FLATIRON — The Museum of Sex is opening a new art bar called Play with cocktails and small plates that explore the relationship between food and sex through collaborative art pieces — including a cocktail that lets guests lick the drink off of a skin-textured plate.
Play, located at 1 E. 27th St., hired artist Bart Hess to create the cocktail called Lickable Skin, which explores the underside of the tongue, the primary vehicle for tasting, said a spokeswoman for the bar.
“[It] requires guests to lick the cocktail off of the surface of a custom-designed, shallow plate,” the spokeswoman explained. “The alien texture of the plate holds a viscous, otherworldly cocktail in contrast with the high-gloss surface of the vessel.”
Aside from the specialty art cocktails, Play, which opens on Thursday, will offer 22 house cocktails for $14 each, with names like Loose Women and Pickpockets and Drive-in Saturday, which is made with popcorn butter-washed bourbon whiskey and pharmacy cola syrup, with salt on the rim of the glass.
Small plates available include braised beef tongue, fried tofu skin and octopus "fun dip," made with sous-vide octopus marinated in olive oil and herbs.
As for the interior, red booths, couches and shelves full of adult books are scattered throughout the 2,500-square-foot bar, which has 160 seats.
“Play has artists merge our sexuality with our everyday experience, such as grabbing lunch or getting a cocktail, by curating art from creative disciplines to craft their interpretation of desire in the form of food and drink,” the bar's spokeswoman said.
