Mellow Drinks at Summit Bar in the East Village Unless you live there, the East Village is usually not the first neighborhood that comes to mind when you want a drink after work. The East Village is where your kids go with their friends - or where they rent an apartment (also with their friends). Evan Sung for The New York Times The Shu Jam Fizz (with and without fennel garnish), a drink served at the Summit Bar. But if you, a grownup of a certain age, want a very good drink in a nice bar - a place that is smart and sane - this is an excellent destination. And if you go in the early evening, before 10 on weeknights, it's generally easy to get a seat at the bar or a table. At 7 o'clock on a recent night, there are only a few people in the Summit Bar on Avenue C. It's a good-looking place: brick walls, lighting fixtures made of whiskey bottles, a photograph of the Rat Pack on a back wall, an outdoor patio area behind that. The Stones's "Under My Thumb" is on the sound system. The bartender hands you a drink menu and pours you a glass of water. On that menu are both classic and "alchemist" cocktails. The former includes a gimlet, a margarita and a caipirinha, among others. The latter: 12 other inventive, sophisticated drinks you really want to try. A cocktail called Ground to Glass ($10) includes Corralejo blanco tequila, cucumber, red pepper puree, housemade orange bitters, some fresh lime and hickory-smoked salt. It's pretty darned delicious, with the tequila, puree and salt conspiring on a distinctive campfire vibe and the cucumber supplying another summery note. "It's almost healthy," the bartender in the black Phillies hat says. He laughs, but you are pretty sure it has to be better for you than a rum and Coke. The second cocktail (this feature has a two-drink maximum) is his recommendation, the John Lee Hooker ($12), with Peat Monster scotch, Buffalo Trace bourbon, lemon, bitters (sarsaparilla and orange) and Hop Stoopid beer from Lagunitas Brewing. The scotch helps make it an appropriately smoky sequel to the Ground to Glass, and the beer helps make it both rich and refreshing. It's a mellow drink at a mellow hour at the Summit. A father and son are having beers at the bar (Victory Prima Pils and Kronenbourg, respectively). A guy pops in to ask for restaurant advice (Bobwhite, a block away, for fried chicken is the answer). A young woman encourages her friend to order the G to G, a regular's shorthand for the Ground to Glass. The bartender talks about a Spanish wine tasting he is running over the coming weekend at a store in Yorktown Heights. He's a wine guy too? "I'm a booze guy in general," he says. I like it all. The Summit Bar, 133 Avenue C, between Eighth and Ninth Streets. No phone. thesummitbar.net. Open 5:30 p.m.-4 a.m. every day.