Is the future of Brooklyn drinking champagne? “Witness the Champagne Cup, a mixture of brandy, Benedictine, maraschino liqueur and Champagne, at the Jakewalk, a Carroll Gardens wine, cheese and cocktail bar that opened in the spring. Or the Grand Dame at Quarter Bar, which opened last summer on Fifth Avenue in South Slope; in the Grand Dame, oranges and cherries are muddled with sugar and orange bitters, then shaken with bourbon, strained, and topped with a float of dry sparkling wine. At Botanica, which opened last week in Red Hook, the Champagne, along with absinthe, is going into an opalescent, Hemingway-inspired drink called Death in the Afternoon.”–NYT