Greatest Hits

Winter 2019: Mardi Gras, Alpacas, Holiday Cookies. Edited by Alyson Sheppard. Cover styling by Alyson Sheppard.

The Goldschläger was Rob’s idea.

Fall 2018: Sweet Potatoes, Venison, Muscadine Wine. Edited by Alyson Sheppard. Cover styling by Alyson Sheppard.

Summer 2018: Beer, Lake Martin, Gumbo. Edited by Alyson Sheppard. Cover styling by Alyson Sheppard.

Spring 2018: Edible Flowers, Oysters, Farmers Markets. Edited by Alyson Sheppard. Cover styling by Alyson Sheppard.

Three of N.Y.C.’s most vaunted cocktail institutions are going where no bar has successfully gone before: out of town.

Anthony Bourdain talked to Esquire about making the documentary Jeremiah Tower: The Last Magnificent, personal regrets, and what it means for a celebrity chef to fade away.

For Cubans, rum is personal.

“These are tough issues and we don’t know how to deal with all them yet,” says Jenny Schwarz, co-owner of Hopscotch restaurant and bar. “So for me, right now, I’m sticking to cocktails. I can at least try to make people smile.” 

Whether it’s because tastes have changed or because the words carry completely different connotations today, the following 10 cocktails all have one thing in common: Judging by their names alone, you wouldn’t want to put them anywhere near your mouth.

Last month, a website called “The Reality of Sexual Assault in the Cocktail Community” launched with the goal to expose what the site describes as rampant sexual assault in Los Angeles’ bar community.

Playboy gathered America’s best bartenders and asked what they feared walking in the bar more, a bachelor party or a bachelorette party? 

Every year we search the U.S. for the top new places to get a great drink: the best spots where they take making a cocktail seriously, but don’t take themselves too seriously. After making an open call for nominations and consulting some of the best bartenders, drinks writers, and industry insiders, we came up with a list of 50 worthy finalists. 

Call me Alyson. For some months now—never mind how long precisely—I had heard rumors of cocktails that provided a next level of altering. Tales proliferated of the existence of unmarked, rarely seen bottles hidden beneath bars and off-menu drinks that were available to only the trustworthy. In pursuit of this white whale I’ve visited bars across the country, whispering my inquiry to bartenders over late-night drinks, Facebook-messaging the most open-minded bar owners I knew and cold-calling contacts of contacts within the industry: “Can you serve me a cannabis cocktail?”

Playboy talked to chef Andy Ricker about what went wrong in L.A., the tipping crisis and what he believes the public doesn’t understand about the restaurant industry.

Speakeasies, rum-runners, bootleggers and Al Capone! Welcome to Chicago, where booze, politics and organized crime have proven themselves inseparable throughout history.

The bartenders’ handshake—the drink that local bartenders order to signify to their cohorts that they work in the industry—is different in every city. The handshake could even vary from bar to bar. Playboy talked to bartenders across the country to find out what the insider, spirit-of-choice is for their town.

Dive bars in many cities have gone the way of the dire wolf, but in Austin, where weird is celebrated, they’re digging in and spreading like an invasive species. 

Let’s be frank: Contemporary space travel is sexy. It’s dangerous, alluring and dominated by dashing billionaires, from Tesla’s Elon Musk to Virgin’s Richard Branson to Amazon’s Jeff Bezos (okay, Bezos isn’t as dashing). These men have promised to build lavish spacecraft and open the heavens for the paying masses. But the truth is, you’ll probably never leave this atmosphere.

Maple Syrupatistas