Blending Perfection: Haute 5 Mixologists in Los Angeles

Drinking alcohol in this country is really enjoying an upswing.  Considering an often-sordid history (Prohibition, Vodka mixed with Red Bull), Angelenos and imbibers at large are beginning to recognize all that various spirits and their mixers have to offer.  Thinking back just five years ago, this movement of savory drinks, enomatic machines, and the mixologists that love them was but a seed in the ground.  Now, largely due to the creative alcoholics (er, mixology masters) at New York’s Milk and Honey bar, Los Angeles has let some very creative minds get behind the bar.  We’ve equipped them with a full bar, ice picks, shakers, and spirits and from this we’ve placed cocktails squarely in the limelight.   Here are LA’s haute 5 bars serving up the most delectable cocktails your taste buds have ever dreamed of.  This isn’t drinking to get drunk a la your college days.  This is drinking to enjoy the fruits of fermentation.

Copa D’Oro

If you’re going to try whiskey for the first time, you’ll  want to make sure it’s paired properly with, oh I don’t know, Elderflower Liqeur, Extra Dry Vermouth, and Amaro Averna a la the Smoke of Scotland from Santa Monica’s Copa D’Oro.  A very Westside outpost of cocktail culture, the bar at Copa D’Oro is run by Vincenzo Marianella who has some very particular ideas about what a cocktail is really made of.  According to Marianella, mixers should come from local producers and be at their very freshest when mixed with your spirit of choice. If you’re more of a gin drinker, the Freezing Jess has got to be on your list: Plymouth Gin, Elderflower, Absinthe, Mint, and Fresh Lemon and Lime Juice.  Cheers!

Copa D’Oro is located at 217 Broadway in Santa Monica 310. 576.3030

The Tar Pit

Oh, the drama.  We’ll never abandon Mark Peel’s newly opened 1940s-style supper club on La Brea Blvd, even if bar-man-extraordinaire Marcos Tellos has recently been tempted by the forthcoming First & Hope in downtown LA.  Before he left Tar Pit, he created a cocktail menu that rivals that of any liquid courage enthusiast.  His team of mixologists are all impeccably trained to mix you a drink even if all you say as you sidle up to the bar is: “gin, not to sweet, not too spicy.”  If you’d rather order straight from the cocktail menu, the Jasmine-Apricato is a delightful mix of Gin, Apricot Liqeur, Lemon Juice, and Champagne while the Agave Bravo has got Reposado Tequila, Mezcal, Agave Syrup, Angostura Bitters, and a Grapefuit Twist.  You’ll be that much more grateful Prohibition ended.

The Tar Pit is located at 609 N. La Brea Blvd. in Los Angeles 323.965.1300

The Edison

Among the first of its kind in Los Angeles, The Edison is a mainstay of innovative cocktails, a Prohibition-era theme, and food that’s so good it’s actually surprising.  Head downtown Wednesday through Friday from 5 – 7pm for vintage cocktails at “vintage prices” under their Centennial Cocktail Hour (formerly known as Soup Kitchen nights).  Every other Thursday, you can find yourself face to face with a dancer from Big Willie’s Burlesque nights and on those other two Thursdays a month, you can tap your toes to DJ Johnny and the Nu Jazz Project’s musical stylings.  The menu, likewise, is a masterpiece of vintage libations – The Citizen Kane, for example, has Vodka, Hibiscus Rosebud Liqeur (of course), and Citrus served up while the Brown Derby (created in Hollywood in 1930) entices with Bourbon, Clover Honey, and Grapefruit. You’ll want t-strap dancing shoes and a flapper dress in no time.

The Edison is located at 108 W. 2nd Street in Downtown 213.613.0000

Roger Room

We all love to be the one who takes their friends to “that great place with no sign on the door and amazing cocktails.”  Roger Room has become, for all in-the-know Angelenos, that place.  Smack between a psychic reader and the Largo at the Coronet theatre, the Roger Room takes you away from La Cienega Blvd the minute you step inside.  You’re further transported when you take a sip of their Old Sport (Gin, Black-Tea Infused Lychee Liqeur, Cucumber Juice, and Lime) or their Spring Street with Vodka, Mint, Orange Juice, Galliano, and Ice.  The waiters, decked out in buttoned-up shirts, black vests, and ties, are beyond knowledgeable about the world of liquor – go during the week, on the early side, sit at the bar, and pick their brains.  You’ll feel great by the end.

Roger Room is located at 370 N. La Cienega Blvd. in West Hollywood 310.854.1300

The Varnish

Hidden in the back of the unassuming Cole’s French Dip in Downtown LA, The Varnish Bar is intimate.  Once you make your way past the deli counter and late-night diners to the unmarked black door in the back of the restaurant, you’ll enter a tiny world of dimly-lit, piano-backed, liquor-fueled delight.  Eric Alperin, the main man behind the bar at The Varnish, has developed a menu that’s short, sweet, and invites the drinker to play around a bit.  Try the Hot Buttered Rum – Aged Rum, Butter, Honey, and Hot Water.  Not your thing? Try a Stinger – Brandy, Crème de Menthe, and Crushed Ice.  Still not whetting your palate? Ask the bartender to create something for you and try not to be too specific.  He’ll know what you mean if you walk in, tell him about your night (wild, obviously), and ask him to make you the perfect nightcap.  It just goes down so easy.

The Varnish Bar is located inside Cole’s French Dip at 118 E. 6th Street in Downtown 213.622.9999