Chicago’s neighborhoods are a veritable playground for cocktail enthusiasts, if you know where to look.
Bucktown bar Remedy offers the “Rhubarbarella,” a gin drink inspired by the tart vegetable and the sci-fi film “Barbarella.”
Andersonville’s Elixir has the “Chicago Fire,” a tequila drink that pairs strawberries with habaneros.
And Thalia Hall’s basement bar Punch House serves a “Pilsen Pisco” as vibrant as the Lower West Side community.
But instead of crisscrossing the town for those concoctions, drinkers can now make them at home. They are among 100 recipes in the new “Chicago Cocktails” book, released by Cider Mill Press. Part of a series that also highlights libations from cities including New Orleans and Tokyo, the book organizes Chicago-inspired drinks by neighborhood. It also features interviews with bartenders, managers, entrepreneurs and others who have shaped the cocktail scene.
Author Nicole Schnitzler said she was aiming to showcase the creativity, hospitality and communal environment found in the city’s bars and restaurants.
“My hope is that it is really an ode to Chicago and the ways in which the industry is showing up for its city,” said Schnitzler, 39, of Lake View.
The book includes some history of the Chicago beverage scene in the late 1800s and early 1900s, when the city was known primarily as a shot-and-beer place. But there were exceptions, including early documentation of the Old Fashioned in the 1888 “Bartenders Manual” by Theodore Proulx, who worked at the Chapin & Gore saloon.
Other notable early drinks include the Williams & Newman saloon’s “Cohasset Punch,” a cross between a Manhattan and a punch; the “Chicago Cocktail,” made with brandy and topped with champagne and curaçao, and the “South Side,” supposedly a favorite of Al Capone that was made with gin, lemon and mint.
Today’s Chicago bar scene grew out of a renaissance in the 2000s, thanks in part to establishments like The Violet Hour, The Drawing Room, Sepia and The Whistler, Schnitzler said.
“Cocktails were really being fashioned now with a lot of care, a lot of thought and a lot of precision and imagination,” she said. “Places were trying to cultivate this kind of drinking experience that we didn’t have back in the day — not just to rush in to a bar and take a shot and leave but to have an experience and to linger and to feel that sense of community and creativity.”
“Chicago Cocktails” offers the stories behind those creations, some sparked by experiments with ingredients or inspired by the creators’ travels, cultural backgrounds or experiences.
‘Parallelogram’ at The Long Room
The Long Room bartender Ryan Rezvani drew on his 14-year-career as a Chicago Public Schools elementary teacher when naming the “Parallelogram,” which is featured in the book. English was a second language for many of his students, so he encouraged them to write out math problems in words to strengthen their skills.
“It got them thinking about language arts,” he said. “It just gave them another perspective. It also helped them develop vocabulary as well. So, ‘parallelogram’ was at the top of my list for vocabulary words for a third-grade math class.”
The “Parallelogram” is Rezvani’s twist on an Aperol margarita. It’s enhanced with his homemade Aromatic “Broken-Hearted” Bitters and Hot Pepper “Hot & Bothered” Bitters. He adds Mexican steak rub salt to the rim.
‘The bitters make it into more of an elegant cocktail as opposed to just an Aperol margarita that you would put on the rocks,” said Rezvani, 50, of Avondale, who co-owns The Bitter Ex Bitters & Syrups Company with his former girlfriend Stephanie Andrews.
Rezvani said there are similarities between teaching and bartending.
“I always knew that working in a bar is the same thing as classroom management,” he said. “You are the center of attention when you’re a teacher and you’re guiding the kids through the day. I like to be the guide through the hospitality experience. What I learned quickly when I first started bartending full-time is that people want to be heard. And children just want to be heard, too. So I would say those are all parallels. No pun intended.”
Aptly named, The Long Room is a long, narrow space enhanced by a Brunswick back bar with its original mirrors replaced by glowing orange lights. Some of its original wallpaper, depicting animals in hats and other accessories, has been salvaged and framed on the wall.
“We want this place to be known as a destination spot and a neighborhood spot,” said general manager Jeff Larsen, 43, of Portage Park. “We famously don’t have televisions. It’s always been the owner’s point for this to be a place of conversation instead of getting lost in the flickering lights.”
‘Amaro Daiquiri’ at Billy Sunday
A tweak of a classic cocktail recipe can produce a groundbreaking result. That was the case with the “Amaro Daiquiri” at notable Logan Square bar Billy Sunday. Years ago, the staff made a daiquiri but swapped out the rum for amaro, a bittersweet Italian liqueur.
“The hardest thing to do is come up with a very simple concept that is extremely dynamic,” said Corban Kell, the bar’s beverage director and general manager. “You get this really excellent balance of herbaceousness, bitterness, sweetness and dryness. It was a really brilliant idea. It’s why it’s never going to come off our menu.”
Staples aside, Billy Sunday also offers other drinks with less familiar ingredients, including a seasonal gin cocktail, “All Inclusive,” that features banana blossom, a purple flower that grows at the end of banana clusters. It was that creativity that attracted Kell, 38, of Rogers Park, to the bar, initially as a patron.
“I would come and visit, and I wouldn’t recognize any of the ingredients or the components on the menu,” he said. “And that was extremely exciting to me. You always learn about something. You can go down a rabbit hole, and you come away with a deeper knowledge. And the drinks were just delicious.”
Ironically named for the famous Chicago baseball player-turned-preacher and teetotaler, the bar has an intriguing aesthetic. The lights are dim, and the walls feature old photographs and framed insect specimens, including a scorpion and Eastern Toe-Biter from Kell’s own collection.
He praised the 12-year-old bar’s longevity in the mercurial food and beverage industry.
“People that have moved on from this program have gone on to open some of my very favorite bars in the city, and, in some cases, some of my very favorite bars in the country,” he said. “It’s an institution.”
Here are two recipes to try at home:
‘Parallelogram’
Glassware: Nick & Nora glass
Garnish: Lime twist
INGREDIENTS:
Guerrero Mexican spice rub, for the rim
1 1/2 oz. blanco tequila
3/4 oz. Aperol
3/4 oz. fresh lime juice
1/4 oz. agave nectar
3 to 4 dashes The Bitter Ex Aromatic “Broken-Hearted” Bitters
6 to 7 dashes The Bitter Ex Hot Pepper “Hot & Bothered” Bitters
DIRECTIONS:
1.Rub the rim of a Nick & Nora glass with a lime half-moon then dip the glass rim in Guerrero spice rub salt.
2. Add the remaining ingredients, except for the hot pepper bitters, to a cocktail shaker with ice and shake.
3. Strain the cocktail into the Nick & Nora, dash hot pepper bitters on top, and serve with a lime garnish.
‘Amaro Daiquiri’
Glassware: Coupe glass
Garnish: Lime twist
INGREDIENTS:
1 oz. Antico Amaro Noveis
3/4 oz. fresh lime juice
1 oz. Amaro Sfumato
1/2 oz. sirop de capillaire Rabarbaro
DIRECTIONS:
1. Chill a coupe glass. Add all of the ingredients to a cocktail shaker with ice and shake.
2. Double-strain the cocktail into the coupe. Garnish with a lime twist.
Recipes taken from “Chicago Cocktails.” Copyright © 2025 by Cider Mill Press. Used by permission of Cider Mill Press Book Publishers LLC. cidermillpress.com