L.A.'s Best Cocktails
Our 55 favorites and where to find them
Magic Mojito
"Any sufficiently advanced technology," Arthur C. Clarke once wrote, "is indistinguishable from magic." And even those of us inclined to be hostile to hydrocolloid-obsessed chefs who compress oysters into rubbery sheets or impale shrimp with lab pipettes tend to be fine with unconventional cocktails. Cocktails, even in their purest form, are artificial constructs. So it is fun to sit at Bar Centro at the Bazaar and watch bartenders pour liquid nitrogen over caipirinhas, plop spherified cherry puree into Manhattans and cap martinis with airy olive-brine foam. I remain unpersuaded by the kitchen's signature foie gras presentation, which involves rolling bits of duck liver in crushed Corn Nuts and encasing them in cotton candy, but the billows of cotton candy over which the mojitos are strained do the drink no real harm, and the floor show isn't bad. 465 S. La Cienega Blvd., L.A. (310) 246-5555.
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Musso & Frank Grill
6667 Hollywood Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90028
Category: Restaurant > American
Region: Hollywood
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Pek Pek
In Tagalog, pek pek is an affectionate term for the most intimate sector of the female anatomy. At A-Frame, it is a variation on the Perfect Manhattan, substituting a splash of elderflower liqueur for the sweet vermouth. In the right circumstances, either can be intoxicating. 12565 Washington Blvd., W.L.A. (310) 398-7700.
El Matador
Los Angeles continues to be a place where New York bartenders can come to reinvent themselves, like 1930s playwrights drawn by the possibilities of Hollywood. So appletinis were probably not what Dave Kaplan and Alex Day of NYC's Death & Co. were envisioning when the newly remodeled O Hotel recruited them for its lounge bar/kitchen. And appletinis were not what they delivered. At least in the bar's earliest days, Kaplan and Day seem obsessed by the possibilities of flavoring whiskey with sherry wine (not unlike what distillers like Bushmills do when they age their whiskey in used sherry barrels), and last time I dropped in, bourbon/sherry cocktails dominated the tiny list. The El Matador, which includes amontillado, orange and fresh lemon juice, expands the idea of what bourbon might be. 819 S. Flower St., dwntwn. (213) 623-9904.
Mint Julep
Many bars have some version of the mint julep, the cocktail that announces spring in the mid-South and is the essential Kentucky Derby tipple. A certain number of us grew up craving the sickly green fizz sold at the stand in Disneyland's New Orleans Square, which is pretty close to what passes for a julep almost everywhere. If Kentucky sued Disney for defamation of a state symbol, it might have a pretty good case. But a real julep — bourbon, dewy-fresh mint and a little sugar over crushed ice in a frosted silver cup — bears the same resemblance to a sports-bar julep that a Rolls-Royce Phaeton does to a Yugo: Both drinks may get you to the same place, but in only one are you going to enjoy the ride. Seven Grand, perhaps the most bourbon-intensive bar in California, is especially obsessive about its juleps, to the point of commissioning a custom blend from Woodward Reserve just for the cocktail. Derby Day demands no less. 515 W. 7th St., dwntwn. (213) 614-0737.
Aviation #2
Violet-scented cocktails, once nearly as common as Cosmopolitans, almost disappeared 50 years ago, dismissed as auntly and old-fashioned, unable to compete with the more immediate pleasures of Harvey Wallbangers or Mudslides. For years, a decent violet liqueur was a grail of American cocktailians, a faint breeze from the past whose sweet woodsiness was the key to so many of the formulae in the great old bar books. An Aviation made with maraschino can be delicious, but it bears the resemblance to its violet-tinged inspiration that a colorized print of Casablanca does to the original. But as suddenly as absinthe, Old Tom and pimento dram found their way back behind the bar, so has violet — the fragrance of faithfulness, of modesty, of virtue. Nowhere does the fleeting scent of violets express itself more eloquently than in an Aviation #2, that great pre-Prohibition cocktail, where it adds a pretty whiff of calm to the chilly herbs and fresh citrus of a gin sour. It is difficult to think of a better cocktail to finish an evening, or a better place to experience it than the Varnish. 118 E. 6th St., dwntwn. (213) 622-9999.
Shiso-Infused Vodka
The new Aburiya Toranoko is as sake-intensive as any good izakaya, any bastion of daiginjos, junmais and fancifully named bottles like Demon Slayer, Mirror of Truth and Last Ride Home. But among the sweet cocktails, the cucumber drinks and the "martinis" flavored with persimmons or Kyoho grapes is the vodka infused with shiso, a sharp, aromatic flavor that happens to go very nicely with sushi. In a restaurant run by Nobu alumni, this is a desirable trait. 243 S. San Pedro St., dwntwn. (213) 621-9500.
It is perhaps odd for a Middle Eastern restaurant to be known for booze of any sort. Lebanon is famous for its wine, perhaps; more famous for its intolerance for alcohol of any sort. But Alcazar, an Armenian-Lebanese nightclub in the gentle levant of Encino, imports a special Lebanese arak, an especially smooth version of the anise-scented Lebanese liquor that turns milky when you stir it with ice and cool water; a beverage that tames the cumin-fierce flavors that sizzle underneath your tongue. 17239 Ventura Blvd., Encino. (818) 789-0991.
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