The Shanty - NYC - Bar Review Evan Sung for The New York Times The Shanty, a bar next to the New York Distilling Company in Williamsburg. You can get impeccable drinks here, made with top-shelf spirits, house-made syrups, exotic bitters and hand-cut ice. You know, the usual. What sets this new bar apart is the big shiny copper and steel contraption in the next room. That's the New York Distilling Company's still, which by day turns grain into gin. At night, illuminated like a civic statue, it becomes décor, visible through the picture windows on the bar's back wall. The Shanty functions on its own terms, though. Home-team spirits are featured, not pushed. They will soon serve cheese and pickles from Stinky Brooklyn. It's a comfortable place, though the industrial exposed-brick look suggests slick professionalism. That may be the point. The owners - Tom Potter, a founder of Brooklyn Brewery, and the spirits expert Allen Katz - have impressive résumés. And the product? Oh, it's very, very good. For now, they have two types of gin, both novel. The Dorothy Parker is citrusy and floral; Perry's Tot is spicy and intense, and a whopping 114 proof. A rye and a few abstruse creations are in the works. The Shanty's barkeeps do good things simply. The lighter gin is matched with sweet hibiscus syrup in the Acerbic Mrs. Parker ($10), echoing the hibiscus used in distilling it. It also appears in a shot of pink gin, premixed with bitters and a bit of Campari, and dispensed from an antique still behind the bar ($8 with a can of Brooklyn Lager). A Tot & Tonic ($8) is probably the most complex two-ingredient drink in town. After a hard-edged bite, you taste wildflower honey in the gin, a waft of meadow floating up through the pleasant bitterness. It's doubtful another serious cocktail bar would serve something so basic. That's why the Shanty is already such a gem.