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"\n\nFacebookPinterest\n\nWhen I moved to New York almost ten years ago, a restaurant bar\u2019s primary function was to anesthetize guests waiting for a table. As a newbie Manhattan bartender, I spent all my time slinging Cosmos and appletinis thanks to a certain HBO series, and I quickly learned that a shimmering cone of vodka\u2014shaken, not stirred\u2014was the surefire path to a good tip. There was one bottle of bitters behind my bar, and I dashed most of it onto lemons to cure customers of the hiccups (yes, it works). Meanwhile, a handful of retro Prohibition-style lounges were quietly kicking off the classic-cocktail revolution. The craft of the drink was coming back to life behind unmarked doors in dimly lit neo-speakeasies. By the early aughts, the gap between the drinks at top bars and top restaurants was drastic.\n\nBut once chefs woke up from sourcing local microgreens  and making edamame ice cream, they caught up quickly. They had the ingredients, the techniques, and the futuristic hardware to do what a basic bar couldn\u2019t: push the cocktail beyond the classics. Today cocktails are being aged in barrels, deconstructed in kitchens that double as science labs,  and perfected in Michelin-starred restaurants. This year the Oscars of the restaurant business, the James Beard Foundation Awards, will (finally) name the first-ever Outstanding Bar Program in America. But who\u2019s got the patience to wait? So &amp;amp;gt;  GQ has pulled together the four movements driving the  new wave of cocktails, and the bars leading the charge. There\u2019s never been a better time to have a drink before dinner.\n\n  \u2014Jim Meehan, owner and head bartender, PDT, New York\n\nFacebookPinterest\n\nClyde Common\n\n Portland, OR\n\nFacebookPinterest\n\n\n\nFacebookPinterest\n\n New York, NY\n\n Bar manager Naren Young has mastered the aged drink\u2014check his Prince Edward Cocktail (Compass Box &amp;quot;Great King Street&amp;quot; blended whiskey, Lillet Blanc, Drambuie, and lemon bitters), aged only a month, the wood lightly singeing the drink around the edges. Now he\u2019s after ingredients, too, barreling up his own leather bitters\n\n for the house Manhattan.\u2014R.S. \n\nThe Patterson House\n\n Nashville, TN\n\nIt\u2019s the best bar in town, which is saying something in Nashville, the South\u2019s dark-horse cocktail capital.\n\nFacebookPinterest\n\nFacebookPinterestundefined \n\nFacebookPinterest\n\nManresa\n\n Los Gatos, CA\n\nFacebookPinterest\n\nFacebookPinterest\n\nPX\n\n Alexandria, VA\n\nOld Town Alexandria seems an unlikely place for a speakeasy-style bar with avant-farmy flair. Bartender-owner Todd Thrasher uses ingredients from his mini-empire of Alexandria restaurants to create a cocktail menu that reads like a farmers\u2019-market shopping list. Home-brewed bottles line the bar: cherry bitters, pecan water, fermented apple cider. The Smoker\u2019s Delight is a bourbon drink infused with your choice of native tobacco.\u2014Kevin Sintumuang\n\nAnvil\n\n Houston, TX\n\nYou\u2019ll need a food dictionary to understand the drinks list at this bar in a converted tire store. Tepache? (A fermented Mexican drink made with pineapples and cinnamon\u2014it\u2019s homemade.) Get the full haute-farm effect with the Maharaja Buck, made with cardamom-infused gin, housemade tamarind jam, and a spicy home-brewed ginger beer.\u2014K.S. \n\nFacebookPinterestundefined \n\nFacebookPinterest\n\nThe Aviary\n\n Chicago, IL\n\nFacebookPinterest\n\n the theater of it all. The Ginger arrives as a solid, garnished with ingredients like micro shiso and finger-lime cells. Pour in a sidecar of Karlsson\u2019s vodka, stir with a stick of lemongrass ice, and sip on the spicy-sweet refreshment. Think of it as drinks and a show.\u2014R.S. \n\nFacebookPinterest\n\nBar Centro at The Bazaar\n\n Los Angeles, CA\n\nThe LN2 Caipirinha, made tableside using liquid nitrogen, is subtly sweet and frozen into gelato form\u2014the best drink you\u2019ll ever eat with a spoon. And the Salt Air Margarita is topped with a salty foam, so that each time you sip, you get the perfect amount of salinity. It\u2019s The Bazaar at its best\u2014no gratuitous use of molecular gastronomy, just a genuine improvement in drinking.\u2014K.S.\n\nWD-50\n\n New York, NY\n\nThe tater tot on WD-50\u2019s famous &amp;quot;eggs Benedict&amp;quot; was actually deep-fried hollandaise, so of course the Grandaddy\u2019s Ghost whiskey cocktail looks like vodka on the rocks. It\u2019s a mix of clear, unaged rye and clarified Angostura bitters that have been &amp;quot;redistilled&amp;quot; in a machine called a Centrifan, losing all the bitter notes but retaining all the spice.\u2014Stan Parish\n\nFacebookPinterestundefined \n\nFacebookPinterest\n\nEleven Madison Park\n\n New York, NY\n\nFacebookPinterest\n\nCyrus\n\n Healdsburg, CA\n\nCyrus was one of the first white-tablecloth joints to elevate cocktails to the level of their Michelin two-star food. Take the simple gin and tonic, invented circa 1825 by British soldiers cutting the bitterness of antimalarial quinine with gin and soda water. Its 2012 descendant: Cyrus\u2019s signature G&amp;amp;T, with Plymouth gin and a tonic brewed in-house using South American cinchona bark, juniper berries, allspice, cardamom, and a mix of agave nectar and citrus juices. The lesson? Everything can be perfected.\u2014Sophie Brickman\n\nFacebookPinterest\n\n New York, NY\n\n Daniel Boulud is as good at spotting trends as he is at cooking grouse: His namesake flagship restaurant has had a cocktail bar since it moved\n\n to Park Avenue in 1998, and six years ago the best chef-slash-restaurateur alive installed ace mixologist Xavier H\u00E9rit to make it world-class. Don\u2019t be surprised to see folks sitting on barstools ordering the tasting menu while sipping New Fashioneds (rye, peach bitters, Peychaud\u2019s, Punt e Mes, and maple syrup) instead of white Bordeaux.\u2014S.P.\n\nFacebookPinterestundefined \n\nFacebookPinterest\n\n\n\nFacebookPinterest\n\n An almond syrup with an orange- or rose-flower accent; a mai tai necessity\n\nDemerara syrup\n\n A simple syrup with the sweetness kicked up by Guyana sugar\n\nFacebookPinterest\n\n Marasca cherries and their crushed almond-flavored pits flavor this liqueur\n\nChartreuse\n\n An herbal liqueur made in four styles (green, yellow, and expensive versions of both) by French Alpine monks\n\n\n\nFacebookPinterest\n\n A bittersweet artichoke-flavored Italian liqueur\n\n that tastes better than it sounds\n\nB\u00E9n\u00E9dictine\n\n Supposedly only three people know the recipe for this honey-sweetened Norman liqueur\n\nFacebookPinterest\n\n A fortified wine spiked with quinine, plus dried herbs and spices\n\nPunt e Mes\n\n A bitter dark-brown Italian vermouth\n\nFacebookPinterest\n\n An eighty-proof Italian liqueur with seventy herbs, including mint and fennel\n\nShrub\n\n An old-school name for a sugary vinegar-and-fruit syrup\n\nFacebookPinterest\n\n A sweet, low-proof Burgundy-based black-currant liqueur\n\nSt-Germain\n\n This slightly sweet, slightly citrusy liqueur, made from elderflowers, launched in 2007\n\nFacebookPinterest"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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