The Menu: A Cocktail List in Four Chapters
Classics, seasonal drinks, garden drinks and drinks with a passport. This is our cocktail list, arranged in four chapters, with a guide to each and links to the full recipes.
Photo: Wolrider YURTSEVEN / Pexels
A good cocktail menu is a small piece of writing. It tells you what a bar cares about before you have tasted anything. The list at Bar Pleiades on the Upper East Side was a lovely example: it was divided into four French-titled chapters and printed classics with the name of their creator and a year. This page borrows that structure as a guide to the recipes in our journal. It is not the bar's menu and we are not the bar; it is a tribute to a way of thinking about drinks.
I. La Tradition
The classics, with credit where it is due.
The first chapter is about history: drinks that have lasted a century or more, each linked to a bartender, a bar or a book. Learning these is the foundation of everything else, because almost every modern cocktail is a variation of one of them.
II. La Saison
Drinks that follow the calendar.
The second chapter changes with the seasons: citrus and spice in winter, bitter aperitifs in spring, fruit and herbs in summer, apples, pears and warm spices in autumn. Modern classics live here too, the drinks of the cocktail revival that have already earned a permanent place.
III. Le Potager
From the kitchen garden.
The third chapter is about plants: herbs from the windowsill, produce from the market and, with real care, foraged botanicals. These drinks taste of a particular place and moment. Our guide explains the techniques, from herb syrups to infusions, and the safety rules that matter.
IV. Le Voyage
Drinks with a passport.
The last chapter travels: to Havana, Singapore, London and Paris. These are drinks shaped by famous bars and the travelers who carried them home.
Reading a cocktail list
When you sit down at a good bar, a few things in the menu are worth noticing. Is it short? Short lists are usually better made. Does it credit its classics? That suggests a team that respects history. Does it change with the seasons? That suggests a bar that works with fresh ingredients. And does it give you a reason to order something you have never tried? The best menus do all four.
For a complete list of recipes, see our cocktails index. For food to go with them, see bar food and the late-night menu.