Sweet Basil Gin Rickey

When a woman over the age of thirty asks where she and her single friends should go for a drink, I always suggest Capital Grille. Yes, I know I've derided chain restaurants time and again, but for some reason, upscale steakhouse chains don't have the same taint (don't get me started on Outback Steakhouse). Perhaps it's Capital Grille's dark wood and leather interior, or the professional bartending staff, or the over-the-top fabulous servers (waiter Steve Trudell deserves an award), but the chain affiliation is never an issue here. Then again, this steakhouse has a bar that's always full of men, men who have the kinds of jobs that require them to wear suits -- as opposed to the normal bar crowd of tattooed youth misspending yet another day. Not to say that the people in this crowd haven't misspent their days in bars -- far from it. But this crowd has misspent days in bars around the world. Maybe that's why the Sweet Basil Gin Rickey Martini ($12) reminded me of a trip to Thailand. The combination of Hendrick's Gin with basil, lime juice and simple syrup evoked memories of walking out of a bamboo-and-thatch hut in Koh Samui, sitting on the fine white sand of the beach, watching the turquoise waters and swaying palms, and waiting for the towel boy to fetch my next drink. But at Capital Grille, that towel boy had better be wearing a suit.