11 Top Cocktails Around the US Now — March 2018

by  on  in Imbiber
Quince’s The Tempest

Covering the 11 hottest cocktails of the month around the US at Liquor.com, you’ll find my top national drinks now at these bars/restaurants (click on each for the featured cocktail):

South Seas Tiki Lounge’s Hell’s Gate, Charleston

Bars from Santa Barbara to Brooklyn are taking comfort in Tiki on chilly nights, experimenting with sherry or rum and playing with rarities like malort and pommeau. These 11 bars and restaurants around the country are serving unique, refreshing cocktails worth drinking now.

Can’t make it to any of the bars this month? Try making The Kon-Tiki Grog from The Kon-Tiki in Oakland at home.

The Tempest (Quince, San Francisco, CA)
With 3 Michelin stars, Quince is one of the country’s great destination fine dining Italian restaurants, thanks to Michael Tusk’s Bologna-trained classic ethos partnered with forward-thinking, San Francisco vision. The recent addition of Michael Kudra (from The Aviary in Chicago) means the cocktails are now on that 3 Michelin level. Kudra boldly goes grappa-forward in the Shakespeare-referenced Tempest, infusing the grape-based brandy with butterfly pea flower and Tempus Fugit Creme de Violet for bold color and floral flavor, cooled by a Meyer lemon sorbet, dotted with gold flakes and fennel flowers. 

Buana Larang (Smithy, Santa Barbara, CA)
Transformed from the former Somerset restaurant to Smithy Kitchen + Bar in December, this Santa Barbara newcomer boasts chef Lauren Herman’s (from LA’s Lucques Group) pastas and Korean fried chicken served in a striking-yet-soothing dining room and white light-strewn courtyard. Chad Nielson crafts cocktails featuring under-the-radar spirits like kummel or aquavit and housemade ingredients like fresh pear and fennel juice or a lime apple cider shrub. Request his off menu Buana Larang (Indonesian for “forbidden world”) or just ask for the apricot-arak cocktail. It plays like a classic Savoy cocktail circa 1930s but is decidedly “now” with a base of batavia arak delicately accented by apricot liqueur, a touch of Wray & Nephew overproof rum, Peychaud’s bitters with tamarind and lemon for subtle tart-acidic backbone. 

Paint It Gold (Cane & Table, New Orleans, LA)
For a little low proof goodness, try Paint it Gold, a Cane & Table cocktail that goes well beyond the rum and Caribbean-influenced cocktails they are known for at the edge of Nola’s French Quarter. It drinks light and elegant with a white wine base given backbone with a touch of Cognac and subtle tropical vibe with Jamaican spices and vivid citrus. It feels like spring is fully here sipping it in C&T’s beautifully crumbling, Old World back patio. 

Jub Jub Bird (Sunday in Brooklyn, Brooklyn, NY)
Definitive hipster hangout Sunday In Brooklyn welcomes all-day crowds in Williamsburg under exposed beams alongside a wood burning oven. The long bar is the ideal perch for filling up on buckwheat sourdough bread with salted beer butter or togarashi chicken drumsticks. Claire Sprouse’s cocktails are ultimately meant for day-long easy drinking without feeling simple. Jub Jub Bird is a house blend of Jamaican rums, bringing subtle-sweet funk, balanced by the nuttiness of Madeira, soft pink honey and the earthiness of J. Rieger & Co.’s Caffe Amaro.

Hell’s Gate (The South Seas Tiki Lounge, Charleston, SC)
Intimate and charming, Charleston’s South Seas Tiki Lounge goes full-on Tiki but with modern understatement, expanding their space in November with booths and a fireplace. Tiki cocktail classics play with coconut shrimp and poké bowls for a little Hawaiian flair. Hell’s Gate drinks cool and refreshing with a base of 8 year aged rum and Rhum Clement Creole Shrubb, accented with spiced honey, lime, pineapple, a garnish of dehydrated pineapple and a float of black strap rum.

Prospect Park Swizzle (Bar Clacson, Los Angeles, CA)
Keeping it fun with foosball and bocce, Bar Clacson opened in January 2017 from the unstoppable 213 Hospitality group. In March 2017, hidden back bar, The Slipper Clutch, followed on Clacson’s heels with pinball machines and batched cocktails served via soda gun. Up front, Clacson shakes up easy drinking cocktails alongside beer, wine, cider and cocktails, all on draft. It’s hard not to love the crushed ice goodness of a swizzle and Clacson’s Prospect Park Swizzle is (rightly) a house favorite. Its a layered flow of silver rum, aquavit (for subtle caraway dill intrigue), lime juice, sugar, fresh mint and Peychaud’s bitters. 

Heart to Handle (Salero, Chicago, IL) 
At West Loop Spanish restaurant Salero, beverage director Suzie Whitacre took on Chicago’s long, cold winters with seasonal goodness in housemade ingredients like a roasted butternut squash, black cardamom and sage-steeped shrub with sherry vinegar for acidic balance. Heart to Handle utilizes this shrub with a spirit base (and Kentucky duo) of Four Roses Bourbon and Copper and Kings Brandy contrasted with Lustau Vermut. Served on the rocks, the spiced earthiness and shrub’s acid intermingle with the soft, sweet yet robust edges of the squash, bourbon and brandy. 

Nine Below Zero (Clay, New York, NY)
Harlem farm-to-table restaurant and natural wine bar newcomer Clay also goes thoughtful on the beer and cocktail side, thanks to bar director Andrea Needell Matteliano (formerly of Michelin-starred Agern), who has lived in Harlem over 20 years. She favors local spirits and hyper-seasonal ingredients, naming each cocktail on her current menu after an iconic jazz song. Spirituous and stirred, Nine Below Zero showcases the dill-caraway notes of aquavit against a backdrop of Icelandic birch snaps (or schnaps), Baska Snaps malort, NY state maple syrup, orange bitters and smoked salt for nuance, garnished with a bay leaf.

Foxglove (BarVale, San Francisco, CA)
Nopa’s new Spanish tapas destination, BarVale, opened in SF in December with chef Patricio Duffoo’s delectable hot and cold tapas, Spanish-style gin and tonics, Spanish wines, sherries and sherry flights (including an “Old & Rare” selection). Spanish-born Jessica Everett crafts cocktails often showcasing sherries and a robust gin selection. Foxglove shows off the nutty, dry notes of amontillado sherry with a bitter whisper of amaro, the almond-ginger of falernum, a touch of creamy coconut and lime, imparting an almost tropical vibe with a Spanish soul. 

The Crank (Jackrabbit, Portland, OR)
San Francisco’s Chris Cosentino took his meaty mastery to Portland when Jackrabbit opened last March in the Duniway Portland Hilton. Cocktails aid in the meat and seafood extravaganza that takes place in the retro-cool dining room. The Crank is served tall on the rocks, featuring Del Maguey Vida mezcal and the fresh apple complexity of Pommeau de Normandie (Calvados apple brandy with a touch of fresh cider), accented with basil, lime and agave. The sal de gusano rim (sea salt, ground chile and toasted, ground worms — a mezcal staple in Mexico) is optional but adds a “just right” savory touch. 

The Kon-Tiki Grog (The Kon-Tiki, Oakland, CA)
Head under the palapa or crawl into a cozy booth at Oakland’s new The Kon-Tiki (in the former Longitude space) for chef Manuel Bonilla’s addictive pupu platters and killer burger, paired with Christ Aivaliotis and Matthew Reagan’s rum and Tiki cocktail beauties. The Kon-Tiki Grog is a riff off a classic Trader Vic’s Grog whose secret weapon is Hamilton Jamaican Pot Still Black Rum. That brings the molasses funk contrasted with tart Small Hands Foods passionfruit syrup, lemon, lime and Angostura Bitters in a drink that might read simple but is one the most rewarding on the menu. 

The Kon-Tiki Grog
2 oz. Hamilton Reserve Pot Still Jamaican Black Rum
1 oz. fresh pineapple juice
3/4 oz. fresh lemon juice
1/2 oz. Small Hands Foods Passionfruit syrup
1 dash Angostura Bitters

Combine all and give a very short shake with crushed ice, served in a Tiki mug. Garnish with a mint sprig and cherry speared to a pineapple wedge.

The Kon-Tiki in Oakland
Bar Clacson’s Prospect Park Swizzle, Los Angeles