What's more 90s than a Grey Goose vodka martini, icily shaken and well seasoned with brine?

At the newly revamped and remodeled Starlite, atop the Beacon Grand Hotel — aka the former Harry Denton's Starlight Room atop the Sir Francis Drake Hotel — you may get a taste of what nightlife is going to look like in this still newborn, barely post-pandemic decade.

This isn't the raucous, shoulder-to-shoulder, wait-for-twenty-minutes-to-get-a-drink vibe of yesteryear, and the new Starlite doesn't even have a dancefloor at one end like it used to. It's more lounge than club, but with sweeping, almost-360-degree views of the city that rival the Top of the Mark.

There are waitstaff, and a very civilized, retro-chic bar scene at one end. The furniture is comfortable, velvety and lush. And the music by DJ Nina Tarr, at least on the Thursday night I was there, was eclectic and down-beat, but not maudlin — a sort of mashup of world music, pool party, and late-night trance sounds, like an international cocktail of vibes.

The design of the space is by Alice Crumeyrolle of Maison A, and it evokes the warmly lit living room of a mature, stylish Hollywood party girl who likes to take the party home but keep it tame.

And while the cocktails by longtime bar star Scott Baird are the star of the show, the food by D.C. chef Johnny Spero is far nicer than it needs to be. The best bites include a crudité plate that comes with some unusual vegetables for dipping in Green Goddess dip, like tangy ice plant and crunchy oca. There's also a terrific, if bready, grilled cheese sandwich on brioche with a mix of Cowgirl Creamery cheeses, and a meatloaf sandwich in place of a burger that definitely feeds two, and is easily divided.

But back to the drinks. Baird's menu has two sides to it, with a list of classics made with good ingredients — including a Manhattan with Knob Creek rye and a Negroni with Roku gin.

But the more fun side of the menu includes signature drinks that pay homage to cocktails of yore, with modern twists. While Baird's spin on the Cable Car cocktail, with Don Q 7-year rum, Mommenpop blood orange aperitif, lemon, and Chinese five-spice syrup is a delicious nod to the cable cars that run by just outside the hotel, other selections get more cheeky.

The Porn Star Martini, which was created two decades ago by the late Douglas Ankrah, is more popular in the UK than it is here, but you'll find one at Starlite. It's a fruity, sweeter type of drink associated with lightweights, mixing vodka, passionfruit, and Champagne, but it goes down easy.

A refreshing, cleaner option — but still a throwback — is the Dirty 90s Martini. As Baird describes it in the "Cocktail Stories" section of the menu, "Honestly, if you don’t dirty martini every once in a while, are you living? Shake it so hard I can ice skate across the top, many would say. Ice-cold, briny vodka, garnished with Castelvetrano olives piped with the finest French blue cheese, St. Agur, then capped with a confetti of salted lemon rind.  The dirty martini is like sitting shotgun in a big, bad muscle car. Just relax, it’s just fast. Really fast."

It's an olive oil-infused Grey Goose vodka Martini, shaken and icy cold, and done with a house-made briney vermouth. So, it's got a refreshing salinity that doesn't hit you over the head like raw olive brine, and it goes down remarkably easy.

And those blue-cheese-stuffed Castelvetrano olives are pretty bomb, even if the whole thing is a bit much with a skewer of three.

The 80s may have been about excess, but the 90s were about rediscovering cocktail culture and stuffing olives with anything but a pimento — in those innocent, Cosmopolitan-swilling times before people used the word "mixologist." And this cocktail somehow sums that up that simpler era (with the Porn Star Martini, beside it, playing the role of the Cosmo-loving single lady).

You'll want a reservation at Starlite, especially if you're more than a twosome — and if you're celebrating something, try to angle for one of the window seats on the former dancefloor, overlooking Union Square.

Starlite - on the 19th floor of the Beacon Grand Hotel, 450 Powell Street - open Thursday to Saturday, 4 pm to 1 am, and Sunday 2 pm to 11 pm - Find reservations here