10 Cocktails to Drink This Fall

This fall, try the 22 Degree Halo from Banzarbar, a twenty-seat, cozy haunt located on the second floor of the iconic Freemans Restaurant in NYC’s Lower East Side. Inspired by early 20th century explorers and the BANZARE Antarctic expeditions, you'll find craft cocktails with exotic ingredients behind the bar, which is helmed by industry heavy-hitter and Death & Co veteran, Eryn Reece.

Ingredients:

1.50 oz Amontillado Sherry

1.50 oz Basil Infused Carpano Bianco*

0.25 oz Skinos

Tsp Reisetbauer Carrot

Method: Stirred

Glassware: Coupe

Garnish: Pickled Carrot

Origin: Banzarbar, New York City, 2019

*Basil Infused Carpano Bianco:

For every one liter bottle of Carpano Bianco Vermouth add 30 basil leaves. Let sit for 30 min. Strain.

Since opening this past fall inside NYC’s historic Seagram’s Building, Major Food Group’s The Pool Lounge has been attracting cocktail-seeking crowds thirsty for imaginative and beautifully constructed drinks. Head bartender Thomas Waugh focuses each cocktail on one specific flavor, creating complex flavors from simple recipes. Case in point is Cinnamon, a fall-themed cocktail built around two types of tequila and cinnamon-infused syrup and bitters.

Cinnamon

1 oz Don Julio 1942
1 oz El Tesoro Anejo
.5 oz grapefruit-cinnamon syrup
2 dashes Elemakule Bitters

Add all ingredients in a mixing glass and stir with ice. Strain into a rocks glass with one large cube and garnish with a long grapefruit twist and soft cinnamon stick.

The Roosevelt Room opened in 2015 and has appeared on several “best of” lists since then. The drinks menu includes several house creations, along with over 50 classic cocktails. For the fall season, the team has come up with this riff on a Negroni, infused with pumpkin and spice flavors to warm you up inside as it cools down outside.

Autumn Negroni

1 oz Citadelle Reserve Gin
1 oz pumpkin-infused Routin Blanc Vermouth
1 oz Becherovka
.5 teaspoon maguey sap syrup
3 dashes long pepper tincture
1 dash cassia tincture
1 dash salt tincture

Stir well for 15 seconds in a mixing glass, and strain into a Nick & Nora glass. Garnish with flamed orange peel, dehydrated orange wheel dusted in pumpkin spices and clothes-pinned to the side of the glass (with a large dark clothespin).

Nashville’s bar and restaurant scene is exploding these days, with bartenders upping their cocktail menu game to satisfy thirsty customers looking for something new. Henley opened just over a year ago and is already making a name for itself. Stop by this fall for the Weekend’s Prize, a concoction made with blended scotch, apple juice, sherry, and walnut liqueur – a true taste of autumn in a glass.

Weekend’s Prize

1.5 oz Monkey Shoulder Scotch
1 oz green apple juice
.25 oz Oloroso sherry
.25 oz Nocino
.25 oz brown sugar syrup
.25 oz lemon

Shake ingredients and double strain into antique stemmed glass. Garnish with dehydrated apple and grated cinnamon.

Last Rites opened recently in the Duboce Triangle area of San Francisco, styled in what it calls a “Polynesian noir” theme. The bar is set in an old airplane fuselage, and stone idols, parachute fabric, fake skulls, and tropical drinks are the kitschy decorating touches you’ll find within. Over 150 rums are lining the shelves, but just because the theme here is modern tiki doesn’t mean they can’t put together a good fall cocktail. Try the Mama Juan, a riff on a classic Dominican drink, made with rum, lime, spiced honey, and Nocino, an Italian walnut liqueur.

Mama Juan

1.5 oz Real McCoy Rum
1 oz lime
.75 oz Cocchi Americano
.75 oz spiced honey
.25 oz Punt e Mes
.25 oz Nocino
.25 oz ginger beer

Shake ingredients together, strain into glass. Serve up with an orange peel and scored lime wedge for garnish.

New Las Vegas still has some classic Las Vegas charm, if you know where to find it. The Dorsey is one of these spots, with a focus on cocktail craft and excellent service. The menu is divided up into sections like “Stirred & Boozy,” “Light & Bright,” and “Conversation Pieces.” The Narrator belongs to the former category, and it’s a simple and effective version of a Boulevardier. Michter’s Rye is combined with two types of Amaro to marry the whiskey’s inherent spiciness with a bit of sweet and bitter.

Narrator

1.5 oz Michter’s Rye
.75 oz Amaro CioCiaro
.75 Punt e Mes
2 dashes orange bitters

Build ingredients in glass over a large ice cube and stir. Garnish with orange twist.

The Roger Room fits comfortably into the Los Angeles bar scene, brought to you by the team behind spots like Bar Lubitsch and Jones. The cocktail menu is expansive, divided into categories based on spirit with whimsical names like Dueling Banjos, Flim Flam, and The Grifter. Stop by to try The Fugitive this fall, a cocktail that combines mezcal, lime, tamarind, and Aquafaba, the liquid left over after cooking beans that acts like an egg white substitute.

The Fugitive

1.5 oz Ilegal Mezcal
.75 oz fresh limejuice
.5 oz Liquid Alchemist Tamarindo
.25 oz Liqueur Kummel
.25 oz Aquafaba
2 dashes cardamom bitters

Shake ingredients together vigorously. Strain into specialty coupe and garnish with grated nutmeg.

The Ivy Hotel, located in a historic mansion in the Mount Vernon district, is one of the classiest places to stay in Baltimore. The hotel’s restaurant, Magdalena, follows suit with dishes like wagyu beef, seared scallops, and saffron-marinated burrata, along with an extensive local and international whiskey list and an eclectic cocktail menu. This fall, the bar team introduces a drink called the Wallis & Edward, combining the classic flavors of bourbon, sherry, and Amaro into a familiar and warming libation.

Wallis & Edward

2 oz bourbon
.25 oz sherry
.5 oz Averna Amaro
splash of lime juice
3 dashes Angostura bitters

Shake ingredients together, strain into glass and serve up. Garnish with orange twist and red pepper.

The Happiest Hour is a casual joint where you can enjoy a very popular cheeseburger and choose a cocktail from a “non-judgmental drinks menu.” If this welcoming atmosphere sounds good to you, consider braving the sweater weather this fall and ordering a Treacle cocktail, which combines rum, maple syrup, and apple juice.

Treacle

2 oz Coruba Rum
.5 oz apple juice
.25 oz maple syrup
2 dashes Angostura bitters
1 dash orange bitters

Add Angostura bitters, orange bitters, maple syrup and rum to a mixing container and stir several times with ice until well chilled. Strain over ice into a rocks glass. Float apple juice on top and garnish with an orange twist.

Chicago’s Ludlow Liquors focuses on the whiskey end of the spirits spectrum, so it makes sense that this Avondale bar would have a fitting fall cocktail in the works. The Salty Stephen is like a briny version of a Boulevardier that gives the bitters a starring role, with four drops of saline solution precisely added to the mixture.

Salty Stephen

2 oz sweet vermouth (suggested Cocchi di Torino or Carpano Antica)
.75 oz Wild Turkey 101 Bourbon
.5 oz Cynar
4 drops saline solution (mix 4 parts boiling water to 1 part Maldon salt until salt is dissolved, let the mixture cool and transfer to dropper bottle)

Combine ingredients and stir in a bar glass. Pour over ice cubes (or one large cube), zest orange peel, and garnish with the peel.