Cocktails With a Twist and a Game of Twister

The cocktail bar aesthetic has loosened its tie considerably over the last 10 years. In 2008, it was darkened rooms, arm garters and rules of etiquette. Now it’s all fun and games.

Recreation, a new hotel bar from the team behind the popular Greenwich Village bars Happiest Hour and Slowly Shirley, will open in September on the 5,000-square-foot third floor of the Moxy NYC Downtown hotel in the financial district. It will go beyond beer pong and darts to entertain its guests: There will be old-school arcade games like Ms. Pac-Man, Centipede and Donkey Kong, a Twister board painted on the floor, a half-size basketball court and Skee-Ball.

“It fits in with what we do, the getaway-themed kind of bar from another time when people valued their leisure time a little more than they do now,” said Jim Kearns, the beverage director of Golden Age Hospitality. The idea for the bar came from Jon Neidich, the group’s chief executive.

Recreation is one of several new bars around the country that pair craft cocktails and beer with retro family pastimes. The Spare Room, inside Hollywood’s historic Roosevelt Hotel, was a pioneer, offering bowling and board games to go with its custom mixed drinks since 2011. At Radio Social, which opened last year in Rochester, New York, you can drink from two bars in between rounds of bowling, table tennis, tabletop shuffleboard, pool and horseshoes. Can Can Wonderland in St. Paul, Minnesota, which also opened last year inside an old canning factory, has boozy slushies and beer floats and a custom-made minigolf course. At the Painted Pin in Atlanta, there are Bee’s Knees cocktails to go with your bowling and bocce. The same goes for Pinewood Social in Nashville, Tennessee.

Recreation’s cocktails will focus on “simple ideas, simple flavors, but complex execution,” Kearns said. “One-and-ones, but doing something interesting with them.” Sounds about right. Who needs to count the number of ingredients in your cocktail when a giant Jenga tower is in the balance?

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26 Ann St. (Theatre Alley), September.