Sometimes a Thai restaurant is just a Thai restaurant.
Tablecloths. Plates. Pad thai.
But every once in a while, you get that rare Thai restaurant that’s actually a gateway to a secret universe of oversize cocktails with sparklers, homemade ginger moonshine and blonde bartendresses named Cricket.
Good news: today we bring word of the latter...
Say hello to 71 Lounge, a red-lit den of crazy Polynesian cocktails tucked behind the Thai restaurant Moonchine, now open on Biscayne Boulevard for your covert drinking needs.
To get to this tiki escape pad, you’ve got a couple options. You can enter Moonchine, make your way through the dining room and out the back, and cross through a garden. Call it the scenic route. Or you can head straight to the bar behind Moonchine. Call it route 1.
Either way, you’ll reach a bohemian lounge that feels like where Don Draper might have taken his more beatnik-oriented girlfriends: it’s housed in a former mid-century motel, and full of old benches, restored radios and big red Chinese lanterns.
It’s best to show up around midnight, with a drinking partner who can handle their liquor. Anything with the housemade ginger liqueur is a winner, but if you’re feeling both thirsty and festive, you’ll want to ask for the Miss Saigon, a colossal beverage (satisfies eight to 10 people) made with vanilla vodka, ginger moonshine and lemon juice, and served in a tall vase complete with giant straws, orchids and lit sparklers.
You know: just a nice, simple drink.
Tablecloths. Plates. Pad thai.
But every once in a while, you get that rare Thai restaurant that’s actually a gateway to a secret universe of oversize cocktails with sparklers, homemade ginger moonshine and blonde bartendresses named Cricket.
Good news: today we bring word of the latter...
Say hello to 71 Lounge, a red-lit den of crazy Polynesian cocktails tucked behind the Thai restaurant Moonchine, now open on Biscayne Boulevard for your covert drinking needs.
To get to this tiki escape pad, you’ve got a couple options. You can enter Moonchine, make your way through the dining room and out the back, and cross through a garden. Call it the scenic route. Or you can head straight to the bar behind Moonchine. Call it route 1.
Either way, you’ll reach a bohemian lounge that feels like where Don Draper might have taken his more beatnik-oriented girlfriends: it’s housed in a former mid-century motel, and full of old benches, restored radios and big red Chinese lanterns.
It’s best to show up around midnight, with a drinking partner who can handle their liquor. Anything with the housemade ginger liqueur is a winner, but if you’re feeling both thirsty and festive, you’ll want to ask for the Miss Saigon, a colossal beverage (satisfies eight to 10 people) made with vanilla vodka, ginger moonshine and lemon juice, and served in a tall vase complete with giant straws, orchids and lit sparklers.
You know: just a nice, simple drink.
