Taste Spring at These Los Angeles Cocktail Bars

Fiona Chandra

It’s been an unusually wet winter in Los Angeles, but that just means better produce to look forward to in spring. Since Los Angeles is one of the best places to get farm-fresh cocktails, it’s time to look forward to some spring drinking. These are the bars you should be drinking at to welcome the season.

Accomplice Bar
Gabriella Mlynarczyk, who used to work behind the bar at Ink, is now at Accomplice Bar, a new neighborhood bar that is making Mar Vista an unexpected cocktail destination. Check out what the hype is about this spring with their variation of the Ramos Fizz, made with gin, strawberry, black rose, coconut Lacroix, and pink peppercorn.

AOC
There’s a reason that Christaan Rollich’s Green Goddess cocktail is a mainstay at AOC’s cocktail menu, even with all the excellent cocktails he constantly comes up with. Spring is the perfect season to remind us why. Rollich infuses vodka with green tea, then mixes it with cucumber, arugula, jalapeno, and absinthe for this green juice with a kick.

Bar Clacson
For their latest venture, 213 Hospitality joins forces with Eric Alperin (Varnish) and Richard Boccato (Dutch Kills, NY) to open this new downtown bar. Shoot the breeze at the new neighborhood bar with a Hole in the Cup, made with tequila, pineapple, lime juice, sugar, cucumber, and absinthe. For some easy Aperol drinking, grab a Clacson Spritz for the aperitivo hour while playing pétanque on their indoor court.

Cassia
This Southeast Asian restaurant darling has received a lot of recognition for its food, but it also has a cocktail program that deserves attention on its own right. Bartender Kenny Arbuckle creates a cocktail menu that goes well with the Southeast Asian flavors and incorporates tropical ingredients. This includes a lot of fruits and produce perfect for the season, such as in the refreshing Emperor Tsung, which is made with sparkling Riesling, gin, lychee liqueur, annatto seed syrup, longan, and lemon.

Georgie
Georgie is the latest restaurant at The Montage Beverly Hills, and the spacious and elegant dining room evokes a garden vibe that is appropriate for spring drinking. Try the crisp, vegetal Sake Verde which uses sake, vodka, cucumber, lime, beet sugar water, and Moscato D’asti. Celebrate one of spring’s most popular flowers with the Cherry Blossom Sazerac, concocted using Japanese whiskey, cherry heering, cranberry bitters, and a Maraschino cherry liqueur rinse.

Melrose Umbrella Co
The building that this Prohibition-style cocktail lounge is in has a lot of history, but the drinks capture both the past and current. The latest menu installment includes a spicy and aromatic Sum Yun Gai which packs a punch thanks to the yellow chili and jalapeno-infused Bison Grass vodka. For something more refreshing, the Billy Dee Ford is a gin and tonic variation that incorporates Mixwell dandelion tonic, watermelon, lime, and yellow chartreuse.

Otium
Otium may have some serious names behind their kitchen and bar, but they keep their menu fun. Treat your child to bartender Chris Amirault’s PB&J Sour. This whimsical cocktail is made with gin, peanut butter washed Campari, strawberry infused vermouth, lemon, grenadine, egg white, and garnished with peanut butter powder and burnt toast.

The Ponte
The shuttered Terrine may have made way for Scott Conant’s The Ponte, but thankfully they kept Ryan Wainwright in charge of the cocktails. The bar program focuses on cocktails that contain aperitifs, including a Negroni flight. There is also a Grappa and Tonic which uses both grappa and gin along with housemade bitter lemon and elderflower tonic.

Rose Café
Venice’s revamped Rose Café comes with a large bar area with drinks and plenty of ambiance, just right for day drinking. The namesake cocktail, The Rose Cup, is a thirst-quenching drink made of lemon, lime, mint, cucumber, strawberry, Bona, bourbon, and seltzer. Spring is also the season to Rosé All Day, especially with this drink made of rosé, gin, muscatel pisco, lime, grapefruit, and orange bitters.

Winsome
This Echo Park restaurant is perhaps the hippest diner in the city, thanks to food from a Rustic Canyon alum, the colorful wallpaper, and uncharacteristically good cocktails for a diner. For those looking for a lightly sweet and frothy, try the At Last, made with pisco, matcha syrup, lychee, lemon, egg white, finger lime tamago, and Angostura. The Forgotten Edge appeals to those preferring a spirit-forward drink, with gin, Genepy Des Alpes, white vermouth, celery bitters, and lemon peel.