Philly’s Most Exciting Reimagined Cocktails
Sometimes the best drinks are the ones that dare to break tradition.
Illustrations by The Ellaphant in the Room
Philly’s cocktail scene is evolving thanks to a new generation of bartenders shaking things up. To celebrate the great minds pushing the limits of what can go in a glass, we’re declaring this Cocktail Week. Check back daily for stories from the print feature on the game changers revolutionizing the scene in the November issue of Philly Mag.
Every good bartender knows the classics like the Old Fashioned, the martini, and the French 75, to name a few. But the great ones build upon them. Across the city, a new generation of Philly bartenders are adding their own twists to our time-honored favorites, rewriting recipes that not only pay homage to the originals but also create entirely new genres. So, think outside of The Savoy Cocktail Book, and order something that’s a little bit different than “the usual.”
Agave Vesper at My Loup
Like its namesake, Ian Fleming’s Vesper Lynd, the cocktail the author created can be deadly. And at My Loup, bar director Jillian Moore’s version is no less dangerous. She mixes and matches parts of the original recipe, dropping the vodka and gin in favor of a blanco tequila and a corn-finished artisan mezcal called Vago Elote, plus a lace of Banane du Bresil banana liqueur, then a dash of Cocchi Americano (instead of Bond’s Lillet) and a lemon rind on the rim. Oh, and bonus? Moore keeps an old-school Rolodex behind the bar containing more than 100 cocktail recipes — an analog media project that she and her staff have been working on for months. So when the apocalypse finally comes and all our phones stop working, at least there’ll still be one place to get a classic drink done right. 2005 Walnut Street, Rittenhouse.
Kyoto Red Eye at Almanac
The espresso martini represents the worst of American cocktail culture: a dumb, unbalanced, overdone, and blandly popular drink that always sounds better than it actually is. But the idea of mixing bitter coffee and the sting of vodka with a lace of sweetness has its merits, and at Almanac, Danny Childs and Rob Scott have found a way to bring an equilibrium back to this most maligned of cocktails. Here, the Kyoto Red Eye upscales the two basic ingredients, using Japanese vodka and a custom Kyoto cold brew. Then there’s a shot of house-made chicory-spiked coffee liqueur to give it some backbone; a lace of earthy, almost flinty Okinawan black sugar syrup; and a sprinkle of salt. The result is a deep, complex remaster of a classic cocktail long in need of some serious attention. 310 Market Street, 2nd floor, Old City.
Money Talks at Izzy’s Cocktail Bar
The Last Word is one of the great American cocktails. A calling card for bars over the past 20 years, it was popularized by Murray Stenson at Seattle’s Zig Zag Cafe and has been reinvented many times since — almost always as a paler imitation of the original. One exception? James Cleland’s version at Izzy’s, where an off-the-cuff cocktail made for a regular that combined equal parts Tanqueray Rangpur, green Chartreuse, Midori (in place of maraschino), and lime juice instead of lemon quickly became the most popular drink on an already intriguing list. 35 East Lancaster Avenue, Ardmore.
Kimono Racer at Wilder
Named after a WWI-era French field cannon, the French 75 is a high-impact mix of gin, lemon juice, and champagne — a potent weapon behind any bar. At Wilder, beverage director Tom Brander stayed true to its spirit but took its punch in a different, more international direction. As a base, he does a split pour of gin and yuzu liqueur, then adds a balsamic vinegar syrup infused with Szechuan peppercorns, a splash of lemon juice for balance, and a prosecco float. It’s a sweet/sour killer with a haze of background heat that’s garnished with a speared slice of sesame pickle. 2009 Sansom Street, Rittenhouse.
Peat Forsberg at Andra Hem
Okay, so here’s a complicated one. At Andra Hem, bartender Patrick Jennings pours a cocktail called the Peat Forsberg. The Peat Forsberg (named after ex-Flyer Peter Forsberg, in a nod to Forsberg’s Swedish upbringing and the earthiness of its primary ingredient) is a riff on the semi-modern cocktail Penicillin, which is made with Scotch, lemon juice, and honey and is a bartender’s cure for pretty much anything from the common cold to seasonal allergies. The Penicillin is itself a version of an older cocktail called a Gold Rush, which was bourbon, honey, and lemon — essentially a whiskey sour with curative properties (again, thanks to the honey and lemon). Jennings took all this history (plus a little Flyers fanboying); shook it up with a blended Scotch, carrot juice, ginger, honey, lemon, and a smoky float of Islay Scotch; topped it off with a black licorice candy; and made it his own. 218 South 16th Street, Rittenhouse.
Published as “Rewriting the Classics” in the November 2025 issue of Philadelphia magazine.
