Golden Cadillac

Golden Cadillac's celebration of the 1970s, sans disco balls, caught on like a fever as soon as the venue opened in late 2013. The dark East Village corner space is like a new dive bar, with shiny, reflective surfaces that show the young crowd to its best advantage. Both straight men and bachelorette parties are delighted, not embarrassed, to be seen getting rounds of umbrella drinks, which are actually more serious than you'd think, since cocktail scholar/owner Greg Boehm (of the online mixology purveyor Cocktail Kingdom) is behind the concept. The food is good, derived from vintage Gourmet magazines and Boehm's grandmother, who inspired the chicken schnitzel he loved as a child of the '70s. The cheese fondue, trio of hot dogs (individual brats topped with chopped-liver chili, banana-beer ketchup, and smoked mustard and cabbage) and deep-fried Monte Cristo mini-sandwiches suggest the decade might not have been so bad.