Guides

Meet the Bartenders Changing the Way Philly Drinks

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 our print feature on the game changers revolutionizing the scene in the November issue of Philly Mag.

An agave expert modernizing a Mexican tradition, a self-trained bartender pouring booze-free spirits, a scientific mind wielding wild yeast to make ferments, and a mathematical mind who built an algorithmically-driven bar menu: There has never been a more exciting time for the cocktail industry in Philly, and it’s all thanks to these bartenders and drinks experts. Here are the innovators pouring fresh energy into Philly’s cocktail scene.

Dan Suro of La Jefa, The Arbiter of Agave

In the 1980s, Tequilas owner David Suro opened the door to the world of agave spirits for Philadelphians. Now his son, Dan, is pushing that door wide open with La Jefa.

In the dimly lit Milpa, patrons sip mezcal and cocktails with ingredients like pox (a corn, wheat, and sugarcane spirit) and fermented guava. But it’s the Agave cocktail that perfectly encapsulates Suro’s mission. He developed the drink with head bartender Nik Schumer-­Decker, using Cascahuín tahona blanco tequila infused with cooked agave from the same Jalisco distillery, Colima salt, lime, and an orange-peel garnish. The intention was to create a cocktail that expresses the full breadth of cooked agave. At $27, it’s a bit of a splurge, but it’s worth it to get a taste of the plant that Suro describes as “the best flavor in the world.”

The bar’s mezcal selection is also thoughtful, with five kinds on rotation available only by the glass — an effort to minimize the strain on producers and educate guests on mezcal culture. “We really want to tell the story of each bottle,” Suro says, with every patron learning something new.

Nikki Graziano of Bar Palmina, The N/A Trailblazer

After a liver transplant in 2022, Nikki Graziano went searching for good nonalcoholic cocktails but came up short. She turned to her home bar, tinkering with booze-free spirits to find the flavors she longed for. Combining N/A bourbon, Earl Grey, and orange, Graziano landed on the smooth, subtly complex drink that has become a fixture on Bar Palmina’s menu: the Brown Dog.

The Best of Philly–winning bar has single-handedly upped the city’s N/A game, serving sophisticated drinks like the Aerogami, a zippy take on a Paper Plane made with bourbon, Ritual’s aperitif, amaro, and yuzu, and the Il Coraggio, a favorite of Graziano’s that fuses amaretti, amaro, espresso, ­spices, and yuzu.

Graziano describes her approach as “a little bit of food science and a little bit of thinking outside of the box.” She jots down ideas in a “manic notebook” and often brings the intuitive culinary approach of her Italian American grandmother (Bar Palmina’s namesake) into the mix.

“When you can’t use alcohol to hold flavor,” Graziano says, “you really have to push boundaries.”

Jamaar Julal of Honeysuckle, The Fermentation Specialist

As Honeysuckle’s director of fermentation, Jamaar Julal brings a little funk to the bar.

Take his Holy Trinity Soda, a fermented soda made with green bell pepper, celery, and onion — the “holy trinity” mirepoix of Cajun and Creole cuisine — brightened by lemon juice, simple syrup, and a ginger bug (a yeast starter made with ginger and simple syrup). The carbonated refreshment is delicious on its own, or in the Fruits of the Spirit cocktail with Empress gin, bergamot liqueur, and lemon.

And there’s the Black Cake, which blends Mount Gay Eclipse and Demerara rums, Kenyan chai tea, bitters, lemon, and amazake orgeat. Julal makes the latter — a fermented rice drink — by leaving Carolina Gold rice koji, red sorghum, and Honeysuckle’s house-made cashew milk in an incubator at 140 degrees for 24 hours; he then blends and strains the mixture and clarifies it. When he first tried it, Julal was reminded of the Jamaican rum cake from his childhood — hence its name. “To use a Japanese fermentation process and get something that tastes like a Caribbean dessert,” he says, “it felt like exactly what I was supposed to be doing.”

Paul MacDonald of the Lovers Bar, The Master of Minimalism

At the Lovers Bar, head bartender Paul MacDonald crafts technically perfect, fuss-free cocktails with a style that might best be described as economical — but not without flair.

“I tend to be obsessive about limiting the number of different ingredients that go into a single drink,” he says. “I’m always looking to find ways to achieve a certain flavor contour in as few bottles as possible.”

The Carousel — a beverage menu in the shape of a wooden wheel, invented by MacDonald — is a testament to that approach. A spin leads to one of 21 cocktails made from five spirits, with the ratios mimicking the Fibonacci sequence.

One of the cocktails MacDonald is most proud of is the Emperor’s New Laundromat. His riff on the Hanky Panky — traditionally made with gin, sweet vermouth, Fernet Branca, and an orange twist — uses the caraway-forward Icelandic liqueur Brennivín, espresso, and a lemon twist. Reminiscent of an espresso tonic, it’s a master class in balancing heavy and light components.

Published as “Free Spirits” in the November 2025 issue of Philadelphia magazine.