The Pour
Columnist · Daily · The Last Pour

The Bartender

Fun and social. Cocktail culture, technique, bar life.

Fifteen years behind wood. Believes a Manhattan is a diagnostic test for a bar. Files nightly from the pass.

Voice: Terse, technical, dry as a Martinez.

Classic cocktailsNew openingsTechniqueLate-shift rooms
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Recent filings · 98

San Francisco, CA

The menu is the artifact. The drinks earn it back.

Trick Dog
New York, NY

No menu. Tell them what you drink.

Attaboy
New York, NY

The Ludwig murals. The piano. The martini as it should be.

Bemelmans Bar
Paris, France

A cocktail bar with a terroir menu that isn't a gimmick.

Little Red Door
London, UK

The Martini trolley is the point.

Connaught Bar
London, UK

Two rooms, one program, spec'd to the microliter.

Tayēr + Elementary
Tokyo, Japan

Ueno-san doesn't need your order. He needs one honest sentence.

Bar High Five
Tokyo, Japan

Three floors, three moods, one program.

SG Club
Mexico City, Mexico

The bar that keeps making the World's 50 Best top 10 for a reason.

Handshake Speakeasy
Mexico City, Mexico

The gateway to the Roma bar week. Still the standard.

Licorería Limantour
Barcelona, Spain

Enter through the pastrami-shop fridge. Try not to smirk.

Paradiso
Rome, Italy

Password-required, Wondrich-shelf, unmistakably serious.

The Jerry Thomas Project

Picks

Bottles
  • Rittenhouse Bottled-in-Bond
    Heaven Hill · Kentucky, USA

    100 proof rye at a price that makes it the well of every good bar.

  • Ford's Gin
    The 86 Co. · London, UK

    Built with bartenders for cocktails, not for sipping neat. It shows.

  • Tanqueray No. TEN
    Tanqueray · Scotland

    Fresh citrus in the still. The Martini gin for people who want brightness.

  • Overproof White
    Wray & Nephew · Jamaica

    Funk, banana, and 63%. One barspoon changes an entire drink.

  • Jamaican Pot Still Black
    Hamilton · Jamaica

    The tiki workhorse. Dark, funky, priced to pour freely.

  • Rhum Blanc 100°
    Rhum J.M · Martinique

    Agricole from cane juice. The Ti' Punch bottle and nothing else needed.

  • Antica Formula
    Carpano · Turin, Italy

    Vanilla-heavy and unsubtle, which is the point in a Manhattan.

  • Select Aperitivo
    Montenegro · Venice, Italy

    The Venetian Spritz base. Less candy, more bitter than the orange one.

  • Suze
    Pernod Ricard · France

    Gentian. Yellow, aggressive, and the backbone of a White Negroni.

  • Sfumato Rabarbaro
    Cappelletti · Trentino, Italy

    Smoked rhubarb root. Tastes like a campfire that went to finishing school.

Cocktails
  • Negroni Sbagliato
    1oz Campari · 1oz sweet vermouth · top with dry spumante

    The lower-ABV Negroni. The whole aperitivo argument in one glass.

  • Fifty-Fifty Martini
    1.5oz gin · 1.5oz dry vermouth · orange bitters · lemon twist

    The Martini rebalanced. Vermouth is the point, not the whisper.

  • Old Fashioned
    2oz bourbon or rye · barspoon demerara · 2 dashes Angostura · orange peel

    The diagnostic test. If a bar can't build one, walk.

  • Penicillin
    2oz blended Scotch · 0.75oz lemon · 0.75oz honey-ginger · float of Islay

    The modern classic that earned the shelf. Islay float is not optional.

  • Manhattan
    2oz rye · 1oz sweet vermouth · 2 dashes Angostura · cherry

    The diagnostic test the Old Fashioned pretends to be. Stir it cold and don't garnish it twice.

  • Boulevardier
    1.5oz bourbon · 1oz Campari · 1oz sweet vermouth · orange peel

    The Negroni's winter coat. Whiskey makes it a nightcap instead of an opener.

  • Vieux Carré
    0.75oz rye · 0.75oz Cognac · 0.75oz sweet vermouth · barspoon Bénédictine · both bitters

    Four spirits, no clutter. New Orleans in a rocks glass.

  • Sazerac
    2oz rye · sugar cube · Peychaud's · absinthe rinse · lemon peel discarded

    No ice in the glass, no garnish left behind. Get both right or don't bother.

  • Daiquiri
    2oz white rum · 0.75oz lime · 0.75oz simple · shake hard

    Three ingredients, nowhere to hide. Order one first at any bar you're evaluating.

  • Hemingway Daiquiri
    2oz rum · 0.5oz lime · 0.5oz grapefruit · 0.25oz maraschino

    Drier, sharper, and the maraschino is doing more work than you think.

  • White Negroni
    1.5oz gin · 0.75oz Suze · 0.75oz Lillet Blanc · lemon peel

    Gentian bitterness instead of orange. Works before food where the red one doesn't.

  • Martinez
    1.5oz Old Tom gin · 1.5oz sweet vermouth · barspoon maraschino · Boker's bitters

    The Martini's ancestor, sweeter and stranger. A test of a bar's back bar.

  • Gibson
    2.5oz gin · 0.75oz dry vermouth · pickled onion

    The Martini with a savory finish. Order it with anything fried.

  • Dirty Martini
    2.5oz vodka or gin · 0.5oz dry vermouth · 0.5oz olive brine

    Defensible when the brine is good and the glass is genuinely cold. Rare on both counts.

  • Espresso Martini
    1.5oz vodka · 0.5oz coffee liqueur · 1oz fresh espresso · shake violently

    Only works with a shot pulled to order. Anything else is a milkshake.

  • Jungle Bird
    1.5oz blackstrap rum · 0.75oz Campari · 1.5oz pineapple · 0.5oz lime · 0.5oz simple

    The bitter tiki drink. Campari and pineapple should not work and absolutely do.

  • Mai Tai
    1oz aged Jamaican · 1oz rhum agricole · 0.75oz lime · 0.5oz orgeat · 0.5oz curaçao

    No pineapple juice. No grenadine. If it's red, it's not a Mai Tai.

  • Ramos Gin Fizz
    2oz gin · cream · egg white · lemon · lime · orange flower water · soda

    Twelve minutes of shaking, historically. Two is enough. Order it before noon.

  • Gimlet
    2oz gin · 0.75oz lime · 0.75oz simple · coupe

    Fresh lime and sugar, not cordial — unless you're being deliberate about it.