We stopped by on a chilly and surprisingly busy Wednesday night. The crowd was a festive cross-section of Midtown Manhattanites pouring in after work: Finance bros bundled up in Ralph Lauren scarves, art students from Pratt Institute and a handful of past and future thrift shoppers on their way from the nearby Buffalo Exchange. We sat down at the bar beside a couple of guests gushing over the Paddy\u2019s Pub decor. Two forty-somethings giggling about a recreation of the D.E.N.N.I.S. system set up by the front entrance.<\/p>\n
Suddenly, it all clicked. \u201cIt\u2019s Always Sunny\u201d has been on TV for over twenty years, and pretty much everyone in the room was old enough to have grown up around some iteration of the show.<\/p>\n
Co-owner and managing partner Luis Hernandez guided us through the menu. We had had the pleasure of stopping by a few months prior and were already familiar with the basics of Hello Hello\u2019s \u201chigh-dive\u201d concept. A clarified Vodka Redbull poured from tap; an Espresso Martini mixed with an in-house coffee liqueur; a Midori Cooler ripped straight from the 1970s, with decidedly 2025 additions of Mijenta tequila and wasabi. The Hello Hello bar program leans punchy and nostalgic, elevating each of its well-trodden recipes with at least one ingredient that\u2019s bound to raise some eyebrows. (Case in point, its infamous Green Tea Gummy Bear shots.)<\/p>\n
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It\u2019s Always Sunny<\/p>\n
The quartet of Paddy\u2019s Pub drinks played by similar rules. Sadly, we weren\u2019t able to order the coconut-forward Fight Milk Eggnog, which had sold out just minutes earlier when a group of Four Walls brand representatives swung by to check out the digs. Instead, our attention was directed toward the Riot Juice, an ominous mix of whiskey, blue Gatorade, lemon and dry vermouth served inside the bar\u2019s signature beer mug.<\/p>\n
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It\u2019s Always Sunny<\/p>\n
It looked like wiper fluid and drank like sunshine. Never in a million years would we have guessed that Gatorade and dry vermouth could work hand-in-hand, but the combination was delightfully tasty, with a breezy, light-on-its-feet vibe vaguely reminiscent of pink lemonade. Hernandez said that the drink was a test run for a Dewar\u2019s Scotch and Yellow Gatorade highball that may soon find its way onto Hello Hello\u2019s permanent menu. Hopefully, another drink that tastes a whole lot better than it looks.<\/p>\n
Next on the agenda, the Whiskey Ham. An homage to the legendary Season 7 gag in which Danny DeVito is stranded at sea with his beloved rum-soaked ham<\/a>, this was the only cocktail that was sure to make an appearance at the pop-up in some form or another. Alas, the \u201cIt\u2019s Always Sunny\u201d boys didn\u2019t venture into cane spirits, so Hello Hello had to remix the concept, if only slightly. The Old Fashioned riff combined whiskey, sherry, demerara, banana and bitters with \u2014 you guessed it \u2014 a slice of whiskey ham shishkebabed onto a cocktail skewer.<\/p>\n It\u2019s Always Sunny<\/p>\n Fortunately (or perhaps unfortunately, depending on your perspective), it wasn\u2019t the kind of savory drink found a few miles downtown at Double Chicken Please. The cocktail played with plush flavors of chocolate, brown sugar and subtle oak, as if a chef had trimmed the glazed edges off a ham and marinated them in Irish whiskey for a few hours. Barely a hint of pork flavor in sight. The same could not be said for the garnish, which had a pleasantly boozy bite and a none-too-chewy texture.<\/p>\n![\"It\u2019s](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/c6eb7f2e0feee8e03692012ff9fc8934.jpeg\"\/)
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