The Traveler
Hotel bars, lounges, drinking your way through a city.
Files from lobbies, palenques, and the hour after landing. Believes the bar is where a city admits what it's actually like.
Voice: Observational, cinematic, generous.
Recent filings · 19
A dining room disguised as a bar. Or vice versa.
A taquería that hides a mezcal bar behind it. Both are real.
Twenty stools. Fifty mezcals. Every bottle earns its shelf.
The Sant Antoni terrace that made the neighborhood.
Ten seats in a laneway. All-agave. Take it seriously.
The art-deco tower with 1,300 gins.
Jay Khan built the best agave bar east of Mexico. Full stop.
Buenos Aires by way of the Chao Phraya. The room delivers.
Supper-club revival. Correct on the fundamentals.
Little Havana. Julio Cabrera's cantinero technique, filed with a live band.
East Nashville. Listening-room service ethic applied to cocktails.
Downtown Fremont. Text a number. Wait for the reply.
Picks
- VidaDel Maguey · Oaxaca, Mexico
Espadín from San Luis del Río. Started the modern American mezcal habit and still earns the shelf.
- Cassis BlancClos Sainte Magdeleine · Provence, France
Marsanne and Clairette off a cliff over the Mediterranean. Salt water in a glass.
- Espadín-Barril EnsambleLalocura · Santa Catarina Minas, Mexico
Eduardo Ángeles distills in clay. Smoke as texture, not a costume.
- TobaláRezpiral · Oaxaca, Mexico
Wild agave, fifteen years to maturity, bottled from single batches.
- BlancoTequila Fortaleza · Jalisco, Mexico
Tahona-crushed, brick-oven cooked. What tequila tasted like before the machinery.
- Tahona BlancoCascahuín · Jalisco, Mexico
Vegetal, peppery, unapologetically agave-forward.
- Sotol CedrosanumNom Sotol · Chihuahua, Mexico
Not agave at all — desert spoon. Green, herbal, mineral.
- Clairin SajousChelo / Velier · Haiti
Wild-fermented Haitian cane spirit. Olive brine and grass. Not for beginners.
- Mosto Verde TorontelCaravedo · Ica, Peru
Floral, unaged, undiluted. The Pisco Sour deserves this one.
- Mezcal Negroni1oz mezcal espadín · 1oz Campari · 1oz sweet vermouth · orange peel
The Negroni bent through Oaxaca. Order it after tacos.
- Margarita2oz blanco tequila · 1oz lime · 0.75oz orange curaçao · salt half-rim
No mix, no agave syrup shortcut, and salt only half the rim so you can choose.
- Paloma2oz blanco tequila · 0.5oz lime · pinch salt · grapefruit soda
The drink Mexico actually orders. Squirt over fresh juice is not a compromise.
- Oaxaca Old Fashioned1.5oz reposado · 0.5oz mezcal · agave nectar · mole bitters · flamed orange
The drink that put mezcal behind every American bar.
- Tommy's Margarita2oz blanco tequila · 1oz lime · 0.5oz agave nectar
Curaçao removed, agave in its place. Cleaner, and it tastes more of tequila.
- Spanish Gin Tonic2oz gin · tonic · copa glass · citrus peel and one botanical
Big balloon glass, huge ice, restrained garnish. Spain does this better than anyone.
- Pisco Sour2oz pisco · 0.75oz lime · 0.75oz simple · egg white · Angostura on the foam
Dry shake first. The bitters on top are aroma, not decoration.
- Caipirinha2oz cachaça · half lime in wedges · 2 barspoons sugar · muddle, no strain
Muddle the sugar against the peel, not the flesh. That's the whole technique.
- Ti' Punch2oz rhum agricole blanc · barspoon cane syrup · lime disc · no ice
Chacun prépare sa propre mort — each prepares their own death. Build it yourself.
- MicheladaMexican lager · 1oz lime · Maggi · Worcestershire · hot sauce · Tajín rim
The correct answer to a hangover and to any plate involving mariscos.