Playboy mixologists

Not only is it Friday, but the too-cool-for-school mercury has finally decided to grace the 70-degree mark with its presence. I plan to get my cocktail on this weekend at some rather interesting hidden-gem bars I’ve recently heard about (will report back), but in the meantime, satiate your happy-hour cravings with this story I did for Playboy.com on the top ten mixologists in the U.S. It was quite hard to narrow it down to 10, especially when I could only pick one from each city. For Chicago there were many strong contenders but I went with Toby Maloney from the Violet Hour. I never did get to try the new spiked tea punch bowls he served up this winter, but I’ll be in this spring to sip the homemade Italian amari (herbal liqueurs) cocktails and drinks with more of his tasty housemade bitters like the Pimms Cup variation; St. Germain, gin, lemon juice, simple syrup, peychauds bitters and grapefruit bitters.