The Pour: Mid-Series Rankings

Five bars. Five entries. One bar that every subsequent entry confirmed, one ranking that two entries contested, and one specialist that forced the series to decide what it was actually measuring. The mid-series rankings exist to settle the arguments that accumulated across entries — and to be honest about the ones that aren't settled yet.

How The Pour Evaluates

A brief reminder before the ranking. The Pour uses five criteria: the drink (one cocktail per entry, evaluated in depth), the room (how the space shapes the experience), the program's philosophy (coherent point of view vs. menu sprawl), fit and occasion (price point, when to go, who to bring), and the running rank (which updates as the series builds).

No numerical scores. The arguments are the method.

The Rankings, Defended

1. The Last Word (301 W Huron St)

Entry 1 placed The Last Word at the top and every subsequent entry confirmed it. That is not a given. The B2A2 series has moved its top spot twice. The Fold has reshuffled three times. The Last Word has stayed at one across four additional entries because nothing in the series has matched the combination of factors that makes it the benchmark: the deepest cocktail program in the county organized around a genuine philosophy (eras of American cocktail history), the room configured for exactly one thing, the bartenders trained to explain every section of the menu, and a namesake cocktail that is the best version of that drink available locally.

What would knock it down: a bar with The Last Word's knowledge depth plus a room that held more than forty people without losing the feel, or a program with equal historical range that also took visible risks on the modern end. Those bars could exist. They do not currently.

2. 312 Underground (312 S Main St)

Entry 2 placed 312 at two and argued it on seasonal volatility: the program changes fast enough to reward return visits, and on any given night the drink you get might be the best in the county. Entry 5 kept 312 at two by the same logic. Entry 4 argued Spencer for the second spot.

Here is how the mid-series rankings resolve that: 312 Underground's seasonal program has a higher ceiling than Spencer's fixed botanical approach. Spencer's gimlet is the best single cocktail in the series. But the question The Pour is asking is not "what is the best individual drink" — it is "what is the best bar." Best bar over time, across visits, across the range of what you might want. 312 Underground's seasonal volatility means the program is always changing, always getting better at what the current season asks for. Spencer's program is excellent and consistent. Excellent and consistent is worth four.

312 Underground at two. Spencer at four. The argument is defensible; it is also the most contested call in the series so far.

3. Hunã Tiki Bar (200 S Main St, basement)

Entry 5 placed Hunã at three and acknowledged the ranking required a disclaimer: Hunã is the best tiki bar in Washtenaw County by a margin that isn't close, because it is the only one treating tiki as a serious subject. In its specific lane, nothing in the series competes.

The mid-series rankings hold Hunã at three because The Pour is asking "best cocktail bar," not "best at a specific thing." The Last Word and 312 Underground both reward the full range of what you might want from a cocktail bar on any given night. Hunã rewards one specific kind of wanting, executed at an extremely high level. Both are real forms of excellence. The ranking system requires a call, and the call is: breadth of program matters.

What Hunã has that the bars above it do not: the best themed room in the series, the best large-format drink, and the Zombie, which is the drink in the series most likely to be remembered specifically. Three is an honest placement for a bar that would be one in its own category.

4. Spencer (113 E Liberty St)

Entry 4 argued Spencer for two, and the case was real: the gimlet is the best single cocktail in the county, the program's botanical restraint is a coherent philosophy, and the wine-shop room produces a different kind of drinking experience than a dedicated cocktail bar. None of that changed in the mid-series review.

What pulled Spencer to four: the program's constraint is also its ceiling. A cocktail list designed to complement natural wine and not compete with it will consistently produce restrained, food-adjacent drinks. That is the right call for what Spencer is. It means the program has a narrower range than 312 Underground and a less rigorous historical framework than The Last Word. The gimlet at Spencer is worth a standalone visit. The bar as a bar is fourth.

5. Black Pearl (302 S Main St)

Entry 3 placed Black Pearl at three at the time — before entries 4 and 5 moved the bracket. The updated placement is five, which is not a demotion so much as a reflection of what the series learned after Black Pearl published.

Black Pearl's cocktail program is built for a food context. The martini is the bar's signature statement, and it is executed correctly. What the program does not do is reward the kind of sustained attention that The Last Word, 312 Underground, or even Spencer reward when you are there specifically to drink. Seventeen years on South Main is its own argument, and the bar earns its longevity. Five in a five-bar ranking with four strong competitors is a placement, not a verdict.

What The Series Still Needs to Settle

The 312 Underground vs. Spencer argument at two and four is the live question. The seasonal/fixed program debate is real. A revisit to 312 Underground in a different season — winter, when the program moves to citrus and warming spirits — could change the read. A revisit to Spencer in a different context (solo at the bar vs. dinner party with wine) might sharpen the fourth-place argument in the other direction.

The series may expand beyond the original five. If it does, any new entry has to clear a high bar: the five current entrants represent the strongest concentrated cocktail corridor in Washtenaw County. Adding a sixth means finding a bar that makes the existing rankings worth arguing again.

Until then, the list stands. Drink the Zombie at Hunã before you make up your mind about three.

This page reflects the rankings after all five entries have published. It will update if the series adds new contenders or if a revisit changes the read on an existing entry.