As cocktails have moved toward center stage at many restaurants and nightspots, both restaurants and their customers have been looking to pair cocktails with food. The trick is to compromise the taste of neither the drink or the dish, says Dave Arnold, who opened Booker and Dax bar in New York City with Momofuku chef David Chang in January.

Generally, intensely flavored food goes best with cocktails, Mr. Arnold says, adding that 'cocktail pairings work very, very well in small-bite situations, where the flavor of the food tends to be very punchy and bold. You've got a lot of salt, you've got fried things, crunchy things -- things that can stand up to high-intensity flavors of cocktails,' he says.

Dishes that are bland or very subtle may not work so well with cocktails. Salads, for example, aren't the best pairing -- 'unless it's a bold salad, like a Cobb salad,' he says.

He believes some cuisines lend themselves to cocktail pairings, such as Mexican and many kinds of Asian foods, which tend to be more piquant, with a 'higher level of flavor,' he says. With such cuisines, Mr. Arnold likes 'citrus-forward cocktails' (traditional ones include margaritas and caipirinhas) whose tartness will be a good foil to the spices.

Mr. Arnold likes to start each meal with a classiccocktail like an Old Fashioned or a Manhattan that's 'very clean, there's not a lot of sugar in it, it's sophisticated and gets you in the mood' for the dinner ahead.

When deciding what to drink with a dish, Mr. Arnold thinks about what flavors will complement the main taste. Sometimes you need to look no further than a dish's accompaniments or garnishes. 'If I'm having pieces of lamb, then a mint-based cocktail would be delicious,' he says. Steaks can be enhanced by 'whiskey that has a lot of oak in it.'

A touch of fruit in a drink -- bananas or limes perhaps -- is 'awesome,' he adds, with grilled meats like pork. One of Mr. Arnold's favorite drinks with grilled meats is a concoction he created: 'Banana Justino,' which blends rum and bananas and is served on the rocks.

Cocktails often have a higher alcohol content than a standard glass of wine or beer, so Mr. Arnold cautions against having a full cocktail with each course in a meal. 'If you have five courses and five cocktails, we'd be wheeling you out of the restaurant in a wheelbarrow,' he says.

If Mr. Arnold plans to slowly sip one cocktail through a meal, he avoids carbonated beverages. 'They taste good for 10 minutes and they don't get any better,' says Mr. Arnold, who also prefers stirred drinks to ones shaken with ice if he plans to drink them slowly.

Dessert can be tricky. Mr. Arnold chooses a creamy, sweet cocktail only if his dessert has very little sugar in it, and says that straight spirits often work well with sweet desserts. When finishing off a meal with cheese, Mr. Arnold likes drinks anchored with whiskey, cognac or scotch, saying those smoky flavors 'can penetrate and cut through the fattiness and saltiness of the cheese.'

When entertaining at home, Mr. Arnold likes to design two cocktails that he believes go well with many dishes -- often one with whiskey and one with 'white spirits' like vodka or gin -- and make large amounts just before guests arrive. 'Mint goes very well with a lot of things,' he notes. And gin drinks work well with many spring and summer flavors, he says.

To balance out the cocktails, he often kicks up the flavor of his food. 'If you grill a bunch of things, most of the flavors are bold -- black pepper, salt, garlic,' he says. 'This gives you a lot of wiggle room with cocktails.'

Opened Booker and Dax bar in New York City with chef David Chang (of Momofuku fame) in January.

Director of Culinary Technology at the International Culinary Center in New York City.

Will be making cocktails May 1 at the Epicurean Cocktail Feast of New York's annual LuckyRice Festival.

Writes about food at the culinary center's blog, cookingissues.com