CBD is this year’s It substance. The legal hemp plant derivative is touted as a stress-beater and all-around wonder drug, and it’s popping up everywhere from yoga studios to beauty shops.
But at Adriaen Block, the self-described “city’s first CBD-centered bar and restaurant,” a half-gallon of the stuff left me as cranky as ever.
Adriaen Block brings an unaccustomed sight to a sleepy, residential Astoria neighborhood: a red-velvet rope on stanchions around the corner entrance.
It’s to contain crowds, says affable owner Zsolt “George” Csonka, a veteran of the One Group restaurant and club empire (STK, Bagatelle). He’s made it his mission to introduce the dining masses to cannabidiol tincture — which won’t get you high but “may induce a calming sensation,” the menu says. Early on Friday night, his spare but cozy little boîte was still waiting for the hordes to claim their CBD fix, although business picked up by 9 p.m.
A high-strung type full of nervous energy, I yearned to try CBD, which Adriaen Block serves in exotic cocktails ($15), in sauces for nicely turned-out American dishes (small plates $9-$14, grilled entrees $22-$31) and in whipped cream with desserts ($6).
Floor-roaming Csonka dispensed CBD droplets from an eye dropper with a lab technician’s precision into potent libations such as the Rolled Fashioned (Aperol, pineau des Charentes and Angostura bitters).
We also had it in side sauces with a juicy burger, moist and fresh wild salmon and chewy New York strip steak, and in whipped cream to spoon onto Key lime pie and chocolate crepes for dessert. CBD peppercorn sauce with the steak was especially delicious. (An earlier rule of only two CBD items per customer to conserve supplies is “being relaxed,” says a restaurant rep.)
I waited expectantly for the fabled, Valium-like chill that stole over customer Barbara Kovacs, a personal trainer, who said that minutes after her first CBD-infused, “life-changing” cocktail, she enjoyed a “calming sensation. It relieved stress, and I felt peaceful.”
It certainly worked its magic as well on my high-energy friend Karen. At first buzzing from strong coffee she had earlier, she reclined contentedly into a corner of the banquette after a “1614,” an elixir of Petrov Reserve, sparkling wine, muddled honeydew, agave and lime. “A mellow stop at the end of the W line,” she sighed.
But my anxiety level doesn’t quit so easily. All I felt was the standard buzz I get from a killer cocktail — or a beer or two. At least I enjoyed the flavor: The tincture lent a gentle, peppermint lilt to everything it touched.
Adriaen Block isn’t the only place to try CBD. You can buy it yourself on Amazon, or try it in some coffee bars and lounges around town. But Csonka says he prefers the kind he uses, an American brand called Every Day Optimal. Unlike some others, he says, it’s guaranteed to contain zero THC (the high-inducing element of marijuana) and to be free of heavy metals and pesticides.
Whew! I can finally relax.
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