Certain things just taste like summer: lobster rolls, popsicles, corn on the cob. The new Clam in the Can cocktail at Joe & Misses Doe is another one--essentially a michelada with a briny bite. One sip and you're transported to carefree summers spent seaside.

Jill Dobias owns the restaurant with her husband, Joe, and she's been quietly manning its bar program since the place opened as JoeDoe in 2008 (it reopened last year in its current incarnation), turning out playful, irreverent drinks that taste darn good. For Clam in the Can, which hasn't even officially hit the summer menu ("I'm still playing around with the recipe," Dobias says), she chills an aluminum can and adds clam juice, Tabasco, Tecate, and ice, which she sprinkles with Old Bay and salt. It's savory, citrusy, clammy, and summery--like a paper basket of fried clam fritters in drink form.

Also new on the lineup is Pop and Peanuts, a nod to the Southern tradition of pouring salted peanuts right into a bottle of Coke. Dobias does just that--with a mini glass bottle--and she adds a shot of Jaegermeister too. "People are really loving Pop and Peanuts," she says, sounding a little surprised.

On a recent visit, Dobias was playing around with one new drink that doesn't even have name yet--a rum-based concoction made with her own red chili flake syrup, lime, club soda, and pieces of dried coconut. And who knows what's next. "My ideas usually come about after service," she says. "Maybe Joe gets in some strawberries and I'm like, 'Ooh, that'd be a really nice summer cocktail.'" Like most good things in life, this drink list is a constant work in progress.

Joe & Misses Doe, 45 East 1st St., New York; 212-780-0262,
joeandmissesdoe.com

Photo via Paul Wagtouicz