Covering the 11 hottest cocktails of the month around the US at Liquor.com, you’ll find my bar and drink recommends over the holidays and the winter at these bars/restaurants (click on each for the featured cocktail):
- Charmaine’s, San Francisco
- Seaworthy, New Orleans
- The Cocktail Club, Charleston
- The Oxford, Sunnyvale, CA
- P.Y.T., Los Angeles
- Wewatta Point, Denver
- The Jungle Bird, Sacramento
- Junior, San Francisco
- Emily West Village, New York City
- Here’s Looking at You, Los Angeles
- Bar Casa Vale, Portland, OR
At bars from New Orleans to Sacramento, the new year ushers in with a drinkable bang. Banana bread syrup brings new layers to tequila. Strawberry and coconut play very differently in drinks at Charleston and San Francisco bars. Smoky cedar and Scotch go the delicate route with egg white and butterflies. Head out to these 11 bars/restaurants for unique cocktails worth drinking now.
Cuddly Toy (Charmaine’s at Proper Hotel, San Francisco, CA)
The dreamiest rooftop bar in San Francisco, Charmaine’s, recently opened atop the Proper Hotel, complete with fire pits, striking views and cozy-chic interior. Like Villon downstairs, the BVHospitality-created drinks play sophisticated yet fun, ideal with quality bar food like black bean sliders with a smoked mango raita or a hot dog in a milk and honey bun. Cuddly Toy surprises: a booze-forward, bracing sipper of Avión Silver tequila and Luxardo Bitter Bianco vermouth served over one large ice cube, the cocktail is gently spiced and complex with a housemade banana bread syrup.
Sage Ad Vice (Seaworthy, New Orleans, LA)
In an 1832 Creole cottage just off the Ace Hotel New Orleans, Seaworthy is a Nola gem for wild-caught and sustainably harvested oysters from the Gulf, East and West Coasts, plus top-notch seafood dishes showcasing local fish, like a smoked cobia crudo inspired by a muffaletta sandwich. Cocktails are equally a draw, some featuring a house blend spiced rum that combines Hamilton Overproof Rum and Don Q Cristal, steeped with the likes of cloves, orange, cinnamon and vanilla. This makes an ideal base for the unique Sage Ad Vice cocktail to which bartender Beth Willow adds surprising splash of fresh orange juice, honey bitters and sage leaves soaked in Hamilton Rum. It’s not OJ heavy or too juicy-sweet but nuanced, spiced, fresh and bold.
MacGuffin (Here’s Looking at You, Los Angeles, CA)
In what is one of LA’s best restaurants now, Here’s Looking at You is killing it with inspired dishes like eggplant in creamy goma-dare (Japanese sesame sauce) with tomato and serrano chilies. But cocktails keep step with the food: unique, delicious and featuring ingredients like celery or tamarind. MacGuffin recalls the spirit of modern-day classic, Trinidad Sour, with its heavy dose of Angostura Bitters and tart lime. But in the MacGuffin, creamy texture and island spice-sweetness comes from a house banana nectar cordial, coconut cream and aquafaba (cooked legume/chickpea liquid).
After the Disco (Cocktail Club, Charleston, SC)
Charleston’s Cocktail Club can get mobbed but with its hidden, upstairs space in an 1881 building, live music and Ryan Welliver and team’s quality cocktails ensure the bar is more than a “scene.” Bartender Tyler Wolter created After the Disco, with its summery touch of strawberry-infused Del Maguey Crema de Mezcal to brighten up the winter. Coconut-infused Plantation 5 year Rum and a tart splash of pineapple and lime juices, result in a drink that is both balanced and understated, yet layered and vibrant with a subtly smoky, tropical slant.
Heavens to Betsy (Junior, San Francisco, CA)
Just open November 30th, Junior (from the crew behind Anina and Brass Tacks — Anthony Healy-London, Matty Conway, Josh McAdam with former Padrecito bar manager David Roark Ruiz) is that ideal neighborhood bar that offers something for everyone: laid back and current, top-notch drinks without pretension, an Airstream trailer-inspired photo booth and CA craft beers on draft. There’s a cocktail in spirit categories from Calvados to Scotch, while Heavens to Betsy goes down complex yet easy with Old Grandad Bonded Bourbon, strawberry tincture, Cocchi Americano and a balanced mix of coconut milk, toasted coconut syrup, St. George’s Bruto Americano and a whisper of passionfruit. It all comes together in one creamy, tart-bittersweet, tropical whole.
Gin Tonics (Bar Casa Vale, Portland, OR)
In late 2016, Portland finally got an honest-to-goodness escape to Spain restaurant in Bar Casa Vale. Here, anchovies and Jamon Iberico flow alongside pages of sherries, Spanish wines, sidras (cider) and beers. In keeping with Spain’s most popular drink, there’s a Gin & Tonic section served in proper Spanish style: in wine goblets with customized garnishes for each gin. You can certainly go British with a London dry or Spanish with Mahon gin, garnished with the likes of cucumber, lemon and herbs. There are also local Oregon gins, like Aria or Walter Collective, the former a citrus-forward gin, the latter a spice-laden gin, garnished with cucumber, lime and pink peppercorn.
Night Vision (P.Y.T., Los Angeles, CA)
In keeping with trends of the last few years in places like San Francisco’s AL’s Place, P.Y.T. opened late 2016 as a vegetable-centric restaurant in downtown LA, showcasing everything from scarlet radishes to Japanese red mustard in its dishes. As another of LA restaurant great Josef Centeno’s spots, drinks stay garden-fresh in keeping with the food, featuring cold-pressed juices and vegetables. Night Vision feels more like a (deceptively) healthy blast of Plymouth gin, fizzy kombucha, a vibrant ginger syrup and lemon, turned sunny orange with fresh carrot juice.
Pardy Hardy (Emily West Village, New York, NY)
This summer, Manhattan finally got an outpost of the beloved Brooklyn duo, Emily and Emmy Squared, in West Village. Emily West Village turns out the same creative thin-crust pizzas and decadent Detroit-style pizzas but with different topping combinations than the other two locations. Beverage director Bobby Daglio’s Pardy Hardy is a perfect daytime cocktail that goes savory but not treading the weary Bloody Mary route. Here, tequila, lime and cilantro are given tart, green roundness from a house, fire-roasted tomatillo and jalapeno salsa, shaken and strained in the drink.
Headhunter’s Grog (The Jungle Bird, Sacramento, CA)
Hidden behind dark windows, The Jungle Bird is a Tiki hideaway in Sac, transporting with colorful lamps, palm frond wallpaper and totems. Themed rum nights feature a style (like agricole rhum) or a rum-producing island/region paired with bites, bringing a little drinking education to the whimsical Disneyland Tiki room-esque vibe. Headhunter’s Grog goes rum-my with El Dorado Spiced Rum, then surprises with a slate-smoke kick from mezcal. It’s all shaken with white grapefruit and lime juices, passionfruit syrup, Angostura bitters and a dash of Allspice Dram, served in a Tiki mug with a smoking cinnamon stick.
Eastern Medicine (Wewatta Point, Denver, CO)
New sister restaurant to LA’s Laurel Point, Wewatta Point is a sunny, seafood-centric restaurant in Denver’s revitalized, historic train station: Union Station. Beverage director Kaitlyn Chiletti keeps the drink side pairable with whole Thai snapper and lobster rolls. She created Eastern Medicine with bartender Rachael Potts as a take off the modern day classic Penicillin, using floral-tart yuzu juice instead of lemon as a partner to the Asian ingredients used in their dishes. With a base of Buffalo Trace bourbon, honey, yuzu and ginger, a peaty blast comes from a mist of Laphroaig Scotch.
Somewhere in the Time of Butterflies (The Oxford, Sunnyvale, CA)In Silicon Valley’s town of Sunnyvale, The Oxford is a casual Indian-British gastropub where lamb shepherd’s pie and chicken tikka masala is served alongside fish & chips. Cocktails cool or cut through spicy, rich dishes, like the popular house Oxford Mule (earl grey-infused Reyka Vodka, house ginger-lime elixir, Jamaican bitters). But it’s Somewhere in the Time of Butterflies that sneaks up quietly with elegant punch. Soft and frothy with egg white, a touch of cream and an edible butterfly garnish served in a champagne flute, this is actually a Bank Note Scotch-based drink. Enhanced by a celery-rose-lime elixir and a dash of Bittercube Orange Bitters, the cocktail is subtly smoky with a smoldering cedar sliver.
