Drink Up: Where to Get 12 Great Classic Cocktails

Nashville boasts some top-tier cocktail lounges.

Let’s start with the East Side, where frequent Best of Nashville winner The Fox Bar and Cocktail Club offers an extensive and delectable craft-cocktail list. There’s Attaboy (another BON winner), a speakeasy-style hideaway where gifted mixologists will whip you up the best thing you’ve tasted in weeks based simply on your preferred spirit and general flavor preferences. The brand-new Coral Club has an excellently curated cocktail list worth checking out, while nearby, topflight dining establishment Peninsula offers a list of specialty gin-and-tonics that will make you say, “I didn’t know gin-and-tonics could be so diverse, and I’ll also have another please.” Up Gallatin Pike a ways is Inglewood Lounge, which offers a strong lineup of cocktails as well. Over in Midtown, The Patterson House helped introduce Nashville to the craft cocktail before it was something you could find in just about every neighborhood. In Germantown, the classy Le Loup (from the folks at The Optimist) specializes in seafood and truly excellent drinks.

While you can get just about any classic cocktail you desire at any of the above spots, we thought we’d get into the weeds a bit. Below, find a dozen recommendations for where to get a dozen classic cocktails — from an Old Fashioned to a martini, a mai tai to a Bloody Mary. 

Old Fashioned

Bay 6, 1101 McKennie Ave., Suite 6

Bay 6 boasts an inventive roster of rotating seasonal cocktails, but the bartenders also know their way around the classics. While an Old Fashioned isn’t the fussiest drink, the execution can underwhelm if you add too much or too little of any of its key ingredients — bourbon, bitters and sugar or simple syrup. The Bay 6 version strikes a great balance, where you taste sweetness and smokiness in each sip, plus some refreshing citrus notes from the orange peel. The bar’s location is also unbeatable: It’s part of The Wash, East Nashville’s outdoor food court, which is also home to local favorites like Soy Cubano and SS Gai. Grab a glass, take a seat outside and pair a classic drink with a hearty meal. ALEJANDRO RAMIREZ

Martini

Sperry’s, 5109 Harding Pike

Up, neat, shaken, stirred, gin or vodka, the perfect martini is the one in your hand. Sperry’s in Belle Meade has been serving up classic martinis for 50 years, and does not appear to be slowing down any time soon. By 4 p.m. every afternoon, the Sperry’s bar is already full of patrons. More country club than bar, Sperry’s — which recently celebrated its 50th anniversary — has an atmosphere lively in the “everyone knows your name” sense, and the decor is a unique array of art that has been collected over the decades. The martinis are made to each guest’s exact specifications and taste, and have been a tradition for a half-century. JANET KURTZ

Mai Tai

Chopper Tiki, 1100B Stratton Ave.

A handful of Nashville outposts do the tiki thing. There’s the fun and kitschy Hubba Hubba Tiki Tonk, as well as Pearl Diver, which gets both drinks and vibes right. There’s even Cruisin’ Tikis Nashville — floating bars on Old Hickory Lake. (I admittedly haven’t ventured out on that last one yet.) But for the quintessential tiki experience, you can’t do better than East Nashville’s Chopper Tiki, which goes above and beyond with its robot- and island-themed decor and extensive list of classic tiki drinks (and more). And for a quintessential tiki drink, you can’t do better than the Chopper Mai Tai, featuring Jamaican and agricole rums, lime, orgeat, Grand Marnier and bitters, served in one of Chopper’s classic ceramic tiki mugs with all the delightful flourishes. D. PATRICK RODGERS

Gimlet

Roze Pony, 5133 Harding Pike

Spirit + sugar + citrus. For straight-up cocktails, that equation is never wrong. Alcohol, acid and sweetness just work, particularly if you throw ’em in a shaker and rattle it until you break a sweat. For a gimlet, you want good gin, fresh lime juice and simple syrup. Roze Pony uses all that — plus an unexpected splash of lemon. Not only does the extra citrus perk things up, but it also echoes the lemon peel that’s one of nine botanicals in the Ford’s Gin they use. The result is bright and bold, delicate yet dynamic. Nobody gives gimlet better than the Pony. ASHLEY BRANTLEY

Negroni 

Otto’s Bar, 4210 Charlotte Ave. 

I’m all for a fruity drink, but there’s something sophisticated about ordering a classic in a little glass with one big ice cube and an orange peel garnish. I’m speaking about the Negroni, or the “girl Old Fashioned” as I lovingly call it. Otto’s is one of the best places in town to get a classic cocktail, so they nail this one. While it’s a booze-heavy drink (made with vermouth, gin and Campari), the West Side bar’s version manages to balance the flavors perfectly, making it not too syrupy or bitter. Plus they don’t phone it in on presentation. One cube only. HANNAH HERNER

Bloody Mary

SweetMilk, 329 Donelson Pike, Suite 201

There’s kind of nothing like drinking a Bloody Mary. Whether you like yours loaded with vegetables or with a beer chaser, a Bloody automatically tells your brain that you’re in for a leisurely meal. It’s a signal for sipping over conversation and brunch. I like my Bloody Marys like I like my hot chicken: spicy enough to have some zing, but not so spicy that they’re a dare. Pat Martin’s SweetMilk in Donelson serves a Daybreak Bloody Mary ($9) with house-made Bloody Mary mix, including pickled okra and olive juices, Crystal Hot Sauce and jalapeño peppers. I know some people like over-the-top garnishes for their Bloody Marys (onion rings, shrimp, sliders, whatever), but I’m a purist about some things — and the SweetMilk fresh celery and stuffed Queen olives are just right. MARGARET LITTMAN

Pimm’s Cup 

Tiger Bar, 2909 Gallatin Pike 

The Pimm’s Cup combines a few of my favorite things: history, gin and rare/limited-edition offerings. Opened last year, Tiger Bar is one of the few places in town where you’ll find a good Pimm’s Cup. Invented in the 1800s, it’s also one of the oldest drinks on the bar’s menu. The Pimm’s Cup is made with a (relatively) low ABV to suit summer day-drinking. This fact, combined with its mandatory use of Pimm’s British gin liqueur, makes it no surprise that it’s the official drink of Wimbledon. Tiger Bar’s edition has fresh cucumber juice and house-made lemon ginger syrup and is garnished with mint and strawberry. Sipping through a cool metal straw, I can pretend I’m wearing tennis whites. HANNAH HERNER 

Mimosa

SandBar Nashville, 3 City Ave., Suite 500

If you ask me, all mimosas are good mimosas — but a pineapple mimosa is extra fun. This weekends-only mix-your-own drink starts with the folks at SandBar coring a whole pineapple, pulsing the insides through a juicer, and delivering the juice with a bottle of brut to be consumed directly out of the tropical fruit. But a mimosa isn’t really a mimosa without good vibes. Drinking at SandBar feels like a vacation — complete with sandy volleyball courts, folks in tank tops and flip-flops, and grilled hot dogs on offer. It makes for the most picturesque Sunday. ELIZABETH JONES

Bushwhacker

Neighbors; multiple locations

Before there were “boozy milkshakes,” there was the Bushwhacker. The tropical take on the white Russian started in the Virgin Islands in 1975, then made its way to Pensacola Beach, Fla., and then inland. For many Nashvillians of a certain age, the go-to spot for a Bushwhacker was 3 Crow Bar. When 3 Crow shuttered, folks lost their favorite Five Points hangout, as well as their place to get a Kahlua-rum-chocolate concoction. Neighbors — with its locations in Sylvan Park, Germantown, Franklin and the Gulch — offers a neighborhood bar feel (hence the name) and a hefty 16-ounce Bushwhacker for $11. Can’t go wrong with a classic. MARGARET LITTMAN

Mule

Village Pub, 1308 McGavock Pike

The mule is about as simple a concoction as it gets: spicy ginger beer, tangy lime and smooth vodka (at least in the version long known as the Moscow Mule, renamed the Kyiv Mule on some bar menus after Russia invaded Ukraine), served over ice in a copper or pewter mug. You can get a mule just about anywhere, but Village Pub’s has been unbeatable since they opened in 2010. No esoteric ingredients or artisan ice-chipping techniques here — it seems they simply nail the proportions and serve it as cold as a sled dog’s nose. Each of their equestrian-themed variations is worth putting on your tab, too. As a budding mezcal head, I especially appreciate the Mula. STEPHEN TRAGESER

Whiskey Sour

Streetcar Taps & Garden, 4916 Charlotte Pike

Middle Tennessee has a long history of top-tier whiskey, from Jack Daniel’s out in Lynchburg to Uncle Nearest down in Shelbyville and George Dickel in Tullahoma — not to mention the distilleries in and around Nashville proper. With so much excellent whiskey in the area, purists will say it’s hard to justify ordering anything but a whiskey neat. But I’ll argue it’s impossible to beat a perfectly made whiskey sour, especially on a sweltering summer day. Opinions vary on the best type of whiskey to put in a whiskey sour; luckily, Streetcar has plenty of options. Enjoy it on Streetcar’s party-ready back patio or in its atmospheric indoor section. LOGAN BUTTS

Margarita

Barrel Proof, 1010 Fourth Ave. N. (pictured above)

Superica, 605 Overton St. (pictured below)

A flawless margarita is as much about what you don’t put in it as what you do. Orange juice, agave, crappy triple sec — it’s easy to go astray. But the pros at Barrel Proof and Superica walk the line. Barrel Proof’s on-the-rocks version — blanco tequila, Cointreau, fresh lime juice and simple syrup — is clean, stout and zippy. It’s fortified with 2-to-1 (aka “rich”) simple syrup, which adds viscosity to balance out the (significant amount of) booze. Superica’s frozen spin, the El Frio, is made with El Jimador Blanco, Stirrings triple sec, simple syrup, ice and fresh lime — an extra step I’d wager most restaurants throwing ingredients into a machine don’t take. The result is pure, sweet-and-sour, frosty goodness. Now, are those roughly the same damn ingredients as Barrel Proof’s? Yep. Such is the mystery of the margarita. In different hands, similar ingredients magically morph into something new. Guess you’ll just have to taste them both. ASHLEY BRANTLEY

Drink Up: Classic Cocktails, Great Frozen Drinks and More

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