"Are you making an 'Old Fashioned'?" The phrase uttered by Don Draper was one of the most recognizable sequences of 'Mad Men', the cult series which aired from 2007 to 2015 and which used the New York advertising world of the 1960s as a mirror to describe the great changes that had occurred in American society during the decade.
An homage to that world has found new life in New York in the form of a Mad Men-themed restaurant.
'Agency of Record' opened its doors a few months ago in midtown on Madison Avenue, once known as the advertising corridor, not far from the Grand Central train station and inside the historic Renwick Hotel , once a favorite haunt of writers such as F.
Scott Fitzgerald, John Steinbeck and Thomas Mann.
Taking advantage of the famous motto, 'If it doesn't sell, it isn't creative' by British advertising man and father of 'Brand Image' David Ogilvy, Agency of Record presents itself with an elegant which goes on the sophisticated eccentric and brings one's thoughts back to the so-called kinky parties of New York's golden age of advertising.
"We want - owner Ryan McKenzie told ANSA - our guests at Agency of Record to feel transported to another time and another place". "The design of the space - he continues - is chic and with an 'old New York' touch that is almost eccentric. You enter through a golden entrance with gold lions and once inside you are surrounded by a space with intense mahogany reminiscent of the '60s.
The restaurant is also decorated with vintage records and books, candles and other elements typical of a bar of those years".
Even the cocktails are a tribute to the world of advertising and the names are inspired by advertising slang. These include Like Soda for a Baby, The Big Sell, From a Far Away Land, Everyone is Doing It, Always Be Closing, Sex Sells. Many more famous cocktails such as Manhattan and Old Fashioned are presented in an elevated version with a modern touch, with tradition combined with innovation.