Cocktail of the Week: The Wayward Son at The Marrow

While waiting for your table (an inevitability given the constant throng of intrigued diners) at The Marrow, Harold Dieterle and Alicia Nosenzo's West Village homage to German and Italian cuisine, you can find refuge at the sleek granite bar. Glasses of crisp white vino from Italy's Marche region easily pave the way for the restaurant's ethereal baccala gnudi, but a more seductive alternative is the Wayward Son cocktail. At the bottom of bartender Devan Van Eyck's turmeric syrup-laced creation, a cherry offers a graceful red contrast to the cocktail's shimmering gold hue. A well-balanced apéritif, the Wayward Son marries the heat of Buffalo Trace White Dog unaged whiskey with Yellow Chartreuse and lemon juice. "No note is too strident, but all are clearly in evidence," Van Eyck points out. "Like the menu, it's a reflection of quality ingredients and bright, clean flavors." With this earthy-sweet mélange in hand, eating hardly seems a priority.