“I don’t allow music in my kitchens. Whether cooking and working in a restaurant is a blue-collar profession or a white-collar profession is up to us. It’s up to us how seriously we take our own profession. When I’m cooking at home though, I’m a staunch fan of Norwegian black metal.”
Jamie Boudreau, the owner of Canon whiskey and bitters emporium in Seattle, has a joke: “If we are at full capacity and the zombie apocalypse comes along, we could shut the doors and board the windows and each person would have 200 bottles of booze to themselves until it was over.”
Atlanta is not only the most traveled-through city in the South, it is also home to the busiest airport on earth. Here, local culture and global ideas mesh on every level, most visibly in the city’s intertwined restaurant and bar scenes. Because the state of Georgia requires all bars to operate functioning kitchens, Atlanta’s cocktail style can’t help but be influenced by its culinary style.
The White Horse bar in Austin, Texas, has the best wine list in town: Red ($5), White ($5) and Shut Up ($10). “We’re a honky tonk,” co-owner Denis O'Donnell says. “If you come in and ask for a martini, we’re going to laugh you out of here for being stupid.
Every cocktail is a riff off of a handful of classic drinks. If you visit a lot of bars, you begin to spot the patterns, the repetition, the tired variations of old fashioneds and gimlets. But at The Aviary in Chicago, drinks are being played with in ways that you won’t see anywhere else.
Raleigh, the capital of North Carolina, is home to one of the most educated populations in America. And over the past few years they’ve proven they aren’t just hungry for book knowledge; they’re also thirsty for cocktail expertise.
Playboy talked to chef Barbara Lynch about how else she’s coping with the major issues in the industry right now, what’s keeping her in Boston, and why she’s done opening restaurants.
As more and more restaurants around the country introduce cocktail programs, cocktail-only bars—such as The Franklin Mortgage & Investment Company in Philadelphia—have to fight to hold their ground as a necessary player in the nightlife scene.
For nearly 80 years Bryant’s Cocktail Lounge has been keeping customers in the dark—both literally and figuratively. Not only does the oldest cocktail bar in Milwaukee have impossibly dim lighting, but what its bartenders put in the drinks is also a complete mystery.
Rhode Island, the smallest state in the country, has a long tradition of local pride and its bar scene is no exception. “We almost have a Napoleon Complex about it,” Providence barman Benjamin Terry says. “People go over-the-top to support local ingredients and local establishments.”
Playboy talked to chef Jonathan Waxman about how the dining industry has changed over the years, what finally brought him back to the Bay Area, and why he can’t bear to watch himself on TV.
Even if you haven’t been to Phoenix before, you can surmise a thing or two about the bar culture: it’s hot. Citrus-based drinks do well here because they cut through the heat and outdoor patios are essential. But one thing you may not expect? The sizzling popularity of a bar specializing in Southern drinks.
Playboy talked to chef Chris Santos about his top-secret new restaurant, why micromanaging is so important, and why he’ll never be pushed out of the Lower East Side.
Seattleites prefer their cocktails like they prefer their coffee: brown and bitter. You’ll find lots of cocktails made with bourbon, rye and amaro, but surprisingly, not many made with coffee. For being the java capital of the United States—and the hometown of Starbucks and Seattle’s Best Coffee chains, in addition to many other small roasting companies—you’d expect an abundance of coffee cocktails on its bar menus.
Playboy talked to chef Chris Shepherd about what’s fueling the Houston restaurant boom, what culinary schools aren’t teaching, and how he’s redefining American food in the most diverse city in the country.
Cane & Table is not a tiki bar. Sure, it serves big, colorful drinks out of hollowed-out pineapples, but owner Kirk Estopinal says he and his business partner Neal Bodenheimer are not fanboys. “We like tiki drinks, but we feel like they are one note,” Estopinal says. “How many nights a week does someone want to drink tiki? Maybe one night a week? Once a month? Once a year?”
Playboy talked to chef Naomi Pomeroy about her ideas for her new restaurant, what’s keeping her in Portland and why winning national awards actually puts chefs on edge.
New York City is the best cocktail city in the world. In addition to its rich drinking history—this is, after all, where the Manhattan, the Bloody Mary, the Tom Collins and the Carrie Bradshaw originated—New York is also home to the modern-day cocktail bars that set the standard and pace for the rest of the country. This is where cocktail culture is invented and reinvented, where trends unfold before they’re even trends and where bartenders become household names.
Playboy sat down with chef John Tesar at Oak in Dallas and chatted everything from why Bourdain is mad at him to why Bobby Flay’s restaurants aren’t making money to what Donald Trump kind of gets right.
This year, gift your booze-loving friends more sophisticated presents than just a handle of Tito’s and a six-pack of Tecate. (Although, to be honest, they’d probably still love to get those.)
