11 Gin Cocktails to Drink On National Menus Now

by  on  in Imbiber

Covering the 11 top gin cocktails around the US at Liquor.com, you’ll find my top national drinks on menus at these bars/restaurants:

Watertable at Hyatt Regency Huntington Beach, CA

Moongate Lounge, SF

Here’s How, Oakland

The joys of gin shine any time of year but seem suited to spring with gin’s herbaceous, botanical goodness able to beautifully enhance ingredients as varied as rooibos tea to apricot preserves. These 11 national bars and restaurants oblige with gin cocktails worth drinking on menus now. 

Where the Red Fern(et) Grows (Watertable, Huntington Beach, CA)
In a county where it has long been tough to find great cocktails, laid back Huntington Beach offers a few destinations, including LSXO and Pacific Hideaway. Follow the Hyatt Regency’s striking ocean views through it’s gardens and fountains to find Watertable, a restaurant where Tanner Johnson’s cocktails are destination-worthy, many delicately incorporating smoke. Where the Red Fern(Et) Grows combines Botanist Gin, Fernet Branca, ginger simple syrup, lemon and a house douglas fir cranberry shrub, evoking California’s evergreen forests. 

Flørodoro (Longway Tavern, New Orleans, LA)
One of Nola’s most exciting new restaurants in 2018, Longway Tavern is in the heart of the  French Quarter, housed in a 1794 building with a light-strewn brick courtyard, serving inspired dishes like vegetarian cassoulet or non-traditional pork, beef and spaghetti squash Bolognese. Bar director Liam Deegan’s cocktails lean mostly classic (think a Sazerac, Sidecar or Martini), but the Flørodoro is a simple but delightful house drink of Botanist gin, fino sherry, lime, Giffard Creme de Framboise (raspberry), lime and ginger beer. Bright, fruity, subtly spiced and floral, the fino imparts a dry backbone.

Little Hamilton Project (Bastion, Nashville, TN)
One of Nashville’s great bars and industry hangouts (with a tasting menu restaurant hidden in the back), Bastion continues to draw regulars to its lofty, white light-strewn warehouse space for easy drinking, well made cocktails. While listening to records from their extensive vinyl collection, sip Little Hamilton Project, a drink created by bartender Seth Litzenberg. Drumshanbo Gunpowder Irish Gin anticipates summer paired with a burst of apricot juice, given herbaceous complexity from rosemary pine syrup and a rosemary sprig for garnish.

Pleasure Seeker (Naive, Louisville, KY)
While some dishes can be uneven at Naive, the charming, hip space is anything but — and since opening in Spring 2018, brings a much-needed vegetarian-forward, sustainably and locally-sourced menu to Louisville. Husband-and-wife duo Catherine MacDowall and Michael Kerrigan are admirably pursuing zero carbon footprint and livable wages for their staff at the casual, order-at-the-counter cafe. Pleasure Seeker is, indeed, a gin-tea pleasure of a cocktail, combining rooibos tea and crème de cassis (blackcurrant liqueur), brightened with passionfruit, lime and tiki bitters.

Vernal Equinox (Moongate Lounge, San Francisco, CA)
Just opened in March upstairs above Michelin-starred Mister Jiu’s in a Chinatown alley, Moongate Lounge furthers the vision of chef Brandon Jew (with bar bites like char siu pork collar bao) and Jiu’s barman Danny Louie with Moongate’s Alex Kulick. The seductive space’s teal couches and carpet and flanked by red velvet booths, glowing with a moongate door under an oculus dome skylight. Six of Alex’s house cocktails (try the beautiful Io: mezcal, Amaro Montenegro, black garlic, cherry, flamed nine spice) accompany six seasonal cocktails, all based on the Chinese lunar calendar. Louie’s Vernal Equinox shows off Bobby’s Schiedam Dry Gin from the Netherlands with jasmine and a delicate bitter melon, softened with celery, cucumber and granny apples. A house sweet and sour (a mix of pineapple, orange, lemon, lime, honey, rice vinegar) brightens and rounds it all out. 

A Night in Tunisia (Rosa Rosa, Portland, OR)
James Beard Award-winning Vitaly Paley is a well known chef in Portland given his popular restaurants like Paley’s Place, Imperial and The Crown. At the end of 2018, he and his wife, Kimberly, opened Rosa Rosa with chef Kenny Giambalvo in the Dossier hotel. While they serve food all day at white marble-top café tables and plush circular banquettes, there are also seasonal cocktails from beverage director Charles Hildreth, who worked at the likes of Aquavit, Eleven Madison Park and Gramercy Tavern in NYC. A Night in Tunisia is one of his draft cocktails, with the bones of a Negroni (gin, Campari, Cinzano Rosso vermouth), warmed by cinnamon, cardamom, allspice, fennel seed and star anise. A subtle dose of coffee calls on PDX’s rich coffee history. 

Coco’s With Me (67 Orange Street, New York, NY)
Turning 10 years old in December 2018, 67 Orange Street was Harlem’s first craft cocktail bar from restaurateur Karl Franz Williams. As one of the first black owned and operated bars in New York, a Harlem cocktail renaissance followed alongside the formation of Harlem Park to Park, a neighborhood network of over 250 businesses, which Karl helped co-found, including his contribution to showcase bartenders in the area. GM/bar manager David Libespere came to NY from France 10 years ago, working his way up from busser to head bartender. His Coco with Me shows off gin’s berry sister, Plymouth Sloe Gin, alongside lemon and juicy blueberries, given further herbaceous notes from rosemary syrup and fennel bitters.

Orchard Sunset (Beacon Tavern, Chicago, IL)
Near ever-bustling Magnificent Mile, Beacon Tavern chef Bob Broskey plays with tavern classics and seafood in dishes like salmon rillettes, shrimp toast and chicken pot pie. Alex Schmaling pairs it all with seasonal cocktails, like the popular Orchard Sunset. Chamomile and orange peel-infused Bombay Sapphire Dry gin is spiced up with green cardamom syrup, Aperol, Bonne Mamman apricot preserves and lemon for a fruit-forward sipper with a bitter, spiced backbone. 

Rhymes with Orange (The Douglas Room, San Francisco, CA)
The consummate hospitality of Mo Hodges, Brian Felley and their strong team of bartenders (they also run nearby Benjamin Cooper) ensures a relaxed experience at The Douglas Room with chef Glen Schwartz’ killer bar food like the “for real” Italian Hoagie, Dougie Fresh chicories salad (with beets, radishes, candied nuts, Champagne vinaigrette) or dreamy banana bread “French-toast-style.” But drink up, whether it be a shot of their house barrel of Russell’s Reserve Rye whiskey or crushable cocktails like Rhymes with Orange, blending Suntory Roku Gin, Blinking Owl Aquavit and LoFi Gentian Amaro, kicked up with blood orange, passionfruit, lime and garnished with orange rind ribbons. 

Other Brother (Here’s How, Oakland, CA) 
From Jennifer Colliau (of SF’s The Interval and pioneering Small Hand Foods), the long-anticipated Here’s How soft-opened this month in downtown Oakland. A glass-walled prep room allows you to watch ice cutting, cocktails being carbonated and canned and the production of house sodas. In the spacious space under an undulating, wavelike ceiling, snack on pickled deviled eggs with pretzels and peruse a menu that includes recipes — the “here’s how” portion. Canned cocktails keep it fun and Jen’s Interval classics, like the Navy Gimlet, are strong gin choices. But so is Other Brother, with its base of Rutte Celery Gin playing off the dry brininess of Tio Pepe fino sherry, Dolin Blanc vermouth and orange bitters. 

The Port in St. Pierre (The Alex Craft Cocktail Cellar & Speakeasy, Washington D.C.)The Alex Craft Cocktail Cellar & Speakeasy is a mouthful of a bar name, housed inside the chic Graham Georgetown Hotel. But the Victoriana underground haunt is destination for Saturday night jazz (by reservation) and romantic dates. Andrew Lamkin’s Bathtub Gin & Tonic is popular, served in a mini-bathtub with house tonic. But Lamkin goes further with gin in The Port in St. Pierre. Its dominant base is Bols Genever with a touch of Beefeater Gin, yellow Chartreuse and Grand Marnier, given acidic backbone from lemon, softened with egg white. The malty-herbaceous drink is finished with a spritz of green Chartreuse, dramatically torched.