L.A.'s Best Cocktails

Angelina

The taste of jamaica, the Mexican hibiscus drink, is sharp, tart and slightly bitter, stained red with the pigment of the petals. It is refreshing. It does not call out for alcoholic enhancement. At Malo, an Angelina teases the playfulness out of jamaica with lime and a shot of Rosangel, a jamaica-flavored tequila aged in port barrels, and it becomes an entirely different thing: not just a flower but the entire lei. 4326 W. Sunset Blvd., Silver Lake. (323) 664-1011.

PHOTO BY ANNE FISHBEIN

At Border Grill, the spicy, citrus-based house sangrita is just right mixed with tequila.

PHOTO BY ANNE FISHBEIN

The Flaming Honey Bowl at Rosemead tiki institution Bahooka

Location Info

Map

Musso & Frank Grill

6667 Hollywood Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90028

Category: Restaurant > American

Region: Hollywood

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More About

• Nancy Reagan
• Moscow
• Sweet Bricia
• Absinthe
• Beverages

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Sweet Bricia

Bricia Lopez is a Oaxacan princess. Bricia likes cocktails, a lot. Bricia's father owned a mezcal distillery in Oaxaca before he moved up to Los Angeles to start the Guelaguetza restaurant chain, which includes Bricia's cemitas cafe Pal Cabron. Bricia is fond of mezcal. At almost any decent Los Angeles cocktail bar with mezcal on the menu, there will be a cocktail referred to as a "Bricia drink," in honor of her 1,000-watt smile: the Brisa de Oaxaca at La Descarga; the salsa-enhanced Bricia at Las Perlas; the Bricia Blanco at the Association; and a deliciously bitter Bricia Champagne Cocktail that Pablo Moix did for Javier Plascencia's stint at Test Kitchen last fall. Bricia's favorite Bricia? All of them, she says. So we'll go with the nicely balanced highball called Sweet Bricia that Jason Schiffer does at the well-regarded 320 Main. 320 Main St., Seal Beach, (562) 799-6246.

Reagan Martini

Herbert Hoover stayed at the Mission Inn. Richard and Patricia Nixon got married here. Ronald and Nancy Reagan honeymooned here. The sprawling Riverside neo-hacienda has been visited by Taft, McKinley, Ford, Benjamin Harrison, Teddy Roosevelt and George W. Bush — it's a pilgrimage site for Republican presidents. The Presidential Lounge has more than earned its name. Is there a better way to celebrate California's Republican heritage than with a cerulean Reagan martini, as strong, undiluted and unpalatable as the man himself? I thought not. 3649 Mission Inn Ave., Riverside, (909) 784-0300.