#cocktails

#cocktails

Kina Lillet was still being made according to the original recipe that it launched with in the late 1800s - fruit liqueur, wine, and quinine.

Clint Hill, the secret service agent assigned to Jacqueline Kennedy, modified the traditional Negroni by replacing gin and vermouth with vodka and soda water, creating a lighter drink.

Patsy's Pizzeria, a cornerstone of New York's pizza scene since 1933, has opened a new flagship location in Flatiron, bringing coal-fired classics and an expanded Italian menu.

Pisco is a great spirit with a great story. At the bar, the team has recently featured an Italia pisco, and guests are taken aback by how fragrant and perfumey it is.

Yi Cha serves a menu of drinking-oriented fare, or anju, rooted in chef-owner Debbie Lee's North Korean heritage and Southern upbringing, with a heavy dash of influences from Southern California's immigrant communities. Locals in the area sidle up to the bar for cocktails like the dongchimi-inspired Radish to Riches and the vibrant Jeju Sunrise, which pairs lychee-infused vodka with mandarin, orange, and pomegranate juice.

The Tusk Bar exudes old-guard Manhattan élán-the sort of room that could have doubled as a private clubhouse for the Vanderbilts and Rockefellers. The name is a wink to the Gilded Age fascination with exotic taxidermy, and the polished brass trim, elegant marble counter, and stuffed ostrich overlooking the salon would make any louche Robber Baron chortle into his Champagne flute.

"I wouldn't say the bramble is the only way to enjoy contemporary gin, but it's absolutely one of the most flattering cocktails to highlight the category," says Justin Lavenue, co-owner of Austin's famed cocktail bar The Roosevelt Room. "Contemporary gins, which tend to lean away from heavy juniper and more toward citrus, floral, root, and herbaceous notes, shine in cocktails where those subtleties have room to breathe. Unlike many other gin-based classics, the bramble gives them exactly that platform."

The natural wine bar with a nightly dance party that took the Mission by storm in the last couple years is expanding in the neighborhood with a second venue, which will be a nightclub with food and cocktails. Bar Part Time, which started as a pandemic pop-up and has become a popular fixture on 14th Street, was part of a natural wine wave that has drawn in a bevy of young Millenial and Gen Z drinkers in recent years.

The space shifts depending on where you sit: There's a dim, modern barroom that's ideal for after-work drinks and casual dates; a second dining room that leans nostalgic with booths and old-school Italian restaurant touches like paisley walls bedecked in clusters of family photos; and an intriguing downstairs cocktail lounge that would make Frank Sinatra proud. But the draw here is the crackly, light tavern-style pies that feel dangerously easy to finish solo.

If it's been a while, head over to your local bar. Tell the bartender you don't need to see their list of $36 artisanal craft cocktails, thank you. You don't want their watered-down fruit juice in a tiny glass, and if there's a teaspoon of tequila in there, you count yourself lucky. What you want is a Long Island Iced Tea. It's the strong magic potion you're looking for, and here at Esquire, we fully endorse it.

Flying internationally in the winter can be difficult - crowded airports sometimes turn into a no-man's land of grumpy travelers, downcast due to bad weather and flight delays. But I know one thing can make that trip more bearable: a cocktail. Especially when it's in a themed bar. During a recent 16-hour journey from the UK to the US, I decided to visit a speakeasy called Williams & Graham during my layover at the Denver International Airport.

Despite its minuscule size, Backdoor 43 has charm. The four-square-meter space boasts soaring ceilings ringed with rows of rare whisky, yellowing vintage photographs and various other ephemera from butterfly collections to dangling carved hot air balloons, which is a surprising amount to look at in a bar that has only four seats and a to-go window (or the "drink away" window, as Backdoor 43 calls it).

Triple Sec is the name for a category of dry orange liqueurs: it translates to "triple dry" in French. The other major family of orange liqueurs is Curaçao, which are sweeter (and sometimes blue, like in these Blue Curacao cocktails!). Within the Triple Sec category, you'll find a wide range of quality and price: check out my guide to Cointreau vs Triple Sec.

Housed in a former church banquet hall, Hermon's is an 89-seat restaurant named after the lesser-known Northeast Los Angeles neighborhood in which it resides. It is the latest addition to James Beard Award-nominated Last Word Hospitality's growing portfolio of neighborhood haunts that offer city-wide appeal, like perpetually busy Found Oyster in East Hollywood and Historic Filipinotown's Rasarumah. Chef DK Kolender (formerly of Tartine and Dudley's Market) runs the kitchen, serving a crowd-pleasing menu full of Italian, French, and continental American touches

Hidden in a Philadelphia back alley, behind a clandestine door, lies a dark yet spirited cocktail lounge. Called the Ranstead Room, it's one of Philly's best-kept secrets. The speakeasy isn't easy to find, unless you happen to be behind El Rey Mexican restaurant on Ranstead Street. And even then, you'll have to locate a discreet black door with two R's emblazoned into it. But it's worth the quest, and it's one of my favorite lairs in the city.

Come to Rye Bar every Wednesday for free hot dogs with every Hornitos cocktail purchase. Mo and Kat are you bartenders and hot dog slingers for the night (combining their love of hot dogs and tequila), and will pair the perfect cocktail for you for hot doggin' all night. And your pet dogs are welcome, too! Wiener Wednesday Every Wednesday, 6pm to close Rye Bar, 688 Geary St. at Leavenworth, SFFree hot dog with every Hornitos cocktail or shot purchase