cocktails you usually like, then puts together a cocktail especially for you, using an arsenal of homemade bitters, syrups, and liquor infusions.

A more usual Manhattan

Me, I'm a bourbon guy. More specifically, a bourbon
Manhattan guy. Based on those two preferences, I received two distinctly different yet delicious cocktails. The first was a crazy concoction of Makers Mark, balsamic simple syrup, basil leaves, and crushed Szechuan red pepper. The result was a sweet, sour, herbaceous cocktail with just a touch of heat in the background. The other cocktail was a combination of Benedictine, Makers Mark, Overholt Rye, chocolate bitters, Angostura bitters, and egg white, topped with a few cute drops of Peychaud's bitters. The shake-like cocktail was thick, rich, and a really good post-dinner dessert drink, although perhaps not my drink of choice for general cocktail consumption.

Craft Cocktail Wednesdays at Hell's Kitchen also feature local DJs playing chilled-out music to match the low-key ambiance of the evening. A warning, though: Craft Cocktail Wednesdays are a labor of love and hosted by one bartender. If you go and there are more than a few people, it might take a little while to get a drink. But if you're willing to let the bartender experiment on you, the crafty cocktails will only run you $6 a pop. It's hard to argue with that. In addition to the cocktails and the DJs, you also have access to Hell's Kitchen's serious late-night menu, which features dishes like cheap, gigantic wings, chicken-and-biscuit sandwiches, and fried lobster rolls.