For extended hours and relaxing ambiance, though, few places top Donostia. Service starts 8 AM and ends at midnight. Customers have been known to spend the day there, cruising peaceably from breakfast to lunch to dinner via an array of in-betweens. It’s surprisingly easy to do. In pace, plates and attitude, Donostia is a sliver of Spain in Manhattan. This is the anti-rush. Sit. Sip. Be.

Word has it that Donostia offers the widest selection of sherry by the glass – not just in the city, but in the nation. With some 60 bottles in the sherry section alone, the menu could absorb your attention and some very happy time. Vermouths run from the dawn pale to the night dark, from the darkly herbaceous to the silkily sweet. Donostia, too, offers cocktails. There is no deprivation here.

Maybe that’s the key to aperitifs and digestif. In a harried world, where there’s barely enough time to catch a train, meet a deadline, fit in a gym session, or get a good night’s sleep, digestifs and aperitifs remind us that there is no need to rush; that self-care is not only acceptable, but traditional; and that it is just fine to sit and sip and be at ease with your world.

7/7