#cocktails

#cocktails

That's right: the Portland Mercury's Holiday Drink Week returns for another glorious marathon of festive booze magic! From December 1 through December 7, the city's best bartenders are shaking, stirring, and summoning up brand new, holiday-themed cocktails- and they're only $10 each! We've once again teamed up with some of Portland's finest bars and restaurants-plus our spirited pals at Jim Beam and Travel Portland -to deliver a week-long sleigh ride of delicious, limited-edition cocktails!

Come to Rye Bar every Wednesday for free hot dogs with every Hornitos cocktail purchase. Mo and Kat are you bartenders and hot dog slingers for the night (combining their love of hot dogs and tequila), and will pair the perfect cocktail for you for hot doggin' all night. And your pet dogs are welcome, too! Wiener Wednesday Every Wednesday, 6pm to close Rye Bar, 688 Geary St. at Leavenworth, SFFree hot dog with every Hornitos cocktail or shot purchase

Best Wine Advent Calendar Wine lovers, rejoice. Enjoy 24 days of wine from all over the world. An array of wines from France, Chile, Argentina, Australia, and California await, spanning whites, reds, and roses. A glass of wine a day seems like a pretty good way to kick off the holidays.

Whether it be part of a classic cocktail like an old fashioned, or straight from the bottle, whiskey is essential to any well-stocked bar and has many times been a key ingredient to a fun night out. It's a versatile liquor, beloved by both experienced whiskey aficionados and relative newbies who only know how to order it either 'neat' or 'on the rocks.'

At this sly encouragement, I order the Spirit Bomb, an Instagram-friendly coup glass filled with sake, rosemary vodka, elderflower, and lychee, and topped with a giant rosemary smoke bubble. Etiquette says: Don't you dare pop that bubble before everyone has their ring lights ready. The sweet cocktail tastes like I expect a pastel Labubu would if it were edible, but it lubricates the shift into going-out mode in this trendy neighborhood.

Capital Hours attendees will find a small roundup of $10 cocktails, including the Greyhound Martini, the Old Fashioned, the Peach Bourbon Smash, and the Classic Margarita, and $8 wines, like Silver Gate Vineyards' Sauvignon Blanc and Screen Press' Pinot Noir, by the glass. In some parts of the country, it can be tough to find even a well drink at a dive bar for under $10, let alone an ice-cold martini made by expert bartenders and topped with blue cheese-stuffed olives.

Upper East Side restaurant NR has been churning out excellent Japanese dishes since it opened in late 2019. And while over the summer, owner Shigefumi Kabashima closed their Harlem cocktail bar and restaurant ROKC, luckily, they merged some of its menu here. The result is a dining and drinking space that is highly reminiscent of being in Japan. The chicken and vegetable soup curry ($34): It's a style notable in Hokkaido (aka Sapporo soup curry), with a

The best-selling liquor in the world is baijiu, a clear spirit distilled from sorghum, glutinous rice, or wheat that few people outside of China have likely ever heard of. There are four main types of baijiu, and it's estimated that 10 billion liters of the spirit are consumed in China every year. Needless to say, baijiu is very popular in the East Asian country - and like any other spirit, it comes with its own rituals and rules, one being that you don't mix it.

Pick your base alcohol (or go-to non-alcoholic option), choose a theme, and the generator will serve your perfect shot - complete with a name and recipe. Try it below, and don't forget to share your custom creations in the comments! All trademarks, logos, brand names, names, likeness, characters, and other personal indicia (collectively, "attributes") are the property of their respective owners. Use of these attributes does not imply endorsement, affiliation, or sponsorship from the respective owners.

New York City's culinary scene - from sizzling pies to the best French restaurants - would be nothing without a stiff drink. Thanks to the confluence of glitz, glam, and legendary nightlife, the metropolis harbors a long tradition of tending bar at the top of its game. Whether it were the illicit speakeasies of the past, or the happy hour watering holes today, the Big Apple's cultivated an identity based on craftsmanship, a willingness to torch the rule book in favor of permanent playing.

Prague may not drink as heavily as it used to, but the country still ranks third in Europe alcohol consumption. This comes, in part, from pride in pilsner, invented in Czechia, but also the communal role pubs have played for centuries, serving as social hubs for its neighborhoods. As such, these beer, wine and cocktail bars offer an excellent window into the personalities of the capital's major districts.

So it's no surprise, in these Martini-mad times, that the Manhattan is now making a return as people seek to expand their repertoire of cocktails that are strong and stirred. "We have seen an increased interest in the Manhattan over the last 6 to 10 months," says Kristijonas Bazys, bar manager of Scarfes Bar at Rosewood London. "In my opinion, it's mostly fuelled by the broader revival of classic and heritage drinks such as the Old Fashioned, Martini, Sazerac etc, and the 'quality over quantity' drinking culture."

We're finally in the time of year when the temperatures are cooling, which means we're wearing our bulkiest sweaters, drinking hot beverages instead of iced, and trying to find other ways to get festive for the upcoming holidays. Well, we have a fun idea for you: Try incorporating the new Little Debbie's Christmas Tree Cake coffee creamer into your next cocktail.

Hello, fellow bartenders, home mixologists, and spirit connoisseurs. Let's get a little technical with a quick educational moment. Today, we're talking spirits. Most bartenders would say there are six main ones, and everything else is a variation: vodka, rum, whiskey, tequila, brandy, and gin. Classic cocktails typically feature one of these or a spin on them, making this lineup the perfect starting point for anyone building a home bar.

Cocktails are a bonafide art. That drink you sunk in a 10-minute sitting? There could be hours and hours of experimentation behind it. Someone has likely put serious thought into everything from the sourcing of interesting new ingredients and the exact measures of spirits that go into it right down to size of the ice cubes and the shape of the glass it comes in.

David Burtka has spent much of his life entertaining, onstage, on-screen, in the kitchen, and in person. Because to know David is to love him as he engulfs you in his effusive effervescence. But his latest project, a new book written with his husband, Neil Patrick Harris, isn't just about entertaining others. It's about making sure everyone at the party feels seen.

More than 70 bars and restaurants will feature sotol-based creations throughout the week, from refreshing highballs to smoky stirred sippers. Expect to see Casa Lotos Sotol featured across the city at some of NYC's most notable drinking destinations like , Superbueno Wall Street Hotel Cosme, Toloache and El Fish. Each will riff on the spirit's versatility, from bracingly vegetal martinis to smoky-sweet riffs on classic margs.

Looking for a cocktail that's as beautiful as it is delicious? Enter the White Chocolate Matcha Martinia creamy, indulgent drink with a sophisticated edge. It's sweet, smooth, and just a little earthy thanks to the matcha. Whether you're hosting a dinner party, celebrating a special occasion, or just want to treat yourself, this cocktail is guaranteed to impress. What makes this martini so unique is the balance of flavors.

Sammy's is the new sandwich shop and cafe in Adair Park by chef Sam Pinner and ( Paul Rudd lookalike) Jason Furst. The duo has nailed the sandwich, mostly because they know where to find the best bread - premier Atlanta bakeries like Alon's, El Progresso, and Pan American. The Miami Sami ($14) Cuban sandwich with smoked pork and mojo mayo is a slam dunk, with bread from Pan American Cuban Bakery.

Conley's drink, which he describes as a "soft sour," actually skips the basil. To make it, he infuses black tea into the gin, calls on a Champagne-based syrup and-in lieu of the herb-adds a "pinch" of arugula leaves to the tin that injects a dose of peppery, vegetal flavor to the cocktail. Across the country, other bars make use of the leafy greens, too.

Basil stems, like the stalks of most soft herbs, are entirely edible. While they may be too tough to blend into a smooth pesto sauce or to used as garnish, they still have some of that sweet, peppery basil flavor that can be infused into the syrup. Moreover, turning basil stems into a herby and flavorful syrup is easier than it sounds. Just whip out a pot, add some water, sugar, and, of course, the basil stems, and reduce it into a syrup.

Melted ice cream brings rich flavors and a thick, creamy texture, making it a game-changing cocktail ingredient. It'll add sweetness and body to everything from boozy milkshakes to reimagined classics. Here's a simple rule of thumb to get you started: Whenever a cocktail recipe calls for heavy cream, try swapping in some melted ice cream instead. After all, melted vanilla ice cream is basically a crème anglaise - a combination of heavy cream, vanilla, and egg yolks.

A Sloane Square stylish stalwart since 2008, The Botanist is well-known for its popular cocktail bar and contemporary British restaurant. This summer, the restaurant introduced a great new brunch menu, running between 11 am and 4 pm on Saturdays and Sundays, with the option to make it bottomless with their Weekend Freeflow' drinks packages, from an extra 27 for the bubbles' prosecco and beer package up to 44 for freeflow champagne and more.

Assaf Tamir had a simple idea: open a bar for the sake of music. It was a bit of a shift for him, business-wise, as he and his sister Naama dabble more in the restaurant sphere, running the long-standing Lighthouse in Williamsburg, as well as , a Mediterranean-meets-Japanese skewer concept in SoHo. But as the two hosted shows inside their Williamsburg restaurant over the years, they figured it was time to a create a space that musicians deserved.

Executive chef and partner Craig Koketsu is behind the wheel, steering a menu that fuses regional Mexican flavors with playful detours through California and Texas. Dishes aren't shy on spectacle: Lobster al pastor arrives slicked with achiote-chili butter and pineapple pico de gallo, while the long-bone short rib quesabirria dares you to build your own tacos with blue corn tortillas and dunk them into consommé poured tableside.

California turned 175 on September 9, which means it's time to celebrate the only way the Golden State knows how: with alcohol that costs more than rent and tastes like optimism mixed with wildfire smoke. A concoction that shakes you up! Forget cake. Forget balloons. This is a state with a history that reads like a fantasy sci-fi novella, with chapters on the Gold Rush, the 1906 earthquake, Charles Manson, Hollywood's Golden Age, Silicon Valley, and the rise of agentic artificial intelligence.

In "The Bear," Richie praises the bar for its early opening hours ("[T]he place opened at like 6:30 in the morning so that when traders, when they lost their a** when the market opened, they could just, you know, they could walk over and just get f****n' hammered in this little f*****g bar.) Indeed, Ceres Cafe currently opens at 7:00 a.m. and remains open until 8:00 p.m., closed on Saturday and Sunday.

This spot's cozy leather booths and plentiful wood trim give its dining room an old-school steakhouse vibe that's perfect for date nights. The menu is all about dressed-up comfort food, like the crispy, spiced-just-right curry fried chicken, or the lightly charred petite filet mignon. Steaks are served with your choice of butter or demiglace-go for the miso-honey butter. The bar program showcases housemade syrups, bitters, and tinctures, which make even the simpler cocktails taste elevated.

Order an array of small plates, like the just-spicy-enough chicken and chorizo empanadas, or the juicy quesabirria.

Whether you're celebrating the end of summer or trying to inject some bright appeal into the colder months, berries are a great tool to utilize. And I'm not just talking about frozen berries or the out-of-season strawberries you pay big bucks for in the middle of December. When you want the sweet taste of summer berries all year long, there's one reliable way to get it that isn't dependent on the season - of course, I'm talking about berry-flavored alcohol.