By Ada Brunstein

The Boston area has no shortage of bars and eateries. The South End, Beacon Hill, and all the Squares in Cambridge are jam-packed with food ‘n booze. But there’s a new hot spot in town that’s well worth visiting, even if it means stepping outside the comfort of your own neighborhood. South Boston’s Fort Point is the proud home of two new venues: Sportello and Drink.

I went to both on a Friday night, which was easy because Drink is right downstairs from Sportello in what used to be a wool warehouse at 384 Congress Street. While both venues would make any Friday night festive, I happened to be there on December 5th, the 75th anniversary of Congress’ ratification of the XXI Amendment, the repeal of prohibition.

My evening began at Sportello (“counter” in Italian), so named because a sleek white counter weaves from one end of the eatery to the other. With a bakery on one side of the serpentine counter and the cooks on the other, Sportello has all the comfort of a casual diner, but is far too modern and sleek in its design to officially fall into that category.

The food and wine are all Italian, but don’t expect the usual fare. On the pasta menu ($22) you’ll find strozzapreti with slow braised rabbit. On the entrée menu ($25) you’ll find swordfish, short ribs and pork shoulder. Even the Italian staples such as ricotta ravioli were surprising and unusually flavorful. Same goes for the mescaline salad. That’s high praise from someone who rarely orders the same salad twice.

The culinary star and owner of both Drink and Sportello is Barbara Lynch, who has pleased Bostonian palates for years with No. 9 Park and B&G Oysters, among others. Lynch grew up in South Boston and loves it. “This place is the next big boom in the city,” she said of a neighborhood with a long history and a lot of character.

The wine menu, like the dinner menu, is surprising and creative. Wine director Cat Silirie, known for her creative selections, chose from a wide array of regions: Val d’Aosta, Marche, Puglia, and Campania, to name a few.

Sportello offers 15 wines by the bottle, ranging from $33 to $54, and six by the glass. I tried all three of the reds, which I drank happily from stemless glasses. The 2006 Mirabile Nero d’Avola from Sicily ($10) was the favorite of the evening, followed by the 2007 Griesbauerhof St. Magdalener from Alto Adige ($9). Finally we tried the 2007 Corte Dei Papi Cesanese from Lazio ($12), which was lush and flavorful.

After dinner I headed downstairs to Drink where the wine selection is small compared to the virtually endless cocktail possibilities. The bar specializes in cocktails, particularly some they’ve revived from the prohibition era. I can’t tell you what they are because there was no drink list. But the knowledgeable bartenders, including local bartendress extraordinaire Misty Kalkofen of LUPEC (Ladies United for the Preservation of Endangered Cocktails), can handle any request. Give them the gist of what you want – something scotch-based, something fruity, something fun and light – and they’ll whip it up.

The design of the bar mirrors that of Sportello in that a continuous bar weaves from one end of the place to the other. All of the alcohol is kept below the bar, giving Drink more of a lounge feel. As the name suggests you should go there to drink, not eat, though a very small selection of snacks is offered.

Behind the bar you get the sense that it’s part laboratory and part theater. There are no test-tubes but among the various measuring devices I did spot an eye-dropper used to drip a precise amount of…something into a glass of something that looked fabulous. Fresh fruit sits on a table, ready for squeezing and grating. The high-energy bartenders seem to dance around each other, gracefully avoiding collisions in such a narrow space.

I had sangria and a glass of Syrah – Only Girls 2007 Vin de Pays d’Oc, which was created with organic farming methods by Diane de Puymorin and dedicated to her five daughters. The bartender told me the Syrah was exclusive to Drink, as was the Bellum el Principio.

The highlight at Drink might have been the cocktail menu, had I seen one.

But given that there was no menu, the real highlight was the novelty of the concept – the idea that you can walk into a bar in Fort Point on a Friday night and with some guidance from exceptionally skilled drink-crafters, order whatever your mood and imagination might conjure up.