Alanna Hale

Bartender Erik Ellestad at home

As cocktail books go, The Savoy Cocktail Book is neither precise -- it contains numerous forgotten ingredients (you mean an Aviation uses Crème de Violette?!) and botched measurements -- nor original, as it cobbled together recipes from numerous other sources without any credit whatsoever. Despite the aforementioned facts, the book, which was originally published in 1930, tops the list of "must-have" cocktail compendiums for many bartenders, not only because of its thoroughness but because of its ability to capture an era of refinement, elegance, and above all, cocktail glory. And the tongue-in-cheek advice therein ain't bad either.

Tonight, San Francisco bartender Erik Ellestad will bring a little bit of the Savoy to life at the Eveleigh, where he'll mix Savoy cocktails and, as he says, "spread the gospel according to Harry."

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L. J. Solmonson

Ross Measuring at Comme Ca

In the modern bartending pantheon, Sam Ross is a fellow of epic proportions. Having helped his mother and sister open Ginger, a cocktail bar at the forefront of the Melbourne cocktail revolution, he headed to the States in 2004 where he mixed drinks at three of New York's legendary locales, Milk & Honey, Little Branch and the Pegu Club, working with fellow cocktail gurus Sasha Petraske and Audrey Saunders.

During this time, Ross also came west to help craft the cocktail program at Comme Ça, David Myers' Melrose Avenue bistro, open since 2007. When the cocktail renaissance was a nascent blip on the Los Angeles radar, Comme Ça led the charge in no small part due to Sam Ross's vision and bartender training. Now, many of L.A.'s best bartenders, Julian Cox and Marcos Tello among them, have passed through Comme Ça's doors. Of Ross, Cox has this to say: "Sammy Ross's cocktail program at Comme Ça defined an era of change and craft in the Los Angeles restaurant scene. More than any other restaurant or bar for that manner."

Currently, Ross is busy with Attaboy, his new bar with fellow bartender Michael McIlroy, in the old Milk & Honey space. Still, he makes sure to find time to keep an eye on Comme Ça, a labor of love for both him and Myers. Recently Ross held court at the Comme Ça bar, feeling very much at home as he mixed up a slurry of classic drinks from past and present, and discussed what makes a truly great cocktail. Turn the page for his 5 tips.

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Anne Fishbein

cocktails at The Varnish

With so many bars to choose from across L.A., some owners have opted to make themselves so special that you almost can't find them -- or maybe they've been there for years, but you just didn't know it. Groping around in the dark or stumbling down a back alley may be some people's idea of an unforgettable night out, but if you want to sip a cocktail in these places -- or look like you're no newbie to this rabbit hole -- then you're going to have to work a little harder. There are no thick-necked bouncers with velvet ropes here.

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L. J. Solmonson

A Picon Punch at Pyrenees

Ask for a Picon Punch in Bakersfield and the locals will know you are an out-of-towner. Here in Bako, it's just a Picon, thank you very much. Outside of the Basque country and Central California's Bakersfield, which has the largest Basque population in the States, most of the general populace have no idea what a Picon Punch is. Historically, the key ingredient -- and the one from which the drink gets its name -- is Amer Picon, a French digestif strongly flavored with bitter orange, as well as cinchona and gentian, much like an Italian amaro.

Today, though, you'll be hard-pressed to find authentic Amer Picon in the U.S. Since the 1980s, the bitter bottling hasn't even been imported to America. Moreover, in the 1970s, the House of Picon changed the recipe, cutting the proof from a hearty 78 to a tamer 39, and changing the flavor profile. Needless to say, it's been a long time since anyone has tasted the real thing. Indeed, as noted cocktail historian Ted Haigh emphatically told us, "You can not make a satisfactory Picon Punch with modern Amer Picon. The great Picon Punch was, and will remain forever, cognac, real grenadine (not the ersatz bottled stuff), and Amer Picon ... at 78 proof." None of this bothers the industrious Basque populace of Bakersfield, which has simply adopted a necessary substitute, the American-made Torani Amer. It's a much more herbal digestif, lacking the orange character of the original, but it makes up for it with the alcoholic kick necessary for the drink.

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Brittini Rae

Negroni Sour at Goldie's

With Negroni Week in Los Angeles fully underway, it seemed only natural that the participating bars might be in a charitable mood -- especially since part of their drink proceeds are donated to charity. And so, in that same spirit of giving, a number of the bartenders involved opened up their files and given us the recipes for their cocktails. Also, along with the group listed in our Negroni Week story, The Parish and Sotto have joined the effort. The Parish will be serving a classic negroni all week, while Sotto, donating to GettLove, is offering a version called La Camorra.

There's a theme that runs through these drinks, from the salty simplicity of the Spare Room's maritime negroni to the rhubarb-laced negroni sour at Goldie's. All of them rely heavily on the negroni's classic Campari base as a jumping off point for cocktails that embrace the original's essential bitterness, but also add a new level of sweet piquancy. Any way you choose to stir it, with these selections, you will have a complex cocktail that's always in fashion.

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Flickr/dominic bartolini

Pabst Blue Ribbon

It sounds like a bit from The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, but apparently hipsters might be the reason for the markup of Pabst Blue Ribbon and other mass market beer. According to Nation's Restaurant News, the price of an average drink out -- spirits, wine and beer -- has risen between October 2012 to April 2013.

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Jason Schiffer

320 Main's Red Bellied Sapsucker

It began with a simple email to a few Los Angeles bartenders. "Hey you all, anyone interested in bringing Negroni Week to L.A.?" Within an hour, barkeeps citywide were hopping on board, linking in fellow bartenders, and making plans for their own personal negroni variations. If you hang out in bars often enough, you'll quickly realize that the negroni -- composed of gin, Campari, and sweet vermouth -- is a bartender's darling, beloved for its distinct bittersweet flavor. For many, this Italian sipper is an acquired taste, but for the converted, it's the ideal cocktail.

Negroni Week is the brainchild of Imbibe magazine, whose editors "officially" named May 27 through June 3 as the celebratory time frame in Portland (where Imbibe is based), and has encouraged bars across the country to serve up the classic Campari-based cocktail, then donate $1 to the cause of their choice.

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Algonquin Books

The Drunken Botanist

The Drunken Botanist: The Plants that Create the World's Great Drinks opens with a tale of author Amy Stewart on a quest for ingredients to make a gin cocktail. She does this not so much because she's thirsty, but to disprove the negative perceptions a fellow garden writer had about the spirit.

A few drinks mixed with fresh jalapeño, cilantro and cherry tomatoes later, she had a gin convert and a book idea. This scene sets the tone for the rest of the edible horticulture handbook. Instead of lecturing, Stewart presents herself as a savvy drinking buddy.

The book is smaller than a textbook in size and weight -- small enough, really, to carry with you into bars and pubs if needed. Organized into three parts that trace a cocktail in several makes, The Drunken Botanist begins with common plants found in familiar wines, beers and spirits.

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The Spare Room

cocktails at The Spare Room

With the flurry of trends in the cocktail world, you'd be hard-pressed to guess which will have staying power. Take barrel-aging. Yes, it's super cool to get your nightly cocktail from a barrel with provenance, but is it really relevant anymore?

With barrels now available to the home bar geek, distillers barrel-aging and bottling their boozy recipes, and barrel-aged cocktails appearing in even more experimental combinations across the country, barrel-aging seems destined to age quite well.

So, what exactly is this mysterious process? Not so mysterious at all, really. Booze has been in barrels for centuries. During the Golden Era of the cocktail in the late 19th century, Jerry Thomas -- the ultimate bartender/showman -- was aging rum shrub in casks for about six weeks, as well as bottling many of his cocktails, most likely for easy storage and batching drinks. At the turn of the century, 1910 adverts from the Heublein Company touted their bottled cocktails first being aged in wood; these Club Cocktails were popular even into the 1960s.

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Facebook/The Blind Donkey

A flight at The Blind Donkey

It's World Whisky Day on Saturday, May 18, declared last year by a Scottish college student named Blair Bowman who saw the need to hold an annual celebration of the spirit. He figured it was only fair to designate one for his country's drink of choice, seeing as how there were world days set for beer, gin and vodka.

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