Bar GuruCocktail field guide

The late-night field guide

Decide the drink before the room gets loud.

Visited rooms, edited specs, and spirit coverage labeled by its publication state. 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

Thirty tequila bottles in three independent rankings: 10 Blanco, 10 Reposado, and 10 Añejo, each compared within its own expression and service lane.

  • Ranked
  • 30 published picks
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

Ranked · 30 published picks

Tequila · Ranked

Thirty tequila bottles in three independent rankings: 10 Blanco, 10 Reposado, and 10 Añejo, each compared within its own expression and service lane.

Open the tequila guide
Bourbon In reviewRye Field notesScotch Field notesGin Field notesRum Field notesVodka Field notesMezcal 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