Cocktail Bar
9 articles
The Pour: Mid-Series Rankings
Five bars in. The Last Word holds. Everything else is an argument.
The Pour has evaluated five Washtenaw County cocktail bars. Here's where the rankings stand, what changed across entries, and what the series still needs to settle.
The Pour: Hunã Tiki Bar
Entry 5. The best rum program in Washtenaw County runs in a basement. The series has to decide what that's worth.
Entry 5 of The Pour goes underground on South Main. Hunã Tiki Bar is rum-forward and serious about it, which puts the series in an interesting position: how do you rank a specialist against generalists?
The Pour: Spencer
Entry 4. The best gimlet in the county comes from a bar that doesn't call itself one.
Spencer is a wine shop first, a restaurant second, and a cocktail bar third. The cocktail program is the best argument for why that order of priorities produces drinks other bars can't.
The Pour: Black Pearl
Entry 3. A seventeen-year-old martini program playing second violin to the seafood is still better than most bars' entire repertoire.
The third entry in The Pour evaluates Black Pearl's cocktail program, where the martini list is the signature and the drinks are built around a kitchen rather than a concept.
The Pour: 312 Underground
Entry 2. The strongest seasonal program in Ann Arbor runs in a room most people don't know exists.
The second entry in The Pour goes underground. 312 Underground on South Main runs a seasonal cocktail program that changes fast enough to punish inattention, in a room that the street-level foot traffic has no idea is there.
The Pour: The Last Word
Entry 1. Why the bar that started this series is still the one every other bar has to answer for.
The first entry in The Pour visits The Last Word on West Huron, where the namesake cocktail is the best version in Washtenaw County and the room earns the reference it makes.
The Pour: Best Cocktail Bar in Washtenaw County
A running series evaluating the county's serious cocktail programs, one drink at a time.
The Pour is a new Plate & Press series: one bar, one drink, one honest evaluation. Starting with The Last Word on West Huron, working through every cocktail bar in Washtenaw County worth arguing about.
The Last Word Earns Its Name
On West Huron, a cocktail bar built around the speakeasy conceit actually delivers on the promise. The bartenders know their history, and the drinks prove it.
The Last Word on West Huron Street is a cocktail bar named after one of the great classic drinks. The bar program is organized around eras of American cocktail making, and the execution is the best in Washtenaw County.
312 Underground Is the Bar Beneath the Bar
Below street level on South Main, a cocktail bar operates in the space most people don't know is there.
312 Underground is a subterranean cocktail bar beneath 312 South Main Street in Ann Arbor. The drinks are serious, the room is small, and you have to know to look for the stairs.