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Drink: A smoky, spicy double at Double Knot

You can expect drama of all sorts in the sushi cellar that is Double Knot - including the kind you drink. An aromatic whiff of cinnamon and clove smoke, ignited table-side and smoldering off a barrel stave, curls up inside an upside-down snifter destined

Zachary Davis makes the cocktail called the Double Knot at Double Knot, 120 S. 13th St.
Zachary Davis makes the cocktail called the Double Knot at Double Knot, 120 S. 13th St.Read moreDAVID SWANSON
    by Craig LaBan, Restaurant Critic
    Published 

You can expect drama of all sorts in the sushi cellar that is Double Knot - including the kind you drink.

An aromatic whiff of cinnamon and clove smoke, ignited table-side and smoldering off a barrel stave, curls up inside an upside-down snifter destined for the signature Double Knot cocktail.

The drink itself is beverage manager Zachary Davis' boozy play on the "double" theme, with two kinds of whiskey (Maker's Mark 46 bourbon and Dickel rye), two vermouths (bitter Punt e Mes and delicately sweet Carpano Bianco), and two varieties of Angostura bitters blended for an impressively harmonious, perfect Manhattan.

But once it's poured into that smoke-rolled tumbler, it takes on all kinds of other aromas, especially with the clove notes that calls out to Dickel's natural spice.

By the time it's gone, the soft sweetness of cherry smoke coming off Double Knot's robatayaki grill fills the void, and you know it's time to eat.

- Craig LaBan
Double Knot cocktail, $13, 120 S. 13th St., 215-631-3868; doubleknotphilly.com