The Perfect Brooklyn Cocktail Bar Crawl

(Updated August 2018) Manhattan, you’ve got some grade A competition when it comes to cocktail bars. Sure, you’ve got Dead Rabbit, Death & Co, and Raines Law Room. But sometimes, I just want to be able to walk for three minutes to get to my next bar instead of schlepping my stuff 20 minutes on the subway, you know? That’s why we’ve created this nifty Brooklyn cocktail bar crawl itinerary for everyone out there who wants an amazing cocktail without the hassle of taxis and trains.

It’s Five O’Clock Here: making your bar planning as easy and fun as possible. ~~Oh man, that sounded way too cheesy.~~

Read on to discover where you should go next time you’re in Brooklyn, NYC’s coolest borough.

What if I told you that my top sightseeing priority in Seattle wasn’t actually a killer craft beer spot? Would that be heresy? (Egads, say it ain’t so!) True, Seattle is nailing all things beer and cocktails (read about it here). But there’s another place which I believe should be on every Seattle visitor’s itinerary: Chihuly Garden and Glass.

I fell in love with Dale Chihuly’s glass art back in 2008, when San Francisco’s de Young Museum held a special exhibition highlighting his work. I was captivated by the vibrant colors of the installations and the innovative techniques that Chihuly used to manipulate the glass. When I heard that Chihuly Garden and Glass opened in 2012 in Seattle Center, then, I knew I had to go.

It’s really true that words do not do this place justice. Instead, I’ve created a photo essay so you can get a taste of what I saw in September 2016. (But I swear, nothing’s like experiencing it firsthand. You’ll have to see it for yourself!)

Despite being an East Coast transplant who lives and breathes New York City, I still find myself missing the West Coast at the most unexpected times. Sometimes, it’s those San Diego beach photos I see on Instagram during an especially vicious blizzard. Other times, it’s the thought of open spaces and towering California redwoods when I look up at silver Manhattan skyscrapers. But lately, I’ve been missing another West Coast city: Seattle.

Seattle has been on my bucket list for as long as I can remember. It may have had something to do with watching that particular Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks movie as a teen (I used to daydream about spending Valentine’s Day dining at the Space Needle). Or maybe it was because my sister-in-law, Rachel, had lived there for years, and her verdant, tranquil photos of the Pacific Northwest were giving me a major case of FOMO.

But whatever the reason, I finally made it over to the Emerald City back in September 2016. What I found was not only those amazing open spaces, but a bar scene that’s a cut above elsewhere.

Here’s a round up of my favorite places to drink in Seattle right now.

2017, I’ve got a feeling we’re going to get along. I’ve got a spring in my step just thinking about what’s ahead. From more consistent posting to trips to Europe and beyond, it’s shaping up to be a fantastic year.

Before we get to reviewing our #2017goals, though, let’s take a moment to reflect on this past year.

I’ll admit it: living in New York City can inflate your food and drink standards so high that you think nothing else can compare. Sometimes, this is warranted (see: Death & Co and Eleven Madison Park). But about half of the time, our friends want us to pull our heads out of our asses and give other cities a fighting chance. Building on our recent successes finding top notch drinks in London and Israel, then, we went into our Reykjavik bar explorations in October with high hopes.

So did Iceland’s capital make the cut when it comes to having an awesome bar scene? The answer, it turns out, is more complex than we expected.

Traveling to Iceland is all the rage right now. In fact, it seems like I can’t go a day or two without hearing about someone’s recent trip to the land of the midnight sun! No matter what these travelers see and do while they’re in Iceland, however, they all share one identical stop on their itinerary: a visit to the Blue Lagoon.

Taking a dip in the Blue Lagoon has been on my bucket list since before Iceland was on anyone’s radar. (Seriously—I’m talking over ten years ago.) That’s why I was so excited to get up close and personal with this otherworldly spa in early October 2016.

Sure, I tried to prepare myself by reading blog posts and guide books, but nothing can quite prepare you for what it’s actually like. Here’s what what I learned to do—and not do—on my first visit to the Blue Lagoon.

London may be the one city in the world that can go head to head with New York City when it comes to all things libations-related. Don’t believe me? Look no further than the World’s 50 Best Bars list, and you’ll find that half of the top 10 bars are located in England’s capital city.

Before you blindly stumble into another pub that looks just like the last one you were in, here are five places you should consider drinking at the next time you’re in London.

I’m a huge film buff. In fact, spending hours in a cool, dark theater watching the latest Coen brothers’ masterpiece or Audrey Tautou film gets me just as excited as jetting off to Iceland or Barbados. That’s why spending this past weekend as a bright-eyed newbie at the Toronto International Film Festival was undoubtedly one of my top experiences this year.

As with any first—first date, first job, first time eating piping hot Shanghai soup dumplings—you’re bound to do some things right, but you’ll also make some mistakes. Here’s what we learned during our first trip to Toronto’s prestigious cinematic event.

UPDATE: Sadly, Betony closed its doors on December 31, 2016. RIP to one of our favorite cocktail spots.

Cocktail lovers, rejoice! No longer do you have to avoid Midtown Manhattan if you want high quality craft cocktails: Betony has got you covered.

You have to understand, Mr. Five O’Clock and I have been trying to find a suitable after-work spot to meet for drinks in this area for nearly four years. We’d wander around the oasis that is Central Park down to West 30th Street between 5th and 7th Avenues, desperately attempting to find some glimmer of hope.

It’s not that there’s a shortage of bars here–you can find Irish pubs galore near Penn Station and overpriced watery drinks all over Times Square. But there was nothing on the level of craft cocktail bars like Death and Company or Little Branch.

Enter Betony. This restaurant, located on West 57th Street in Manhattan, contains a beverage program so good that people will drop by the restaurant just for a drink. We can’t keep a secret this good forever, so here’s why we think Betony is Midtown Manhattan’s best cocktail spot.

I’m going to let you in on a secret: we had not one, but two itineraries for our recent trip to Israel.

One, of course, was the official daily trip itinerary provided to us by Honeymoon Israel for all nine days of our trip to the Holy Land. But we had a second list, one that resided in the shadows and was only good for the hours of 9 PM to 2 AM: where to drink the best cocktails in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.

And so in between visits to holy sites and various outdoor activities, we set out to find the answer to one of our burning questions for the trip: Which Israeli city makes better cocktails, Jerusalem or Tel Aviv? Read More

The Perfect Brooklyn Cocktail Bar Crawl

Photo Essay: Chihuly Garden and Glass in Seattle

5 Places You’ll Want to Drink in Seattle Right Now

2017 Will Rock (Or: I Finally Wrote a 2016 Recap)

The Truth About Reykjavik’s Bar Scene

The Truth About Swimming in Iceland’s Blue Lagoon

5 Places You’ll Want to Drink in London

How to Survive Your First Toronto International Film Festival

Why Betony is Midtown Manhattan’s Best Cocktail Spot

Jerusalem vs. Tel Aviv: The Ultimate Israeli Cocktail Showdown