Mandarin Hide - A Bar Review
Your humble blogger, bidding farewell to 2017
For New Year's Eve, we went to a St. Petersburg institution and one of the best cocktail and whiskey bars downtown, Mandarin Hide. We were glad to escape Miami and its standard $100 a head New Year's Eve pricing for a place where we got free entry and reasonably priced, excellent whiskey flowed all night long.
Atmosphere and Service: That buffalo head sure draws the eye, right? Aside from that distinctive touch, this place reads like a typical, high-end cocktail bar in 2017. You know the type I'm talking about: a mix of roaring 20's speakeasy, upscale yet casual, and the standard exposed brick and ductwork. This bar was packed on New Year's Eve, and seems like one of the more well-known places in the city, so I'm sure it must draw a good crowd on most weekends. Service was great considering how many people were there -- our bartender was friendly and fast. I will note that, unlike Room 901, which is more of a true whiskey bar, Mandarin Hide is more of a cocktail bar that happens to have a deep whiskey bench. The distinction lies in a few features that I like in whiskey bars, like a dedicated whiskey list (this is just a call it as you see it bar) and the use of glencairn glasses instead of standard tumblers, but which are missing here.
Selection: This place has a very solid range of all types of whiskey, including a bottom row of rye, a middle row of bourbons, an upper row of scotches (just my order!), and then a long, actual top shelf featuring rare and expensive bottles. I spotted 30-odd bourbons, ryes, and Irish and American whiskies, 20-plus scotches and Japanese whiskies, and another 20-25 bottles of their best on the top shelf.
Rare Bottles: Mandarin Hide has some pretty unusual bottles, and not just at the upper range of prices. Bottles that I hadn't seen before coming here include Stranahan's, a Colorado whiskey, Old Forester Stateman (review forthcoming), and several Orphan Barrels, including the recent Entrapment release, a 25-year old Crown Royal product. This bar has four bottles featuring the magical Van Winkle name, including Old Rip Van Winkle 10, Van Winkle 12, and two bottles of Pappy, although I couldn't see clearly enough to make out the age statements and didn't dare ask for the price. These guys, like seemingly every whiskey bar I've visited recently, also had 4 or 5 bottles of Whistlepig. On the non-American side, seeing a bottle of Yamazaki 12 next to three or four Kavalans was an impressive sight.
Value: I've been saving the best for last. Mandarin Hide has spectacular prices for a whiskey bar. They do 1.5 ounce pours, so not my ideal size. That being said, I don't mind it if the prices are reasonable, as I just get a chance to try more! We ended up getting three rounds of whiskey and a final round of champagne before midnight (not including the second, free round of champagne at midnight itself), and the bill was about $90 before tip. Oh, and did I mention that we each got a pour of George T. Stagg, i.e., the $500+ on the secondary market white whale, for $16 a dram? That is value, and makes Mandarin Hide one of the best whiskey bars I've visited since starting this blog. Go here just to try the Stagg alone -- I can't believe everyone wasn't ordering that bottle. Maybe I shouldn't let the secret out!
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Happy New Year 2018, friends! Slainte mhath!