In many circles, Shanghai, China’s capital for… well, just about everything, isn’t yet considered one of the top international locations for food and drink. There’s Paris, New York, Tokyo and Los Angeles. But Shanghai, despite earning a few spots in…
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When I visited the Aviary in Chicago in the summer of 2015, I drank a rum Manhattan that was smoked inside a made-to-order plastic bag. I was served a drink inside a treasure chest. I used a slingshot to break…
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Arizona is a place that’s made for cocktails. The weather is right all year long for any variety of tipples, from margaritas and citrus-heavy drinks in the summer to vermouth and Chartreuse-tinged libations in the winter, there’s a cocktail…
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To step into Blacktail is to step into a freeze frame of a bygone era. With its rich wood paneling, rotating brass fans, and oversize leather couches, Blacktail channels an early 20th century Havana, where Americans flocked when their rums,…
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Typically, your Halloween cocktails fall into two camps: those that look the part, and those that taste good. Rarely is a drink with muddled candy corn or gummy worm garnishes something you actually want to drink. So just when you…
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The annual list of the 50 best bars in the world was just released, and Manhattan bar, The Dead Rabbit, has taken top honors. New York and London cleaned up, with the two cities accounting for nine of the top…
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Shanghai. When one hears of it, images of the skyline of the Pudong New District, with the orb of the Oriental Pearl Tower, the bottle opener that is the World Financial Center, and other buildings come to mind. Crowds,…
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Knappogue Castle Single Malt Irish Whiskey got a new look. And to celebrate, they flew in a couple heavyweight bartenders from across these great states to Pouring Ribbons in New York’s East Village just for the occasion. The visiting…
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It would be an overstatement to say that Derek Brown birthed DC’s cocktail renaissance. After all, before he burst onto the scene, there were plenty of Washington bartenders–Todd Thrasher and Gina Chersevani notable among them–doing interesting work. But when Brown…
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Justin Lavenue is having a good year. The talented barkeep was just named Eater Austin’s 2015 Bartender of the Year, and prior to that he was named Food & Wine’s 2015 Best New Mixologist and Bombay Sapphire’s Most Imaginative Bartender….
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They often don’t get the same national attention as bars in New York and San Francisco, but Texas cities are producing some of the finest bars in America. With a talented cadre of barmen representing Austin, Dallas, Ft Worth, Houston,…
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The Belle Epoque cocktail hails from Restaurant R’evolution in New Orleans. It first caught our attention because of its utilization of a unique ingredient — ratafia. Ratafia is an infusion of a base spirit (typically brandy) with fruit. Historically, ratafia…
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Weather Up is that rare cocktail bar with multiple locations. So after visiting one of its New York spots, we decided to pay the Texas version a visit. It being about 1,500 miles closer to our house and all. Upon…
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You enter this speakeasy-style Denver cocktail bar from the street, into a dark, quiet and musty book store. The hostess slips a piece of paper through a secret compartment to the other side, and the bookcase swings open allowing the…
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One of the most anticipated events at this year’s Tales of the Cocktail was the Bare Knuckle Bar Fight, which pitted seven bars against in each other in a drinks slinging, no-holds-barred fight to the death. Sort of. It was…
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Paper Plane, a collaboration between Victory Sandwich Bar and Paul Calvert, opened about two months ago, and is already, easily, one of the best cocktail bars in Atlanta. This is to be expected, with Paul Calvert at the helm of…
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A travel dispatch from roving reporter, Nico Martini. Down a back alley in the heart of Singapore, there’s a hidden door that leads you to an even more hidden gem of a cocktail bar called 28 Hongkong Street. It’s not…
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A travel dispatch from roving reporter, Nico Martini. Not often do you have an opportunity to visit the birth place of a world-famous cocktail. So, when in Singapore, I made it my mission to drink a Singapore Sling. Invented by…
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Our pals at Tasting Table are a thirsty lot, regularly traipsing about the country in search of fine libations. It’s tireless, thankless work. Actually, no, it’s pretty great. But to justify their expense reports, they’ve got to have something to…
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On a recent Saturday night, I found myself on Austin’s notorious 6th Street. The Longhorns were about to kickoff, and every bar on the block was packed full of burnt orange. Good times, to be sure. But hey, I wanted…
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