Williams & Graham

• Cuisine(s): Bar Food
  Hours: Sun 5pm-0am, Mon-Sat 5pm-2am
  Price: $$
• Payment Types: All Major Credit Cards, cash
  Serving: Dinner, Late Night
  Alcohol: Full bar
• Parking: No Parking

Description

Lower Highland is the hottest restaurant neighborhood in the city, and now it has what could be its coolest bar. To create Williams & Graham, bartender Sean Kenyon and Todd Colehour transformed a ramshackle flophouse into a stunning speakeasy, with a high tin ceiling that dates back to 1906 (they took it through a car wash to clean off decades of grime), cozy booths, and an actual bookstore entrance, where you can buy cocktail books, the works of famous drunken authors (think Hemingway) and bar tools. But the focus is the big wooden bar, which has a drink menu featuring vignettes, anecdotes and profiles of spirits written by prolific bartenders from around the country, as well as a roster of simple, elegant cocktails that can be paired with dishes off a small menu of four appetizers, four entrees and four desserts. "I don't want this to be a 1920s theme park; it's a 1920s-themed bar," says Kenyon. "We don't want it to be stuffy, and everything's fresh behind the bar. But you could come in for a Utica Club or a Genesee Cream Ale or sherry or spirits on the rocks or a cocktail. It's a real neighborhood bar."