The Fifth Avenue Hotel’s The Portrait Bar has launched a new summer menu celebrating Long Island, its beaches, cocktails, and the LIRR.
There’s something about the LIRR—the clatter, the urgency, the quiet romance of watching a New Yorker crack a Montauk Summer Ale somewhere near Jamaica Station—that makes it more than just a commuter train. It’s ritual, it’s summer, it’s a bridge to something softer. That’s the spirit animating The Portrait Bar’s first-ever Long Island Rail Road Summer Menu, a seasonal ode to the shore-bound New Yorkers who trade Fifth Avenue’s concrete heat for the salted breezes of the East End.
Unveiled at The Fifth Avenue Hotel and available until September 21, 2025, the new cocktail insert—designed by Bar Director Darryl Chan—pairs nostalgia with serious mixology chops. The five featured cocktails are each named after a branch of the LIRR, the train line that, for many, defines the rhythm of summer weekend escapes.
Chef Andrew Carmellini joins the celebration with a trio of seafood dishes under the playful heading Captain AC’s Seafood Parlor, drawing directly from Long Island’s waters: Peconic Gold Oysters, Hog Neck Bay-style Fluke Ceviche, and a Classic Lobster Roll that practically insists on being eaten outside, in sunglasses, holding a spritz.
The menu itself is a love letter to retro design, styled like a folded LIRR timetable—complete with a fictional train schedule, an overworked commuter illustration, and a vintage-style ad featuring a lobster, a bearded ship captain, and an anchor.
“This is very close to home for me—literally,” said Chan, a Long Beach resident. “These drinks walk the line between playful and polished, and each incorporates ingredients or spirits from Long Island.”
Highlights include the Long Beach Branch, a tropical beer shandy featuring Barrier Brewing IPA and Planteray Pineapple Rum, and the Babylon Branch, a grown-up Long Island Iced Tea reimagined as a smoky Manhattan with Pine Barrens Single Malt Whisky, Patrón Reposado, and a cherry Dr. Pepper flourish.
There’s also the Oyster Bay Branch, a saline take on the G&T; the floral Ronkonkoma Branch, a nod to the Aviation; and the herbaceous Montauk Branch, a strawberry-laced Mint Julep riff made with Pine Barrens Cherrywood Smoked Whisky.
“Long Island is my second home,” said Carmellini. “This menu is about channeling those dockside flavors—and giving our guests a head start on that feeling, even before they catch the train.”
For more information on The Portrait Bar LIRR-inspired summer cocktail menu, head over to the official website.
