Welcome to Swig City, where we point you toward don’t-miss cocktails at some of the best bars, restaurants, and clubs in the city. Cheers!
The outspoken bar director Tabatha Mohn believes modern cocktail culture has lost its way. Technique and hospitality have been sacrificed on the altar of Instagram. Her recipes, in contrast, aren’t meant to intimidate, nor were they constructed with social media in mind.
Take the amaretto sour — that sickly sweet, low-octane, and typically eggy hallmark of 1980s tackiness that is about as unfashionable as a cocktail can be. Mohn’s version, available at the stylish, semi-secret lounge Left Door (opens in new tab), located one floor above Union Street’s Bus Stop Saloon (opens in new tab), is anchored by the standard Italian almond liqueur. But the egg white, simple syrup, and lemon juice — or worse, premade sour mix — have been thrown out. In their place are decidedly contemporary ingredients: overproof rye, Campari, winter citrus, and VersaWhip, a soy-based protein powder that lends a foamy texture.
“You want the proteins to hang onto each other, like otters holding hands,” says Mohn, who holds a degree in chemistry from the University of Oklahoma and whose résumé includes stints at True Laurel and Lazy Bear. By shaking things up with an egg-white alternative, she doesn’t have to worry about offending vegans or the egg-averse. “Egg white is a little stinky, too.”
The Red Hook combines coconut-oil-washed bourbon, apple, maraschino, cacao nibs, and punta e mes. | Source: Jason Henry for The Standard
A spirit-free drink with mulberry, rooibos, and ginger. | Source: Jason Henry for The Standard
Shredding the classic amaretto sour recipe is done only in the service of creating a better one. “We want to make cocktails that everyone’s grandma knows,” she says, adding that by summer, the bar will be serving “the greatest Midori sour on the face of the Earth.”
Left Door, newly under Mohr’s direction after a monthlong renovation, has a list of cocktails, all $20, that are notably approachable, with zhuzhed-up classics that include a daiquiri with salted honey, a sidecar with fermented guava, and a margarita with citrus sherbet. Martini lovers take note: Garnish options include an Original Joe’s-style blue-cheese-stuffed olive and a wonderfully weird, absinthe-soaked pickled onion — more grandpa than grandma, maybe, but well worth trying. A dozen wines by the glass are available, as is an upscale food menu ranging from truffle fries and crudités to prime-rib sliders and caviar service.
Above all, nothing is sacred. Take the ever-popular Negroni, which she describes as both the “easiest drink to make” and the one that’s “fucked up” the most. “People don’t make it right,” Mohn says. “They’re not diluted. They’re not at the proper temperature. All you taste is the bitterness.”
Her version contains the requisite gin and sweet vermouth, but also charred citrus and Arbequina olive oil, a nutty Catalonian variety usually used as a finishing oil. And that amaretto sour doesn’t even contain much amaretto. “With just a whisper, you know it’s in there,” Mohn says.
Left Door opened in 2023 but closed on New Year’s Day for a brief refresh. | Source: Jason Henry for The Standard
Detecting the amaretto is one thing. Locating the bar itself is another matter. In contrast to the raucous Bus Stop, Left Door is essentially unmarked. But for the discreet doorperson stationed on the stoop on weekends, it could pass for a residential unit. Discretion aside, it is not a speakeasy, says Joe Wallace, who owns both establishments. Left Door has windows, and no one clears their throat if you text a friend (as occasionally tech-averse speakeasy staff are known to do).
Despite opening in late 2023, Left Door was ready for a renovation, Wallace says. So it closed on New Year’s and reopened Feb. 5 with an enlarged back room and more seating, plus Mohr’s refreshed cocktail program. The 125-year-old Bus Stop has gotten a glow-up, too, with a full kitchen and new restrooms. “We’ve made all the changes we’re going to make for a long time,” Wallace says. Unlike a classic cocktail recipe, “you don’t want to mess with Bus Stop.”