Bar GuruCocktail field guide

The late-night field guide

Decide the drink before the room gets loud.

Visited rooms, edited specs, and bottles ranked by the job you need them to do. A shorter guide, built only from what Bar Guru can stand behind.

Tonight's spec

Margarita

Five ingredients. Zero theater. The house spec stays dry and bright.

  • 2 oz blanco
  • 1 oz lime
  • ¾ oz orange liqueur
Make it tonight

Tonight's room

Thunderbird

West LA. Skeeball. Agave. The Nice, no attitude. Order the Paloma.

  • West LA
  • Agave list
  • Open late
Read the room

Tonight's shelf

Tequila guide

30 positions across Blanco, Reposado, and Añejo are undergoing editorial review.

  • In review
  • 30 positions
  • 3 expressions
Open the guide

Specs worth repeating

All 21 recipes

House spec

The Margarita, measured

The ratio is the recipe. Everything else is technique and good limes.

Two to one to three quarters

Blanco · Lime · Orange liqueur

Old Fashioned Easy BuiltEspresso Martini Medium ShakenNegroni Easy StirredPaloma Easy Highball

The shelf map

Spirits

Tequila

In review · 30 positions under review

The tequila guide is undergoing editorial review.

Rankings and detailed buying guidance will return after the review is complete.

Open the tequila guide
Bourbon Field notesMezcal Field notesGin Field notesRum Field notesScotch Field notes

Two cities, reviewed slowly

How we choose
Los Angeles Heart: LA, habit: midnight roomsNew York Hotel bars, after-work rooms

Every room here was actually visited. No scraped listings, no pay-to-play placement. Two cities is the honest shape of the current guide: selected rooms, backed context, and brass line work unless original venue photography is available.

Our point of view

“Fewer rooms, better reasons: the guide grows only when a place, spec, or bottle earns a note.”

Read the house point of view