What I didn't know was that I'd be reporting from the front lines of a revolution in how and where Americans drink.īack then, if you knew where to go in New York, San Francisco, Seattle, and a few other towns, you could find a place where the young man or woman behind the bar would carefully crack the ice for your manhattan or El Presidente, precisely measure the ingredients and give them an elegant stir, strain the cocktail into a beautiful glass, and then charge you ten dollars. As the magazine's Drinks Correspondent, I was to be the pointman on the project. In 2005, my editors at Esquire came up with the idea of putting together a list of America's best bars-not the best new cocktail bars or sports bars or brunch bars or whatever, but the best bars irrespective of type.
