The Traveler
Hotel bars, lounges, and drinking your way through a city.
Files from whichever bar has a working outlet. Believes the hotel bar is the last honest public room in a city, and that you learn more about a place in ninety minutes on a bar stool than in a week of restaurants.
Voice: Observational, place-first, always tells you where to sit.
Recent filings · 14
The murals are the point, and so is the piano
The Japanese-American bar that solved the highball
Twelve seats, sixty years, cash only
The bar that reopened New Orleans' cocktail argument
A courtyard, a Chris McMillian pour, and no hurry at all
The Miami Beach bar the industry actually drinks at
Colin Field, a very cold Martini, and a room that has heard it all
The Martini trolley is worth the entire evening
Hidetsugu Ueno, hand-cut ice, and no menu at all
Loud, bright, and better than it looks
Through the flower shop, down the stairs
A menu shaped like a magazine, and it actually works
Picks
- Coffey GrainNikka · Miyagi, Japan
Corn-sweet, vanilla-heavy, built for a highball rather than contemplation. Two ounces, cold soda, one long stir. It is the correct drink with ramen and yakitori.
- Mosto Verde PiscoCaravedo · Ica, Peru
Unaged, floral, and far more delicate than the Sour circuit implies. Worth drinking neat once before you start mixing, so you know what you're covering up.
- The Premium Malt'sSuntory · Osaka, Japan
Cold, clean, and unbothered. The point of a lager next to spicy food is temperature and carbonation, not flavor. Do not overthink the beer; overthink the food.
- Japanese Highball2oz grain whisky · 4oz cold soda · one long stir · lemon peel
Ice to the top, whisky first, soda down the side, stir once. Ramen, yakitori, tempura — this is the answer to all three.
- Pisco Sour2oz pisco · 1oz lime · 0.75oz simple · egg white · Angostura
Floral, foamed, and better with food than its reputation suggests. Ceviche is the pairing everyone knows because it works.
- Vieux Carré1oz rye · 1oz cognac · 1oz sweet vermouth · Bénédictine · bitters
Three base spirits and somehow not a mess. The New Orleans nightcap, and the drink that makes a hotel bar worth sitting at.
- Sazerac2oz rye · absinthe rinse · sugar cube · Peychaud's · lemon oil
No ice in the glass, no garnish in the drink. Anise and rye against blackened fish or a plate of something rich and Creole.
- Gin Tonic, Spanish Build2oz gin · good tonic · balloon glass · citrus peel · ice to the rim
Ice all the way up so it dilutes slowly. The glass is wide so the aromatics have somewhere to go. Not a garnish salad.