R.I.P. Red-Headed Slut: NYT Goes On a Bender

The latest issue of the New York Times's fancy T magazine is out this weekend, with trend-spotting stories on such destinations as Palm Springs and London, but I couldn't get past what it bills as the World's Biggest Bar Crawl. The story originates in New Orleans, Louisiana, where the annual Tales of the Cocktail convention had just ended with its traditional jazz funeral. In this case, the deceased wasn't a person, but a cocktail whose demise was to be celebrated in New Orleans fashion with a jazz band and revelers twirling parasols. After the Red-Headed Slut (Jaegermeister, peach-flavored schnapps and cranberry juice) was laid to rest, the author provided a very helpful list of bars around the world where you're unlikely to ever see her resurrection, or that of her cloying contemporary, the Apple Martini.

The bars on the World's Biggest Bar Crawl list were selected by Simon Ford and Angus Winchester, and they represent a "bucket list" of bars that every serious bartender and cocktail aficionado should visit before he or she meets the same fate as the R.H.S. Among the list's highlights are The Bar Hemingway in Paris, Bourbon and Branch in San Francisco, and Death + Company in New York, an elegant pseudo-speakeasy known for a freakish devotion to fresh ingredients and proper drink preparation.

I thought I was an accomplished tippler, but I've only been to a small handful of these bars, all in New York. The Flatiron Lounge is indeed a beautiful bar with well-crafted drinks, but it's a bit too expensive for me to make a habit of. Likewise Pegu Club, which makes dandy cocktails inspired by a 19th century British colonial officers club in Burma. Still, it's a handy list to have when you want to impress - and inebriate - someone special. How many of these temples to upscale booze have you been to?

[Photo: The New York Times]

Related Stories:
· The World's Biggest Bar Crawl [The New York Times]
· Cocktails [Jaunted]

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Tags: Cocktails / Drinking Travel / Drinking / Bars / Drunk Travel / Read-Headed Sluts / Cocktail Lounges / Best Bars / Bar Crawls / → All Tags