Chantal Martineau

Mezcal and gin: Dios mio!

​The drink: La Grita de Dolores

The bar: Viktor & Spoils (105 Rivington Street, Lower East Side, 212-475-3485)

The price: $14

The ingredients: Crema de Mezcal, Tanqueray 10, and Bittermans Chocolate Mole bitters, stirred and garnished with a grapefruit peel.

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Is that wood in your glass?

​The drink: Barrel-Aged Prince Edward

The bar: Saxon + Parole (316 Bowery, 212-254-0350)

The price: $16

The ingredients: Compass Box Scotch, Lillet Blanc, Drambuie, lemon bitters, and oak.

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Each week in The Daily Shot, we have ourselves a drink that we think you should try, too.

Chantal Martineau

It's a secret.

​​​​The drink: Winston Cocktail

The bar: Winston's Champagne Bar (Gansevoort Park Avenue, 420 Park Avenue South, 212-929-9070)

The price: $22

The ingredients: It's a secret! But we're guessing Champagne -- OK, that's a given -- tequila, citrus.

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Each week in The Daily Shot, we have ourselves a drink that we think you should try, too.

sfweekly.com

Pisco perfect

​​​​The drink: Pisco Sour

The bar: La Mar Cebicheria (11 Madison Avenue, Madison Square Park, 212-612-3388)

The price: $12

The ingredients: Pisco quebranta, lime juice, simple syrup, egg white, and regional bitters

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Junoon's John Filby

​If you thought fancy cocktails were something to be sipped only with house-made charcuterie, local cheese, and other dressed-up bar bites, you were sorely mistaken. Junoon, the nouveau Indian that opened off Madison Square Park last December, has just relaunched its bar as a proper cocktail lounge called Patiala, where you can sip something before dinner or even with a meal. Bartender John Filby explains.

How do you make cocktails to go with modern Indian food?

We wanted to do something with the bar that was an extension of the restaurant menu. With the whole mixology craze, a cocktail program is kind of expected now. We use a lot of the spices in the drinks that we use in the food. ... Cumin, curry, sage, and we do a lot of spice infusions. We really want to bring food-and-cocktail pairing to the forefront.

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Keith Wagstaff

Nice shot

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For the past couple of years, The Daily Shot, FitR's inappropriately named weekly cocktail feature, has scoured the city for the tastiest cocktails it could find. Straight up, on the rocks, with a twist, rimmed, and even on fire. You name it: We've knocked it back. Nowadays, it seems like a new bar opens every other week, with a brand-new cocktail list that begs to be explored. It's hard to keep up, but we try our best. We've had our fair share of pleasant sippers this year. These are 10 knockouts we've had in the past few months.

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Chantal Martineau

Always thirsty

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We sure do enjoy a drink around these parts. (These parts being The Daily Shot, FitR's inappropriately named weekly cocktail feature.) Straight up, on the rocks, with a twist, rimmed, and even on fire. You name it: We've knocked it back. Nowadays, it seems like a new bar opens every other week, with a brand-new cocktail list that begs to be explored. It's hard to keep up, but we try our best. We've had our fair share of pleasant sippers this year. Tomorrow, we'll reveal which ones have stood out so far. These aren't best drinks in the city, just what we're drinking right now. Getting thirsty?

For more dining news, head to Fork in the Road, or follow us @ForkintheRoadVV.

Each week in The Daily Shot, we have ourselves a drink that we think you should try, too.

It'll bring you back.

​​​​The drink: Black Eye

The bar: Forty Four (Royalton Hotel, 44 West 44th Street, Midtown West, 212-869-4400)

The price: $15

The ingredients: Honey whiskey, walnut liqueur, orgeat syrup, and espresso, served up

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Ed Anderson

A bitters man

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It used to be that Angostura was the only bitters a bartender needed. Nowadays, it seems like the number of mysterious little brown vials on the bar just keeps multiplying. Brad Thomas Parsons, author of, Bitters: A Spirited History of a Classic Cure-All, With Cocktails, Recipes, and Formulas, out next week, explains why.

Why did you decide to write a book about bitters?

I was living in Seattle, which has a stellar cocktail community, and wrote a short piece on housemade biters for Seattle Met magazine. I completely over-researched the article and interviewed way too many bartenders for a 450-word story. I just couldn't shake the topic. I started trying and buying as many commercial and craft bitters I could find and experimenting with making my own concoctions. Cocktails and spirits are subjects that lend themselves to much obsessing over, and bitters is such an esoteric, yet essential, subject and it kicked me into full-on geek mode.

How did bitters become such a big deal?

I see it as a natural result of the classic and craft cocktail movements. The call for the use of quality ingredients, like fresh juices and homemade syrups, and reintroduction of long-lost classics -- some of which called for hard-to-find or unfamiliar ingredients -- coupled with the Internet giving people easy access to chase down out-of-print bar guides sparked spirited discussions and fostered a DIY attitude. For years, Angostura and, if you lived in New Orleans, Peychaud's, were the only major commercial bitters readily available. Then, Regan's Orange Bitters No. 6 came onto market, which allowed people to make vintage drinks that called for orange bitters.

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Melanie Dunea Pam

Even more Mario

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Yesterday, we sat down with Mario Batali to discuss his new cookbook, Molto Batali: Simple Family Dinners From My Home to Yours; his new show, The Chew; and his ever-changing role as a food icon. Today, he reveals what he might have done had the whole cooking thing not worked out.

Do you miss cooking in restaurants every day?

In 1993, I was the only cook in my restaurant and there was a dishwasher and there were waiters and a front-of-the-house guy. Now, although I don't really cook in the restaurants, I can go in there and cook whenever I want. But I'm not responsible for breaking down a station or even setting it up. Now, my job is really to enthuse the staff so that they become better at what they're doing, thus making us better. They have to come to their own flower. And my job is to remove the obstacles to making them great. In our team, that's easy to do. We celebrate individuality.

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