Sept. 25 (Bloomberg) -- Bubble gum is now available as an alcoholic beverage. Better hide the kids.

Is this another Joe Camel ploy?

No. The candy-store cocktail comes courtesy of Tailor, a subversive little restaurant in Manhattan's fashionable Soho district. Two evil geniuses practice their diabolical craft here: Sam Mason, the chef and owner, and Eben Freeman, the bar manager.

Both are alumni of WD-50, the Lower East Side's Michelin- starred haven of gastronomic mayhem. Or put more simply, they come from the place that figured out how to fry mayo into cubes.

Expect similar experiments at Tailor.

Freeman is the molecular mixologist behind the ``Bazooka,'' which is bubble-gum cordial, sour mix and vodka. If Big League Chew were a drink, it would taste like this. The well-balanced cocktail is sweet, sour and strong. New York wouldn't be worse off if this became the next appletini.

Warning: There's no way to look tough when ordering a bubble-gum martini.

``You actually like that drink?'' queried an off-duty bartender. The exasperated employee, it must be noted, was sipping brown-butter-infused rum with his girlfriend.

Neither of us was very James Dean. Perhaps that's the point: Serve playful fare in a speakeasy atmosphere and everyone still feels cool.

The dining room lies behind an unmarked wooden door. Tables are a bit too high. Chairs are a bit too big. You feel like a kid again. Cue the exposed-filament light bulbs and tall, pretty patrons and you're back in Soho.

Got Liver?

No peanut butter and jelly here. Instead, peanut butter and foie gras. The luxurious liver is gently perfumed with nuts. Sweet pears take the place of jelly.

Got milk?

The server brings a short glass filled with cold, creamy froth. But the liquid isn't white; it's pastel blue. This is a violet fizz -- gin, citrus, egg, violet, cream -- an alcoholic drink masquerading as a breakfast staple, a purple cow for grown-ups.

Take a bite of the foie, then drink the fizz. The cream carries the fat. The gin keeps the richness in check. Save the Sauternes for Daniel.

Is this all dessert pretending to be dinner? Sort of. Mason won his fame as a pastry chef. Here he doesn't so much blur the lines between courses as subvert them. Half the offerings are labeled ``salty,'' the other half ``sweet.'' Except the salty items are also sweet, and the sweet items salty.

September Christmas

Pink slices of brined pork belly (salty) lie in a pool of brown miso butterscotch (sweet). This is wrong, you declare. Then you taste it. Aha! It's a glazed holiday ham.

Caramel panna cotta (profoundly nutty) sits next to corn sorbet (cool and sweet). Put them together and what do you get?

Caramel corn.

They say arctic char is fruity. Not fruity enough for Mason. He poaches the char in passion fruit. Coconut shavings further disguise the polar fish.

Peach melba typically gets its red hue from peach skins and raspberry puree. None of that here: The peach treat turns crimson from tomatoes. The vegetal jolt reminds you that some classics shouldn't be reinvented.

Yes, Mason and Freeman are equal parts chef and scientist. In a nod to Ferran Adria's El Bulli, foams abound. There's pineapple foam over peekytoe crab. Beer foam over figs. Thai basil foam over lemon curd. Orange foam over scotch.

But since this isn't El Bulli, you don't need to call a year in advance for a table. You can just walk in.

East Coast Foam

Tailor belongs to the New York school of avant-gardism. It has less in common with Chicago's Alinea (where 24-course meals cost $195 and include dishes so complex they require instructions on how to eat them) than with WD-50, where tasting menus are cheaper, simpler and shorter.

This is molecular gastronomy for everyone.

Drop by and descend to the basement lounge for an impromptu drink. It's nice to have a local bar where cola is smoked, bourbon is tobaccoed and rye is pumpernickeled -- the whiskey, not the bread. Don't ask how. Just try it.

Our Wednesday-night dinner for two cost $115. Our Friday- night dinner cost $147. Tasting menus are $85.

Tailor is at 525 Broome St., near Thompson Street. Information: +1-212-334-5182 or http://tailornyc.com.

(Ryan Sutton is a writer for Bloomberg News. The opinions expressed are his own.)

To contact the writer of this story: Ryan Sutton in New York at rsutton1@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: September 25, 2007 00:11 EDT