“Chefs use fire; bartenders use ice,” says Leo Nail, head bartender at Fort Myers speakeasy Escondido Lounge, which welcomed a Cape Coral location in August. The bar’s ice is purified with a reverse osmosis system, creating glassy cubes that chill drinks without affecting their flavor. At Seventh South Waterfront’s new location in Bayshore, bartender-owner Barry Larkin chisels slow-melting whiskey rocks by hand and pulverizes crushed ice with a wooden mallet.
An obsession with minutia—like the ideal shape, composition and dilution rate of an ice cube—is just one of the hallmarks of the area’s growing sophistication behind the bar. Led by bartenders with the audacity and expertise to tinker with technique, flavor and sourcing, a new wave of spirit-forward establishments is challenging wine’s long-held place in Southwest Florida’s drinking culture.
The initial surge of cocktail innovation hit in 2012, when Cape Coral’s Nevermind Awesome Bar & Eatery opened with bartender Brittany Bowman (now at Prime 239) at the helm. Her unexpected flavor combinations, mad scientist approach and emphasis on local ingredients offered a fresh look at spirits. In 2014, The 86 Room opened its doors in Downtown Fort Myers with a devotion to Prohibition-era cocktails served in antique glassware and made with period-accurate spirits like gin, moonshine and absinthe. That same year, Bar Tulia opened as the first true craft cocktail program on Naples’ Fifth Avenue South. These pioneers stood in stark contrast to the pub pours, sugar bomb tiki drinks and dive bars comprising the regional standard at the time.
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Photography by Anna Nguyen
southwest florida cocktail bars escondido lounge
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Photography by Anna Nguyen
southwest florida cocktail bars escondido lounge cocktail
Escondido Lounge leans into the Fort Myers River District’s speakeasy aesthetic, concealed behind a faux freezer door in the back of Taco Works.
Now, more than a decade in, the local palate has gained more depth and nuance, spearheaded by the experts behind the bar. Nick Drohan and Stan Worrell cut their teeth at Bar Tulia, poring over contemporary cocktail tomes like Death & Co. Now, they hold court at two of Bonita Springs’ best bar programs: Nick mans the bar at Chartreuse Cocktail Lounge, and Stan oscillates between there and The Bohemian. In Naples, Sidebar’s creative lead Angela Dunn and Le Colonial’s beverage director Steve Tindle spend months each year traveling to cocktail centers like Chicago, Miami and Boston in search of en vogue techniques to weave into their menus. In Cape Coral, Jungle Bird Authentic Tiki’s Jeremy Vincent looks to history for his inspiration, drawing on the legacy of tiki legends like Trader Vic’s and Don the Beachcomber as a jumping-off point to modernize and reclaim the genre.
Naples hotspots are also tapping major talent to up their behind-the-bar cachet. Le Colonial commissioned Danilo Dacha Bozovic, behind New York and Miami’s cultish Employees Only, to create its original cocktail list, while The Perry Hotel’s rooftop spot Easy Tiger brought in the James Beard-recognized Lynette Marrero to craft modern, Asian-inspired drinks. At The Vine Room, Fifth Avenue South, the Old World cosmopolitan atmosphere and theatrical presentations are inspired by iconic bars in New York and Europe. Last year, the lounge launched a master class series, with manager Máté Laurinyecz leveraging his industry connections to bring talent from global industry icons, like Barcelona’s Paradiso and Brooklyn’s The Clover Club, to Naples for one-night-only guest shifts.
Photography by Anna Nguyen
Courtesy Jungle Bird Authentic Tiki
Photography by Anna Nguyen
Photography by Anna Nguyen
To elevate stalwart sips, bars are honing in on thoughtful spirit sourcing. At Chartreuse, Nick and bar manager Rainier DeCastro focus on boutique labels and provenance, delving into the backstory behind small-production makers, like a generational mezcal made on a Mexican mountainside. “I’m looking for a spirit that has a connection to place and some level of authenticity,” Rainier says. “We become ambassadors for these people.” If you find Sidebar owner Marty Kenney behind the bar, he’ll tell you which regions of Central America have the richest history and purest expression of agave-based spirits. In keeping with its French-Vietnamese cuisine, Le Colonial is exploring the world of French spirits. “Cognac, Armagnac and Calvados have a deep history in France,” Steve says.
With a strong backbar to draw from, bartenders are also tinkering with how they treat ingredients to elevate drinks beyond the 19th-century templates laid out by pioneer Jerry Thomas. Sidebar and Seventh South are experimenting with clarified punches, a centuries-old process that uses milk to produce a silky texture and translucent appearance. Flavored foams and flaming presentations are common in the high-end bar world. Chartreuse pushes things further. The team recently added a centrifuge—which uses high-speed spinning to separate and smooth liquids—to their lineup of shakers and jiggers. “It adds another layer of texture with these very tiny microbubbles,” Rainier says. They’re also playing with molecular gastronomy and carbonation techniques.
Blending disciplines is fertile ground for creativity, with cocktails taking cues from culinary preparations. Escondido Lounge tops its guava-and-rum-based Thomas Edison with a cream cheese foam for a nod to Cuban pastelitos. Easy Tiger’s drink list mirrors the Cantonese flavors of its adjacent restaurant with ingredients like pickled shiitake mushrooms and fiery Sichuan peppercorns. Likewise, Bar Tulia weaves savory elements into drinks, like the recently introduced Caprese Me, a salad-inspired sipper with delicate white balsamic vinegar.
Courtesy The Buzz Agency
southwest florida cocktail bar le colonial naples
The lush, rattan-accented bar at Le Colonial pairs tropical greenery with Old World elegance.
The aesthetics of new craft cocktail lounges signal a shift toward more considered tastes for nightlife, as well. Downtown Fort Myers newcomer Hogwash delivers a sultry vibe with a maximalist Art Deco design, silent film screenings and a dramatically backlit bottle of Louis XIII on the mirrored bar. Nearby, Escondido Lounge’s red lighting, velvet furnishing, beaded chandeliers and antique bookshelves sit somewhere between a haute Miami pop-up and a nod to River District nostalgia—all hidden behind a mock freezer door in the back of Taco Works. Fellow speakeasy Staff Only (the latest project from Sidebar’s Marty Kenney) channels Old World glam as does The Vine Room, with its green velvet banquettes, honeyed onyx bar and art nouveau prints.
As Southwest Florida’s craft cocktail scene evolves, the ritual of meeting up for a nightcap seems to carry more weight. Conversations around the bar deepen into thoughtful explorations of flavor, history and craft as you slow down and savor the moment. “I want you to have a conversation,” Marty says. “Maybe you don’t know the people next to you, but all of a sudden, you become friends.”
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Courtesy Hogwash
southwest florida cocktail bar hogwash bar cocktail
At Hogwash, ambience is everything. With mirrored ceilings and a suited doorman, the Downtown Fort Myers newcomer signals a move toward more immersive, mood-driven cocktail spaces across the region.
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Courtesy Hogwash
southwest florida cocktail bar hogwash bar