New Neighborhood Bars to Try in 2019
We made our way through South Florida, finding award-winning chefs and bartenders who are evolving the culinary landscape through creative cocktails, chef-driven cuisine and plenty of local ingredients.
Broward & the Palm Beaches
It’s a bit north, but we couldn’t resist Delray Beach’s favorite bar, Death or Glory, housed in a 1925 cottage. Death or Glory focuses on craft cocktails, even infusing their dishes with some of the spirits they use in their cocktails. This attention to detail has garnered the bar numerous awards already, including a Tales of the Cocktail nomination for the first time in their short history. We love their “Elusive Dreams” cocktail with a blend of Caribbean rum, fresh pineapple, banana, cinnamon and lime. They work with local farm Natural Nomad Farms and Finn-Attic Fish Company.
After that, we landed in The Wilder in Fort Lauderdale, a gorgeous tropical bar with a strong focus on fresh, local ingredients. From the folks who brought you Rhythm & Vine Garden & Den, The Wilder creates an experience that is quintessential Fort Lauderdale. The balance between fun and sophistication shines in the cocktails and the atmosphere. Think fresh juices and citrus cocktails. Their “Don’t Sleep on Me” features Afrohead 7-Year Rum, Giffard Vanille de Madagascar liqueur, and Taro Milk Tea.
On the other side of I-95, Miami’s proper downtown is seeing its own revival. Bars like Lost Boy Dry Goods and Mama Tried are paving the way for downtown to become an entertainment district. Lost Boy Dry Goods, designed like a tavern in a Colorado miner’s saloon, is in the heart of downtown in the Alfred I. DuPont Building.
Mama Tried is your perfect neighborhood bar with pool table, light bites and proper cocktails, owned and operated by a group of bartenders, librarians, construction workers, filmmakers, DJs, teachers, bowling enthusiasts, snowcone peddlers and water polo coaches. “We all got together and pitched in what we could to make this neighborhood bar happen.” Tyler Kitzman, who created the cocktails, wants to bring together old and new. We tasted the Porn Star Martini, a blend of Absolut Vanilla, passion fruit, Licor 43, side car of bubbles and strawberry. A perfect Miami cocktail served with a side of sparkling – can’t get more Miami than that.
Miami Beach has seen a couple of new openings. One of those standouts is The Jim & Neesie and the brand-new Generator Hostel, the European brand’s first U.S. property. Gui Jaroschy, formerly of The Broken Shaker, is leading their cocktail program, while chef Daniel Roy, formerly of The Commonwealth, created the cuisine.
We loved the “Salty Doug” which brings together local grapefruit, lime, rum, agave and a salt rim for a refreshing beach cocktail. Fresh grapefruit is run through a juicer that uses centrifugal force to create that thick texture and mouthfeel. A must-stop when in Miami Beach.
Key West
Driving south to Key West usually leads us to frozen daiquiris, tiki-style cocktails and everything in between. A stone’s throw away from Duval Street is General Horseplay, a new craft cocktail bar with focus on ingredients, local beers, and wines by the glass. General Horseplay looks like a saloon from the 20s that was just uncovered to reveal a beautiful bar.
Our favorite was the Happy Dagger, Be Brief, a perfect Key West Old Fashioned with Real McCoy 5yr Rum, New Fashioned Syrup, and Bitterman’s Tiki Bitters.
