The opening date for Forty Four, the revamped lobby bar at midtown Manhattan's Royalton Hotel, will be Sept. 20. As for the menu composed by the so-called Cocktail Collective—Richard Boccato from Dutch Kills and Painkiller in New York City; John Lermayer from the Florida Room in Miami Beach, and Woodward in Boston; Simon Ford, a former London bartender, and now a global cocktail ambassador employed by Pernod Ricard USA; Willy Shine, one of the founders of Contemporary Cocktails, a prominent cocktail consultancy based in New York City; Misty Kalkofen, who tends bar at Drink in Boston; and Eric Alperin, head bartender at the Varnish in Los Angeles—that's still be worked over, but expect something soon. After all, once that sextet settles on a list, they will have to teach the drinks and their methods to the Royalton's union bar staff, which may prove a tricky task. Union bartenders don't alway possess the same fervor for fancy drink-building that today's young mixologists do.
