Escape the Winter Blues at Erv’s

Two men approaching the Prospect-Lefferts Gardens bar Erv’s, on a recent Wednesday night, hesitated when they heard the horn section of a local jazz band screaming through the windows. They walked in anyway, but left without ordering, agreeing to return another time, when the place might have quieter programming. Two days later, there was no band, and a Snazzerac—a take on a Sazerac, spiffed up with the addition of pecan liqueur—could be sipped in relative peace. Mac DeMarco sang salty beach tunes over the stereo, a fitting choice for the first truly frigid night of the season, when head colds and existential dread abounded. “I’m so old,” someone moaned to a friend in a booth. “I’m almost twenty-seven.” Hats and jackets spread into the bar’s expansion, finished last spring, which transformed the closetlike neighborhood spot, opened in 2014, into a full-fledged cocktail lounge and community space, complete with a disco ball, a coffee counter, and mixology classes. A woman with long blond hair, dressed in a powder-blue peacoat with matching pants, wondered aloud what drink might best suit the weather and fend off any impending illness. She considered the Creamsicle, a frozen cocktail that patrons were allowed to sample before ordering, made of rum, orange juice, and cream, served in a skull-shaped mug and topped with sprigs of mint, but opted for the Turme-Rick James, which glowed yellow next to a plate of Vietnamese noodles, provided by Quynh, the pop-up Vietnamese kitchen that occupies the coffee counter at night. She took a sip and nodded. “Very turmeric-y,” she said, “which is good, because it’s an anti-inflammatory.” ♦