This great holiday is sure to be adopted in America, just as soon as everyone tastes one of the cocktails. more ›

Every classic cocktail and every boozy ingredient you can think of in one handy (and incredibly detailed) chart. more ›

This scotch-based cocktail, invented by Mike Ryan of Sable Kitchen and Bar, is a perfect addition to your winter repertoire. more ›

And what a year it's been. A raft of exciting openings (and not just the Aviary), a sad closing or two and a ton of great drinks. more ›

This bourbon and sarsaparilla cocktail is sure to be a big hit at any winter parties. more ›

Vermouth has been a central part of Sable's bar menu since the restaurant opened, but this takes it to a whole new level. more ›

Even avid bar-goers have sipped them, read about them in ingredient lists and enjoyed them without quite knowing what they are. Angostura Bitters, while common in cocktails, can be a mystery. Well no longer! more ›

Much like a business motto, a tagline is a short, catchy phrase used by studios to sell feature-length films. more ›

Stop in for pre-and-post Thanksgiving drinks, and enjoy discounts on North Shore products and cocktails. more ›

Put on your best 80s outfit and order a Harvey Wallbanger - The Whistler is dressing up for Halloween. more ›

The new bar will impress any cocktail connoisseur. more ›

Part two of the three-part miniseries Prohibition premieres tonight on WTTW Channel 11 at 7 p.m. This installment of the latest documentary film by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick chronicles the aftermath of the passage of the 18th Amendment and the Volstead Act, the law that both gave Prohibition enforcement its teeth and unwittingly set in motion a 13-year bender of rampant criminality in America. more ›

Time to get back to brown spirits with this classic fall cocktail. more ›

When we say "hottest" we don't mean scene or celebrity; this is literal. The hottest cocktail, involving seven different kinds of chiles, will blow your ears off your head. If you're a fan of the spice, or if you want to scare your friends, this is the drink for you - the Vato Loco at Mercadito. more ›

Carnivale University - the fantastic mash-up of a name the Chicago restaurant has given its occasional classes in mixology, Latin cooking and entertaining - met again on Wednesday evening for a basic introduction to the Mojito. Led by head bartender and house mixologist Daryl Freeman, Mojitos 101 gave the crowd of 50 or so students the tools and know-how to whip up this classic, fresh, fair-weather rum cocktail at home. more ›

Today marks day one of Tales of the Cocktail New Orleans, a yearly celebration of cocktail history and culture. There are seminars, drinks, dinners and more drinks. The five-day exercise in revelry has lured a number of our city's finest bartenders from their normal posts. And while we certainly haven't been left to totally fend for ourselves - many establishments have been entrusted to able lieutenants and special guests - it seems like a great time to practice a little self-preservation. And by that we mean introducing a new cocktail into our domestic repertoire. more ›

We caught wind this week that over the past several months, Cody Modeer, head bartender at In Fine Spirits in Andersonville, has been busy behind the scenes concocting his own potable bitters. And not just any bitters, but a replica of the fabled Amer Picon, a French spirit akin to Italian amaro that has been unavailable in the United States for some time. (Respectively, "amer" and "amaro" are the French and Italian words for "bitter.") Modeer debuted the stuff on Wednesday. In typical bitters-fanatic fashion, 24 hours later we're bellied-up at Cody's bar, angling for a sip. more ›

On Saturday, May 14, the weekly Farmers Market on Division Street between State and Clark streets opened for the season. It was one of several neighborhood markets around Chicago to open this past Saturday. We paid a visit, slinging both camera and canvas sack, to see what had been helped along by the short-lived heatwave we experienced last week. That it's still early in the Midwest growing season was evident in the relatively sparse offerings; nevertheless, some good-looking greens, fulsome fungi and an array of young potted plants all signaled a promising summer of cellulose ahead. more ›

We can't quite believe we're posting this, but based on the sheer volume of news coverage over the past few days, some people must care about this huge wedding that's happening on Friday across the pond. Frankly, we're almost tired of hearing about it - the number of press releases pushing special wedding cocktails that we've gotten have just about pushed us over the edge. On the other hand, we're as interested in pretty dresses and flower tossing as the next man, though, and if there are good drinks involved, you might be able to get us on board. Might. Anyway, a lot of decent bars and restaurants are offering neat events specials, if you want to watch the blessed event - they might even make it worth it. more ›

A standing-room-only crowd descended on WaterShed Bar Monday night for its inaugural stint as host of the monthly cocktail series Shift Drink. Held on the first Monday of each month, Shift Drink pairs a chef with a mixologist and charges them with devising a creative menu of cocktails and serving them up for the event. This month Sepia's chef, Andrew Zimmerman, and head bartender, Josh Pearson, collaborated on a cheeky menu of four signature drinks that turned a favorable light onto some of cocktail history's dimmer nooks. more ›

Winemakers, distillers and brewers have been aging their handiwork in barrels for centuries. It does magical things. Seeing an opportunity to experiment, bartenders have recently adopted the practice, too, aging cocktails in large batches using barrels obtained second-hand from distilleries. Hearing that a barrel-aged Manhattan recently appeared on The Violet Hour's menu, we paid a visit to taste what all the fuss is about. more ›

It's the time of the year for "best-of" statements, and when someone has drunk as many cocktails as we have in a year (gosh, that sounds bad) it's a very difficult decision to make. Surprisingly, the prize may go to a drink from a slightly unexpected location - neither the Violet Hour nor the Whistler takes our top honors this year, but a humble infusion from The Southern. more ›

Much to our delight, cocktail menus and restaurant beverage programs have been transforming in a great way - the revival of classic cocktails, gin based drinks and most recently the tea trend. more ›

It's easy to forget that, with all the hype recently bestowed to the Violet Hour since it opened months ago (much of it warranted, we'll preface), that this city was already teeming with master mixologists before Toby Maloney blew back into town. Case in point, at the recent "Chicago Iron Bartender" competition, Sepia's Peter Vestinos beat out a packed field including Nacional 27's Adam Seger, Tim Lacey of Spring Restaurant Group, and Otom's James Macknyk... more ›