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Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/422286
www.cheersonline.com 31 November / December 2014 • the many new spots recently launched by its alums, including Sable (Mike Ryan), Big Star (Michael Rubel), Barrelhouse Flat (Stephen Cole) and Analogue (Robby Haynes and Henry Prendergast). WHAT: DRINK • WHEN: 2008 • WHERE: BOSTON WHY: Having already conquered Boston's culinary scene with No. 9 Park, B&G Oysters and The Butcher Shop, Barbara Lynch set her sights on what she saw as the glaring hole in Boston's nightlife scene: a world- class cocktail bar. The brainchild of Lynch and her top barman at No. 9 Park, John Gertsen, Drink quickly became exactly that, winning Tales of the Cocktail's Best American Cocktail Bar in 2011 and World's Best Cocktail Bar in 2013. Nestled in the lower level of a renovated wool warehouse, Drink has no set menu: Bartenders create custom cocktails and punches for patrons based on their preferences, using house-made syrups, fresh herbs and juices. Cocktails are served in vintage glasses with ice chipped from a 50-lb. block sitting bar-side. In addition to Gertsen, now the Spirits & Hospitality Ambassador for the Barbara Lynch Gruppo, other talented mixologists who have used Drink as a launching pad for success include Misty Kalkofen (2011 Bartender of the Year nominee), Scott Marshall (currently at 22 Square in Savannah, GA), and new Drink general manager Ezra Star. WHAT: SMUGGLER'S COVE WHEN: 2009 • WHERE: SAN FRANCISCO WHY: It's not easy to do Tiki right—three good Tiki bars have opened and closed in New York in recent years. But Tiki enthusiast Martin Cate seems to have found a winning formula with his five-year-old, award-winning concept Smuggler's Cove. It helps that Cate is passionate about Tiki cocktails, history and culture: "Tiki is about the adaptation of the look and feel of Polynesian culture without any authenticity," Cate said during a session at Arizona Cocktail Week earlier this year. Smuggler's Cove builds on the craft/classic cocktail trend of returning to original recipes, fresh fruit, juice and syrups and carefully measuring ingredients. The success of Smuggler's Cove, which made the 2014 list of the world's 50 best bars, no doubt helped inspire craft Tiki cocktail spots such as Hale Pele (Portland, OR), Three Dots and a Dash (Chicago), and Latitude 29, just opened in New Orleans by Tiki expert Jeff "Beachbum" Berry. WHAT: CANON WHISKEY AND BITTERS EMPORIUM WHEN: 2011 • WHERE: SEATTLE WHY: Canon is the Cooperstown of cocktails, the Louvre of libations, the wonderland of whiskeys. Drinking in the surroundings is as much a part of the experience as the drinking itself. Co-owner and manager Jamie Boudreau has amassed a collection of nearly 3,000 bottles of spirits, which are displayed like works of art on floor-to-ceiling shelves. As such, the liquor is treated with reverence and the cocktails are crafted with care. The assortment of spirits is heavy on whiskeys and features hundreds of vintage treasures dating as far back as the 1880s. Canon rose from the ashes of Vessel–Boudreau's popular first Seattle bar—and quickly gained worldwide acclaim. In fact, it landed at No. 6 on Drink International's list of the World's 50 Best Bars 2014, a year after winning the award for World's Best Drink Selection from Tales of the Cocktail. WHAT: THE DEAD RABBIT GROCERY & GROG WHEN: 2013 • WHERE: NEW YORK WHY: The Dead Rabbit is a winning and unusual amalgam of a world- class cocktail lounge, a craft beer bar and neighborhood pub all in one. It's located in a 200-year-old building in the southern tip of Manhattan, fittingly not far from where legendary American bartender Jerry Thomas opened his first bars. Named for one of the Irish gangs that roamed the waterfront area in the mid 19th century, The Dead Rabbit includes an old-timey beer and whisky taproom on the first floor, complete with a sawdust- strewn floor, and a more refined cocktail parlor upstairs. Cofounders Jack McGarry and Sean Muldoon honed their skills at The Merchant Hotel in Belfast (World's Best Cocktail Bar in 2010 at Tales of the Cocktail). Bar manager McGarry, who had also previously worked at Milk & Honey London, created the Dead Rabbit's drink program, an extensive selection of historically based beverages that required testing and tweaking thousands of pre-Prohibition recipes. The result is a massive menu offering more than 70 cocktails, including flips, bishops, cobblers, fixes, daisies, slings, toddies, juleps and smashes. The Dead Rabbit makes a mean Irish coffee as well. Drinks are priced at $14; communal punches are $50. Entering the competitive New York cocktail bar market, home of such ground-breakers and standard-setters as The Pegu Club, Death & Co. and Employees Only—to name just a few—is not for the faint of heart. But McGarry and Muldoon "have a determination to be the best," says King Cocktail Dale DeGroff, who did a guest stint with the pair a few years ago at The Merchant Hotel. And The Dead Rabbit is clearly one of the best, with a pile of awards to show for it. In less than two years it's been named one of the World's 50 Best Bars in North America for 2013 and 2014, and Tales of the Cocktail Spirited Awards for World's Best New Cocktail Bar (2013); World's Best Cocktail Menu (2013); International Bartender of the Year 2013 (Jack McGarry); Best American Cocktail Bar (2014); and World's Best Drink Selection (2014). PHOTO BY CURT GOODWIN