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The bartender should also be knowledgeable about the spirits they have available and be willing and excited to go off menu for you. Two of my best cocktail experiences came from talking to the staff about things. One was to pick out a whiskey for a whiskey sour, and the other was asking for a dessert cocktail with chocolate and orange flavors. It ended up being phenomenal!

My wife and I have been visiting the Top 50 UK bars for the last 3 years. We’ve been to 47 of the 2024 list so we’ve seen some wonderful and varied menus. As we’ve been to so many bars we go straight for the signature drinks but if we are joined by friends (who don’t visit as many bars as we do) they look for classics. In our opinion a menu of c 8-12 signature and half a dozen classics is about right. Each one of these bars will offer continuous free water which will keep the hangover away!!!

Re: Communicating ABV
Off memory, I noted that Double Chicken Please in Manhattan posts the %ABV on their frontroom menu. Of couse, if drinks are of variable volume, something that communicates each drink's strength relative to a standard drink may help, but if patrons have a language for alcohol content understood more by beer and wine, it's interesting to think about what language is used.

Agreed re. classic mixes, Simon. Your analogy with the culinary arts is a good one: the ability to adroitly handle good basic materials is something to be celebrated and definitely enjoyed. Things become classics for a reason. (I'm also minded of the core Buddhist principle of "suffering is wanting things to be different".)

Thank you for continuing to be a scout for good cocktail places.

My pet peeve with cocktail bars is using pre batched ingredients. I can understand it for extracting fruit juices before opening and liquors with infusions or washes, but I don't want a Word that came out of two bottles. I have experienced this most often in New York, but it seems to be spreading.

Further to my 1st post, a couple more thoughts. I absolutely agree about providing water; maybe not exactly the same thing, but in Italy, you would never be served an espresso without a glass of water. As an "ageing" discerning drinker, no point in a menu if there isn't enough light read it. But please, no iPad menus. And now that Covid is "behind" us, no more having to scan a QR code with your phone to see the menu (which I believe should be put away in the company of others anyway!)

There are lots of bars serving cocktails but few decent cocktail bars where I live. I love going to a bar where you know the bar tender really understands the craft of cocktail making. I was in a bar in Newcastle last week when I asked for a classic martini, the young lady who made it for me was keen to hear my views because it was only the second one she had ever made, it was very, very good and we had a great discussion about what makes a perfect martini. I’ve learned so much from using Difford’s Guide!

Maybe at odds with others here, but I don't think it's unreasonable to expert any bar anywhere to be able to make a few classics on top of their signature list. Not expecting a bar to stock every esoteric ingredient, but you hardly need a wide range of items to make : gin or vodka martini; Negroni; Old Fashioned; Margarita; etc

Pretty much any new bar I go to, I ask for a simple martini first; if the mixologist can't do a good job with basically 2 ingredients, it doesn't bode well.........