By David Rosario

"There is a real revolution going on in Los Angeles," proclaims Eric Alperin, co-owner, general manager, and head bartender of The Varnish in the city's historic Downtown district. Instead of Jack and Coke or vodka and tonic, a growing number of bars in la-la land are concentrating on the craft of the cocktail. It took some time, but LA is finally catching up to the likes of New York City, London, and San Francisco. A new crop of LA bartenders have spent time in other cities and brought their cocktail knowledge, including a firm grounding in the classics, to the City of Angels. They have been hired by the best new joints and are serving up new takes on classic recipes.

Craft Revival This isn't LA's first foray into the classics. During the 1920s and 1930s, there were plenty of speakeasies and great cocktails. In fact, the Moscow Mule and an abundance of Tiki drinks came out of LA, and, according to Alperin, the margarita and La Paloma got their legs there, too. But as recently as a couple of years ago, LA bargoers weren't asking for the classics and bars weren't featuring them. Seven Grand was one of the first to raise awareness of sophisticated, complex, and balanced libations of the Golden Age. Around the same time, Sona Owner and Chef David Myers traveled to New York City, London, and Tokyo, and was blown away by the cocktails he sampled. He immediately realized Sona's cocktail program didn't measure up. Myers brought in a New Yorker, barman Sammy Jay Ross, to create a cocktail program that, Myers explains, "focused on excellent technique, professional attitude and dress, and crafting the perfect cocktail." Beginning late last year, more cocktail bars began sprouting up, including, in Downtown LA, The Doheny (a members-only bar), The Edison, and The Varnish (the West Coast outpost of New York City's Sasha Petraske's cocktail empire, which includes Milk and Honey, Little Branch, and White Star); Michael Mina's XIV on Sunset Strip; and Copa d'Oro in nearby Santa Monica. While Alperin admits that he is still fighting to push LA past branded bottles and Red Bull and vodka, LA bar patrons are beginning to understand and are willing to wait for a well-made drink. "It's like pizza," says Vincenzo Marianella, head barman at Copa d'Oro. "Is it better fast-food style or from a wood oven?" After a year in business, people rarely come into Copa d'Oro and ask for a vodka and soda.

Comeback Despite a move toward well-made cocktails of all kinds, Noah Ellis, corporate beverage director of the Mina Group, which includes XIV, a restaurant and cocktail lounge, comments, "Vodka is still the most prevalent spirit in LA," adding, "It will evolve, though." XIV is helping customers move beyond their comfort zone with such drinks as the Scottish Mule, a take on the classic LA cocktail, the Moscow Mule. The Scottish Mule calls for Hendrick's Gin instead of vodka, cucumber, lime, and ginger beer. The menu mentions Hendrick's but not gin. People skip over the name, order up gin without realizing it, love it, and educate their palates in the process. The most traditional of the new cocktail bars is The Varnish. At all of Sasha Petraske's bars, technique and recipe execution are paramount. The old-fashioned, which is one of Alperin's fall favorites, is a straightforward classic but one that, according to Alperin, "[is] more often than not completely screwed up when it is made at most other places." Because this is LA and not New York City, even The Varnish made some exceptions in its general policy of following recipes to a tee. The bar serves a Manhattan with a twist: instead of four ounces of sweet vermouth, they've halved the amount and added Chartreuse, and they've swapped bitters—Angostura for orange. Overall, the trend in LA cocktails is advancing the creative side. For example, the dirty martini at The Bazaar by José Andrés at the SLS Hotel in Beverly Hills substitutes the traditional mixed-in olive juice or brine with an air foam or froth, which sits on top of the vodka or gin, adding the aroma and taste of olive. And the olive in the glass is not a real olive; it's a sphere made to look like an olive, with its gelatinous shell containing the concentrated essence of olive and olive oil. According to Beverage Director Lucas Paya, it’s one of the bar's most popular drinks, despite guests not getting the classic dirty martini they were expecting.

Revolutionary Flavors Nothing succeeds like excess in Los Angeles, whether it's plastic surgery or cocktails. "We bust out all the stops," exclaims Aidan Demarest, director of spirits and beverages at The Edison. If you order a mojito, for instance, you'll get as much mint as Demarest can cram into a frozen cold glass with a chunk of ice. LA has better access to great produce year-round than perhaps anywhere else in the country, and they showcase this bounty in their drinks. "Californians care about what they put in their body and love their produce," says Mina Group's Ellis. Southern California has year-round availability of an abundance of cocktail ingredients you may not find in other locales, such as sweet pea, rosemary, thyme, tomato, and bell pepper. Demarest insists that the produce is "ten times better; it's greener, redder, it kicks with color. I can lay fruit all over the bar all night and it won't cost me [nearly] as much as it does...anywhere else." Over at Copa d'Oro, the popular Market Menu allows a customer to choose herbs, fruits, and spirits from a list—celery, papaya, apricots, and plums, to name a few—then watch the bartender create an original cocktail on the spot. For example, if you ask for pear and guava with Martin Miller's Gin, Head Barman Vincenzo Marianella will perhaps use pear liqueur and guava juice so the flavor of the pear will be expressed but not overpowered by the strong guava flavor. "If you allow me to be arrogant, I can balance the flavors of a cocktail," he offers, no matter what the customer chooses. Some other favorites include passion fruit and jalapeño, as well as cucumber and celery. About three-quarters of Marianella’s guests are women, who he says tend to request berries in their cocktails. Popular choices are strawberries and basil with a spirit of choice (usually vodka, though Marianella prefers them with gin). He notes, “I pretty much started that cocktail.” Aside from the produce, LA bartenders have access to a plethora of ethnic markets, inspiring them to kick up the creativity of their cocktails. Los Angeles has one of the biggest Korean and Thai communities outside the Far East, and The Doheny, for one, creates cocktails with aloe water, black sesame seeds, and even kimchee. For example, the bar’s Sesame Song is made with Korean chili powder, vodka, and blood orange juice, and it is garnished with black sesame seeds and red chili husk. Their Aloe cocktail is composed of Jinro Soju, aloe water, aloe jam, lime, and soda water. Of course, there is a large Latin influence in LA as well. At XIV, they embrace their proximity to Mexico with a Tequila martini. "I found a single-village, single-barrel Tequila, and I use that instead of gin," Ellis remarks. The Mina Group wanted to create a special cocktail with the Tequila but didn"t want to, as Ellis puts it, 'just throw a bunch of fruit into it" and lose the flavor of the Tequila. Instead, he turned to dry vermouth, a dash of grapefruit bitters, and Velvet Falernum. The libation is stirred slightly and hit with fresh lemon, which is not dropped into the drink. To keep this revolution moving forward, the top bar people in LA meet regularly to discuss techniques, spirits, and recipes. "We're all pushing each other to be creative and just go, go, go," remarks Alperin. It reminds some long-term residents of the 1960s art scene in LA, when artists supported each other's creative efforts. For Angelenos who have endured decades of poorly made drinks, the art of the cocktail is back.

David Rosario is a New York City-based freelance spirits writer.