On Monday around 9 p.m., three young Brooklynites stopped into Counter, a vegetarian restaurant in the East Village. Laughing and chatting, they sampled organic raspberries, poached pears, fresh pineapple and strawberries.
That this bounty was found not tableside but at the bar, where the restaurant’s menu of organic cocktails has been steadily expanding, only heightened the appeal.
“It’s the same thing as top-shelf liquor,” said Nick Guffey, 28, a massage therapist with an ink-black shag haircut, referring to drinks like his red-wine-and-poached-pear organic cocktail. “You can drink a ton and not wake up with a hangover.”
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The healthful-cocktail concept received an imprint of credibility in April, when researchers at the United States Department of Agriculture, in conjunction with Thai colleagues, reported that adding alcohol to strawberries and blackberries increased their antioxidant capacity (although alcohol still causes some cell damage, some scientists cautioned).
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