Many people think you can’t get a good drink in Park City, Utah. Sure, the state has some strict liquor laws that limit base spirits to 1½ ounces per glass. But just because you can’t order a double doesn’t mean all of the drinks are weak.
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.
San Antonio is kind of like the Orlando of Texas. That’s all great, but this G-rated reputation often overshadows San Antonio’s sophisticated drinking, dining and nightlife scenes.
Many people associate cocktails in glitzy Miami with the kind of two-ingredient “mixed drinks” that propel you through a night of clubbing. (Red Bulls and vodkas, anyone?) Other people may think of the beachside strawberry slushies that offer temporary respite from the Florida sun. Others still cling to the old rum-and-muddled-mint standby, the mojito. While all of those drinks serve their purposes well, Miami has plenty more to offer on the craft cocktail front.
Going to Louisville and not sipping bourbon is like going to Russia and not getting sloshed on vodka. Why did you go at all?
Alcohol has been an integral part of life for Boston residents since Boston was founded in the 1600s. Back then, gritty New England settlers—including children!—drank distilled spirits instead of water, which was often contaminated with parasites. Today the water is cleaner and the legal drinking age is higher, but the rebellious drinking culture lives on through the city’s notorious Irish pubs and revolutionary cocktail bars.
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.
Atlantans want more than just cheap beer and good jukeboxes from their dive bars—they want entertainment. Revelers in the ATL like to chug their brews while watching street fights, belting into karaoke machines, listening to live blues musicians, or even admiring strippers.
The cocktail was born in New Orleans (Or so the myth goes.) Hundreds of years ago, apothecary owners here sold cure-all swills that included alcohol, bitters, water and sugar. The mixtures certainly cured sobriety, making the city a must-visit destination for luminaries such as Ernest Hemingway and non-luminaries such as bachelor-party attendees. The modern craft movement has boomed since Hurricane Katrina as demographics have shifted, but old-school classics and lowbrow frozen drinks are still New Orleans favorites for laisser le bon temps rouler.
When the professional drink-slingers in New Orleans want to have a beer, they stay far away from the “go-cup” toting amateurs on Bourbon Street. Instead, they head straight to the seedy dives.
Depending on your wherewithal, you could theoretically work your way through all of Birmingham’s cocktail destinations and four beer breweries in one weekend. Not that we'd recommend that.
There are two kinds of dive bars in Boston: the kind with live rock bands and the kind with Keno.
Dallas is one of the rare cities that straddles a variety of American regions: the South, the Southwest and, of course, Texas, which counts as a region all its own. As cowboy as all that sounds, Dallas is actually surprisingly cosmopolitan. In this northeast pocket of the state you’ll spot more Teslas and Nieman Marcus shopping bags—the flagship, downtown store from 1914 is a historic landmark—than you will camo’ hats or belt buckles.
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.
Aside from the diverse music, you may be surprised to find that Nashville’s eclectic food and cocktail bar scene—one of the best in the South—ranges from rustic and charming in that American-flag-on-the-wall way to experimental takes on what Southern cuisine even means. Here’s how to spend two great days in Nashvegas.
Driving an exotic car is like wearing a tailored suit while everybody else is in jeans: you’re going to turn heads.
Astronauts like to party. Or so you would come to believe once you learn how much effort has been put into brewing beer in outer space. And while space colonies and astronaut bars are still decades away—if even that soon—out-of-this-world beer is very much a reality. Here’s a brief history of extraterrestrial brews, from legit science experiments to viral marketing campaigns to novelty beers made from otherworldly ingredients that you can buy right here on earth.
Speakeasies transcend time and transport you to an era when Prohibition still existed and bars’ locations were classified information.
The Mars crew hadn’t had water, power or fuel for 24 hours. Communication was down, space suits needed to be repaired and life support systems were not functioning. But the beer? The beer was just fine.
