Drink This Now: Bicycle Ride at Yvonne’s

The Bicycle Ride cocktail at Yvonne’s. / Photo by Yvonne’s

As summer’s uncomfortably humid embrace comes to a close, your chances to enjoy a nice bike ride outdoors are numbered. Take solace at Yvonne’s, drinking a cocktail called Bicycle Ride, instead.

The mixed drink is part of the new Downtown Crossing gem‘s remixed cocktail menu, courtesy for new bar manager Nicole Lebedevitch. Lebedevitch takes over for opening bar manager Will Thompson, who steps aside from Yvonne’s day-to-day to become beverage director of the growing restaurant group (Lolita Cocina & Tequila Bar, the soon-to-open Ruka).

The mixologist has spent the past decade behind the bar at Eastern Standard and the Hawthorne, learning from cocktail legend Jackson Cannon most recently as general manager at the Hawthorne. At Yvonne’s, Lebedevitch’s creations complement the posh atmosphere at Yvonne’s, as well as the social experience chef Juan Pedrosa cultivates with his shared plates.

The Bicycle Ride is a refreshingly beautiful glass of dry vermouth, elderflower liqueur, rum, celery bitters, and grapefruit oil. Other new additions include the Rose Thorn, with mint, pomegranate, Hendrick’s gin, and Combier Rose, plus Lebedevitch’s take on the Scotch cocktail, the Penicillin. Check out the full new cocktail list online.

The hospitality group from partners Christopher Jamison, Mark Malatesta, and culinary director Tom Berry is poised to grow with a Seaport outpost of Lolita, as well as the Peruvian-Japanese Ruka. In his new role, Thompson aims to unite the three concepts and build upon each of their strengths.

“I’ll be looking towards opportunities for us to function like the group that we are, rather than a handful of disparate restaurants,” Thompson says, like “single barrels of spirit designed just for our bars, chances for our team to travel, learn, and grow, while bringing back the best the rest of the country has to offer for our guests.”

While we all wait for more on what Ruka’s bar will have in store when it debuts in Downtown Crossing this November, sip on a Bicycle Ride at Yvonne’s and ponder how little energy is needed to enjoy it.

$13, Yvonne’s, 2 Winter Place, 617-267-0047, yvonnesboston.com.