Part chef, part artist, and part therapist, a great bartender has the ability to improve your day with a fistful of ice and a pretty coupe glass. While making sourdough and TikTok feta pasta got us through the pandemic, there was no way to recreate the joy of sitting at a bar with a properly made drink during lockdown. And that’s brought people back to bars.
“There’s more of an appreciation for craft cocktails now,” says Nick Miller-Garringer, general manager of Paddle Inn in Newburyport, who works closely with bar manager Cady Jones to develop the restaurant’s creative cocktails. “We’re noticing a lot more people ordering drinks off our menu versus a vodka soda, and I think that’s coming from doing their own at-home bartending and realizing it’s not as easy as they think it is.”
Certainly, you won’t find a sesame-fat-washed Scotch for your home bar—the star of “Oh My Goodness,” a luscious, savory yet refreshing drink on their spring menu. “I feel like a lot of people are appreciative of what we do more than ever before,” agrees Jones.
And beyond the drinks, that cherished role as sympathetic ear is especially needed now—and most mixologists are happy to listen. “It’s
