From the owners of the North Man and Bar on Buena, Green Post is an all-day bar with pastries, and coffee in the morning. There are 14 draft lines focusing on beverages from the United Kingdom. There’s also a lineup of Euro-inspired gin and tonics. The menu includes savory pies that complement the drinks.

Moonflower, the plant-themed cocktail bar that opened in Old Irving Park in 2021, recently acquired a darker, moodier younger sibling, Nightshade. Located in the basement below Moonflower, Nightshade serves cocktails with more experimental ingredients — the Late Bloomer features purple rice-washed Ford’s gin while Son of a Gun includes salted tortilla chips and poblano peppers — plus fluffy alcoholic shave ice.

The final installment of Meadowlark Hospitality’s trilogy of dining and drinking spots in Logan Square, this speakeasy-style bar has quickly established itself as a moody neighborhood hang with boozy, engaging cocktails from beverage director and Violet Hour alum Abe Vucekovich. The opening drink menu, elucidated in a beautiful Audubon-esque guidebook, pays homage to native birds of the Midwest. These include a brandy-based Ruby-Throated Hummingbird and egg nog-inspired Snowy Owl.

The cocktail heatmap is mostly about the beverage side, but when one of the city’s most influential bars drops an ambitious food menu, it’s worth celebrating. Scofflaw’s cocktails are without peers. But in late fall, the bar launched a new menu with a veteran chef, Fred Chung (Kasama, Oriole), that crushes boundaries. Chung’s menu includes hits like a butter chicken katsu (bringing Japan and British India together), a fire chicken scallion (it’s like a quesadilla, but better thanks to the Korean influence), and more. While some folks maintain they go to bars to enjoy a “liquid diet,” this menu reminds the young and the reckless that drinking a quality cocktail with delicious and creative food is something worth savoring.

The restaurant at the Four Seasons Chicago is going through some changes, and in November, the hotel unveiled the Mile High Cocktail Club, a revamped space with two ticket options that come with drinks and paired bites. They’ve aped the ‘60s feel of Pan-Am, and the entrance is through a red London phone booth. The bar’s on the 46th floor.

Pops For Champagne’s basement sibling had a makeover in 2022. No longer a bar focused on craft beer in the Great Lakes region, Watershed is a chill lounge for a cocktail, escaping Hubbard Street’s usual hijinks. While River North may scream Big Bang Theory, Watershed praises Community and pays tribute to the NBC comedy with a menu dedicated to each of Season One’s 14 episodes. Every fan of Dan Harmon’s TV show deserves to make a pilgrimage. 

With the World Cup wrapping up, over in West Town, Passport Bar Room has revitalized a long-vacant corner space with an emphasis on international sports and street fare (the food is from a José Andrés alum). The bar also has a basement lounge that focuses more on cocktails, an escape from the fans’ cheers.

The owners of Recess, Atomic Hospitality, know they can throw a party. Their spaces are unique and fun. But they also want customers to know there’s plenty of quality food and drink. Tabu, in Fulton Market, has a big selection of agave drinks — there’s also a fun large-format menu for sharing.

The former home of quarter-century-old Vivo is lively again at last following the fall 2022 debut of Hide + Seek, a restaurant and bar that aims to strike a balance between comfort and elegance in Fulton Market. At the bar, patrons will find a short menu of drinks such as the tequila-based Pyro’s Negroni and the citrusy City of Lights, made with whiskey, orange curacao, and chamomile.

Travel-obsessed restaurant group Bonhomme Hospitality has supplemented its Silk Road-inspired food menus with an inventive selection of seriously boozy cocktails, including the frozen Mango and Spice (rum, arrack, mango, yogurt, yellow curry) and photogenic Cherry Blossom (gin, shochu, cocoa, plum). ABVs start around 13 percent, so imbibers would be wise to plan ahead for a designated driver.

Nine Bar is Chinatown’s first cocktail bar, located behind the Moon Palace Express takeout counter. Owners Lily Wang (whose parents own Moon Palace) and Joe Briglio mix up “Asian-ish” takes on classic cocktails, creating Old Fashioneds, highballs, and margaritias with baiju, soju, and shochu.

Chef Erick Williams (Virtue) has opened this third restaurant, and this one is a tribute to cajun and Creole cooking. When a James Beard Award winner opens a bar, folks should get excited that they can nosh on more than sad frozen morsels. Williams serve up po-boys and muffalettas. But also, he claims, “the coldest Abita” drinkers will drink. Come down to Hyde Park for some sports and brews.