LOWER EAST SIDE — Buy a cocktail and support the Lowline.
The creators of a plan to build a futuristic underground park on the Lower East Side have launched a cocktail fundraising campaign, with participating bars mixing their own "Absolut Lowline" drinks and donating $1 from each sale to fund the yet-to-be-approved project.
Three Lower East Side bars have already signed up to participate in the Absolut Vodka-sponsored promotion, and the Lowline founders are looking for more mixologists to jump onboard with their own cocktail recipes.
"Since we've been so happily overwhelmed with offers from the local community to support the Lowline, we wanted to offer a fun way for small businesses and ordinary people to get involved," Lowline co-founder Dan Barasch wrote in an email to DNAinfo New York.
So far local bars 2nd Floor on Clinton, Donnybrook and Hotel on Rivington are all mixing up special Lowline cocktails.
The 2nd Floor on Clinton cocktail contains velvet falernum (a rum-based liqueur), beet juice, verjus (the juice of unripe grapes), lemon juice, gum arabic and bitters; the one at Donnybrook is made from fresh-squeezed grapefruit juice, muddled basil and simple syrup; and the one at the Hotel on Rivington is made from mandarin, grapefruit juice, lemon juice, simple syrup, sriracha and Triple Sec.
The Lowline has already raised hundreds of thousands of dollars from corporate and private donations as well as a Kickstarter campaign. Recently the MTA, which owns the unused space next to the Delancey Street subway station, agreed to begin discussing how the land might be legally transferred so it could become a park.
Barasch is focusing on signing up more bars on the Lower East Side, East Village and Chinatown to participate in the cocktail promotion but is open to working with venues from anywhere in the city.
"The cocktail recipe can be tailored to your liking and include any Absolut variety,” according to the Lowline's website.
