Get spirited at a great food and booze event at the Bell House

By Elizabeth Dana

What, you never ordered a Bali Hai before?

Brooklyn’s best mixmasters will bring their shakers to the Bell House on April 6 for Good Spirits, where you can dine on dishes prepared some of the borough’s top chefs paired with exotic cocktails.

Brian Floyd, bar manager at Vanderbilt in Prospect Heights, has created a spiced tiki drink called the Bali Hai just for the occasion. It’s comprised of homemade ginger ale, fresh pineapple juice and clove with rum, perfect for the spring season.

“Traditionally tiki beverages have at least two kinds of rum and some layer of spice,” Floyd said. “The flavor is somewhat mysterious.”

On the food front, Park Slope-based Pan-Latin restaurant Palo Santo will pair two stews with mescals, which will come with a cactus pear chaser. Both pairings are recipes from Oaxaca, and chef Jacques Gautier tried to keep his dishes as close to the traditional tastes as possible rather than experiment.

“I feel like when it comes to combining flavors, it’s all been done before,” he said.

For Brooklyn foodies, the event will provide samplings from restaurants from Williamsburg (Walter Foods) to Ditmas Park (The Farm on Adderley), so you can try the best without hopping on the subway, and in the fashion that food and drink are meant to be shared — communally.

“I think there’s something really nice about sharing drinks and food with strangers,” said Samanatha Seier of Edible Brooklyn, which is producing the event. “It gives similarly minded people a chance to come together and also meet the people who are producing these items in their neighborhood.”

Good Spirits at the Bell House [149 Seventh St. between Second and Third avenues in Gowanus, (718) 643-6510], April 6 at 6 pm. Tickets are $40. For info, visit www.thebellhouseny.com.

-with Tony Cella