Aviary, Barrelhouse Flat Make Esquire's Best Bars in America List

By Anthony Todd in Food on May 29, 2013 3:20PM

Photo via Shutterstock.

It's a good month for Chicago's mixology scene. First, the city did pretty darn well in the Spirited Awards nominations for Tales of the Cocktail. Now, Esquire has listed several of our hometown favorites in their "Best Bars in America" feature for 2013.

David Wondrich, one of our favorite writers (and our imaginary cocktail boyfriend) curated the list, and it's a doozy. Predictably, The Aviary made the list, though the authors had to point out that it isn't really a bar so much as a cocktail-making restaurant. Barrelhouse Flat's moment in the sun continues, and Esquire captured it perfectly: BF specializes in "making the many classic drinks on its enticing list as good as possible, with minimal ego."

Okay, so those are the predictable ones that made the slideshow. What about the rest? They also created a handy map (that we immediately bookmarked) that includes some less-obvious spots. They called out The Drawing Room, The Matchbox, The Chipp Inn, The California Clipper, Sheffield's and Delilah's—not a bad list for someone new to the Chicago bar scene to print out and put in their wallet. Each listing also has a suggested cocktail.