10 great cocktails by some unique bars around the world
Check out these unique cocktails, served by some of our favorite bars around the world, that speak to their place and time.
Many of the beverages call for ingredients you’d never find at your local grocery store (see: the speculaas-flavored gum syrup featured in the Flying Dutchmen), but that’s the point: It’s how these drinks express their home turf that makes them memorable. Time to stop, sit and drink in your surroundings.
Tahiti Nui’s Mai Tai (Kauai, Hawaii)
In 1963, “Aunty Louise” Marston and her husband Bruce opened Tahiti Nui in Hanalei. Their Mai Tai has since become legend. Their family still runs the Nui, slinging the two-toned, pineapple-garnished rum drink—a concoction purportedly devised by “Trader Vic” Bergeron—but here made according to Aunty Louise’s secret recipe.
Marie Takahashi for The Wall Street Journal
Bar Ishinohana’s Reimagined Moscow Mule (Tokyo)
Beneath bustling Shibuya, in the basement of a nondescript office building, you’ll find this dim den of tranquility. In bartender Shinobu Ishigaki’s version, vodka is mixed with raspberries, OJ and lemongrass syrup before topping with ginger beer.
Jillian Guyette for The Wall Street Journal
JG Skyhigh’s Ginger Margarita (Philadelphia)
Whatever the weather, the Ginger Margarita at this Philadelphia lounge atop the Four Seasons hotel will infuse you with a golden glow. Made with Arette reposado tequila, Cointreau, ginger and lime, it might, however, have trouble outshining the space.
Shuran Huang for The Wall Street Journal
Topside’s Hummingbird (Baltimore)
On the roof of Revival, a hotel in the Mount Vernon neighborhood, you’ll find the Hummingbird, an alcohol-free cocktail. Made with Seedlip Grove 42, lemon, orange bitters, falernum and hibiscus rooibos tea, it has the complexity of a boozy drink.
Davit Ruiz for The Wall Street Journal
Savas’s Moscow Mule (Madrid)
This version of a Moscow Mule gets a splash of red, via a house-infused cranberry vodka, which also makes an appearance in the bar’s Negroni Nordico made with vermouth, Campari and Akvavit.
Marco Argüello for The Wall Street Journal
The Rooster’s Basil (Antiparos, Greece)
If you’re at the Rooster, a resort on a small Greek island in the Aegean Sea, you’re already on the path to relaxation, but a cocktail like the Basil will nudge you further. Anchored by pepper, basil and lemon-peel-infused vodka, with St Germain liqueur, local honey and juice from lemons grown on the hotel’s farm, it is a sippable distillation of both summer and this place.
Rena Effendi for The Wall Street Journal
Fahri Konsolos’s Mardini (Istanbul)
The lounge’s name means “honorary consul,” which co-founder Burak Ayaz said is a nod to discerning drinkers curious to learn what it takes to make a fine cocktail. Consider the Mardini, made with gin, lemon, pomegranate molasses and a simple syrup flavored with sumac.
Flying Dutchmen Cocktails’s Flying Dutchmen (Amsterdam)
The backbar of more than 800 spirits at Amsterdam’s Flying Dutchmen Cocktails could nearly refill the Singel canal, right outside its door. Its namesake cocktail combines barrel-aged Bols Genever and orange bitters with flower water, lemon juice, and speculass-flavored gum syrup.
Joanna Yee for The Wall Street Journal
The Morse Bar’s Coeur de Lion (Oxford, England)
A favorite of author Colin Dexter’s, this bar at the Randolph Hotel in Oxford was named for Dexter’s Inspector Morse. Try the Coeur de Lion, made with pineapple, ginger, apricot, dry vermouth and Sapling vodka.
James Jackman for The Wall Street Journal
The Cleat’s Farito Mojito (Key Biscayne, Fla.)
With water views, salty breezes and toes-in-the-sand outdoor seating, right where No Name Harbor meets Biscayne Bay, the Cleat is Miami’s most lyrically located beach bar. Its Farito Mojito (named for a nearby lighthouse) tweaks the Cuban classic with hints of guava and coconut.
Marco Argüello for The Wall Street Journal