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

In the interest of keeping calm and carrying on, here’s an activity designed to smooth your feathers. Let’s get drunk. Here are three SOPA Strike 2012 Drink Recipes: the SOPA, the PIPA, and the original WikiBlackout Black Out Cocktail. more ›

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

Although this drink hails from outside the city limits, it would be right at home warming you up on a chilly winter's evening in Chicago. more ›

A classic tome of alcoholic refreshment inspires six tales of tippling in this new theater piece from BoyGirlBoyGirl. more ›

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

To celebrate the repeal of Prohibition, here's a cocktail inspired by the Sinclair Lewis novel Babbitt. more ›

Drinkify is a new quirky website that suggests drinks that suit what you're listening to, and we decided to check its accuracy with some Chicago bands. more ›

Get the inside story about the fall cocktail list at MorSo. more ›

A Colonial-era cocktail that's perfect for fall. more ›

The last episode of Prohibition, "A Nation of Hypocrites," airs tonight. 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 ›

We preview the forthcoming PBS miniseries and share the recipe for Corpse Reviver #2, a vintage cocktail. more ›

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

Back when we were helping Melissa Yen cook up a batch of Jo Snow syrup, we spent a lot of time thinking about booze. Even more time than usual, and considering our obsession with cocktails, that's quite a feat. Snowcones? Coffee flavorings? Whatever. All we could think of was the ways that Jo Snow's syrups would be great in cocktails. Yen had the same idea, and has slowly been getting the syrups on cocktail menus around town. more ›

Wow, can it be National Rum Day again already? Last year we presented The Drought-Ender, a wonderful way to savor the earthy funk of Smith & Cross rum from Jamaica. Elsewhere in the tropics, on the island of Martinique, you'll encounter a whole other class of pungent herbal spirits known as rhum agricole. 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 ›

June is GLBT Pride Month, and this refreshing sipper is the perfect drink for celebrating it. more ›

Do we dare celebrate this brief retreat winter's been making? Can we safely point and laugh at the once-Andean snow piles that've been reduced to pathetic roadside lumps? Part of us says no, any pleasure we take in these hood-down halcyon days will come back to bite us on the...nose. (Mother Nature is so immature.) If only we could somehow honor the fruits of the season, but in a refreshing beverage built for these blissfully tepid days of pre-spring. Luckily, we've got guys like Michael Page, bar manager at Vie in Western Springs, working on the problem. more ›

One surefire way to shower affection on your Valentine is to mix up a beautiful libation. Hand-crafting a cocktail, with love of course, has the thoughtful-romantic-gesture angle covered, with the added benefit of melting away any rough edges on the evening ahead. (Let's see flowers do that.) In putting together our trio, we stuck to the classic V-Day palette of pinks and reds while steering clear of the overly sweet or just plain silly. In other words, cocktails you'll actually want to drink. more ›

Yesterday we brought you news of America's brimming craft spirits movement. So today, we thought we'd follow up by highlighting a local cocktail (just one among many, we should note) that features a fine specimen from the growing roster of small-batch American spirits to hit the shelves as of late. The delightful Sullivan's Wake cocktail is the handiwork of Clint Rogers, the inventive spirits director and mixologist at Henri. We've noted Henri's cocktails before, but they just keep getting better. more ›

In May 2010, Topolobampo hosted the release party for Del Maguey Mezcal Vida, the latest offering from the renowned brand of Oaxacan Mezcals. Vida de San Luis del Rio, as its full name goes, has since become a darling of the Chicago bar scene. Vida is starring in a number of hit drinks right now; Big Star's Oaxaca Vieja, Violet Hour's Heads You Lose, the Drawing Room's Los Muertos and WaterShed's Italian Hurricane (which we recently reviewed) are just a few examples. 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 ›

It was Saturday afternoon, and an innocent session of Christmas shopping was threatening to get hairy. Unflagging wind and rain had turned our umbrella into a runaway fire hose. Someplace deep in the canyon of North Michigan Avenue, we put aside our hunt for gifts to satisfy more pressing needs for a delicious drink and a warm place to drink it. We sneaked off to Benny's Chop House, having recalled that the beverage program at BCH had been spearheaded by Alinea alum Justin Leone. more ›

No need to panic. Well, maybe for you. On a dare from our editor-in-chief, your humble cocktail reporter entered Prairie Fire's competition to guest-bartend at the restaurant. They asked amateur mixers to submit a recipe for an original cocktail on their Facebook page. The first round of the contest ends today; next, two finalists will be chosen for an evening of head-to-head bartending at Prairie Fire. The better-tipped competitor wins, with all the proceeds going to a very good cause: Share Our Strength, a charity combating childhood hunger. I've slung drinks in intimate company, but never to order. Gulp. more ›

The high point of our week thus far took place on the 34th floor of the Hard Rock Hotel. It was there that we became acquainted with a new kind of hotel suite with no beds, only bars. Don Julio Tequila has taken over that floor of the Hard Rock and remodeled it into a series of intimate event spaces complete with agave-centric artwork on the walls, shelves lined with drinking material, plush furniture, and enough candles to endure a month-long power outage. more ›

Poll local barkeeps, and you're likely to find widespread support for Chicago's ban on smoking in their establishments (which turns 3 in less than a month, by the way). And yet ironically, amongst their ranks are the ban's most brazen scofflaws. You see, they've uncovered its ultimate loophole, finding increasingly clever ways to sneak smoke into our drinks. more ›

Perhaps it's a bit perverse, given the recent oscillations of the climate, to post a drink recipe that has the word "cooler" in its name. But it's prime time for apple cider, and why drink it plain when you can drink it spiked? If you liked the Kentucky Holler, you're sure to enjoy the Furnace Creek Cooler. more ›

One of our favorite local mixologists has won $100,000 on the reality show "On The Rocks." The show, which pits bartenders against each other in a series of themed challenges, broadcast its final episode on Saturday night. Drawing Room mixer Charles Joly took home top honors, mixing up a cocktail called the Absolut Tea Time. The show is sponsored by Absolut, so the contestants had to make up a cocktail using the new Absolut Wild Tea (perhaps not the most inspiring ingredient, from our point of view) and Joly mixed it with with sloe gin, grapefruit and lemon juices, agave syrup and grated ginger. Knowing Joly, if he mixed it, it was pretty amazing. According to the Stew, he announced that he was taking his check "back to Chicago - Chi-town." Joly is a proud south-sider, and has worked in the industry in Chicago for 13 years. Good for you, Charles. more ›

Mix all ingredients in a tumbler glass and add ice cubes. To serve at a party, simply multiply all ingredients to fill a pitcher, mix and chill in the refrigerator ahead of time. more ›