Cocktail culture is alive and well at some of Palm Beach County’s best bars, where mixologists are serving up fun classics, modern revamps, and innovative libations

Citrus and smoke take center stage in these two creations from Horace Henry, lead bartender at the Flamingo Grill at The Boca Raton. Henry puts a tangerine twist on the Whiskey Sour in his Lady Sour, which also features WhistlePig Rye Whiskey, Mandarine Napoléon (a blend of mandarins and cognac), mole bitters, egg white, lemon, and honey in lieu of simple syrup. He smokes the glass over wood chips to build a nice aroma and ambience before straining everything into the glass and garnishing with a peg of tangerine and a drizzle of honey. Henry remixes another standard in the Last Flight, which introduces blood orange juice into a Paper Plane. Dolin Vermouth, Aperol, and bourbon round out the flavors, and a charred orange segment releases a sweet smell to prime your palate for the first sip. 

Watch Henry  in action here.

If Gomez and Morticia Addams are ever in need of a nightcap, Death or Glory is the place for them. This tropical bar with an edge specializes in creative craft cocktails and boasts a massive rum collection, a few of which are showcased in the bar’s signature Stop Making Sense. Three varieties—Copalli White Rum, Plantation Pineapple Rum, and Smith & Cross—come together with house-made grenadine, pineapple juice, orgeat, muddled cucumber, bitters, and salt. It’s all strained into a pearl diver glass and finished with fresh mint, a cucumber rose, and a swizzle stick depicting a skull and a raven. If rum’s not your thing, then opt for the Big Boy Man Glass, a spin on a Manhattan with cherry-forward Carpano Antica Sweet Vermouth, shiitake-mushroom-infused whiskey, a bitters blend, and lemon. Bar manager Kristen Shaneyfelt explains that, given the amount of people who have lost their sense of smell and taste in recent years, she wanted to incorporate drinks with bold, sharp flavors onto the cocktail menu. This umami-rich drink is sure to resurrect those taste buds. 

Watch Shaneyfelt in action here.

Nothing gets a party started like a little bit of fire. At least, that’s part of the appeal of the communal Scorpion Bowl cocktail at Topside at the Beacon, a rooftop spot famous for its tropical drinks and waterfront view. Brian Southard, bar lead at Topside, crafts this legendary libation using a mix of Jamaican rum, cognac, house-made orgeat, and lime, orange, guava, and passion fruit juices. He tops that with Angostura Bitters, blanc de blancs bubbles, and some fresh lime juice before taking that halved lime and lighting it on fire using rum and lime zest as kindling.

Watch Southard in action here.

Two-tone cocktails can have a big visual impact. Le Bar à Vin is known for slinging sophisticated sips in a high-class, high-energy setting, and the Final Chukker is no exception. Bar manager and mixologist Jean Pierre Torrealba builds the base of the drink by combining equal parts Green Chartreuse, Luxardo Liqueur, fresh lime juice, and High Goal Gin, which has roots in Wellington thanks to co-founders Nic Roldan, Matti Anttila, and Diego Urrutia. The purple punch comes courtesy of a floater of butterfly-pea-blossom-infused gin, while a lime twist and rosemary sprig bring a touch of green.

Watch Torrealba in action here.

Alex Protzer serves up a Southern Sour in the Avalon, an easy-drinking cocktail that celebrates the root beer flavors of sassafras. She infused Redemption Bourbon with sassafras bark, clove, star anise, and cinnamon sticks before combining it with house-made sour mix, sassafras simple syrup, bitters, some brûléed peach, and egg white. She reverse dry shakes everything before double-straining into a coupe glass and garnishing with sassafras bark, a peach slice, and edible flowers from Swank Farm. These aromatic garnishes set you up for that first taste, notes Protzer. Her colleague, Gabriel Prado, also utilized fragrant finishes in his Indigo Fairy, a lavender martini that he enjoys making for serious gin drinkers. Prado primes his coupe glass with house-made lavender butterfly pea syrup (which lends the drink its distinct hue) and a spritz or two of essence of orange. He adds lavender-forward Waterloo Gin to a separate vessel, as well as sweet white vermouth and two drops of Herbsaint (an anise-flavored liqueur). He stirs those ingredients with ice before straining them into a coupe glass and finishing the drink with some expressed lemon peel and a lavender sprig.

Watch Protzer and Prado in action here.