Bitter & Twisted Cocktail Lounge, a Downtown Phoenix original and award-winning cocktail bar, celebrates its 10-year anniversary with a refreshed cocktail menu, highlighting its signature artistic style throughout the years, as well as a commitment to innovation and excellence. The establishment has been consistently recognized for “World’s Best Cocktail Menu,” by the Spirited Awards at Tales of the Cocktail®, and is living up to this recognition yet again, with a new menu highlighting the art from past menus interwoven with a visual homage to vintage Arizona postcards.
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Cocktail dreams come to life by bartending teams
This special menu has a multitude of cocktails to choose from, with more than a dozen new additions, inspired by the Phoenix community, cocktail trends and the creativity of the bartenders of Bitter & Twisted.
The Diavolo, a savory gin martini with flavors of parmesan and tomato, is a nod to local culinary legend, Chris Bianco. The Yuzu Negroni is a refreshing, citrusy twist on a classic Negroni, made with gin, Luxardo Bitter Bianco and yuzu blanc vermouth. Double the Pleasure, made with a mix of tequilas, a house-made tepache soda, mineral water and pineapple oil is a vibrant explosion of colors and flavors, topped with a rich, strikingly pink goat cheese sorbet. The new cocktails were developed in collaboration with the Bitter & Twisted bartending team, including proprietor Ross Simon.
X marks the spot: find your cocktail on the dot
The Cocktail Map, a fun and informative illustration on the menu, has returned and helps guide guests toward their desired flavor profile, from Divergent (adventurous), Play It Safe (classics), To The Point (spirit-forward) and Refreshing (approachable crowd-pleasers). Another popular feature of the menu — the Hall of Fame — is back, highlighting popular tried-and-true cocktails with a few recent additions, like the Split Decision (whisky, banana Madeira, and cardamom bitters) and the Rhubarb-Ba-Arandas (tequila, Ramazotti Aperitif Rosato, strawberry, rhubarb and hibiscus).
Choose your own adventure: Bitter & Twisted style
Guests will find that there’s something for everyone, from light and refreshing, spirit-forward and boozy, to non-alcoholic offerings, made with high-quality, zero-proof spirit substitutions.
“Since our beginnings, we have been focused on the art and theatre of bartending, making everything from scratch, and making sure we’re the best of the best,” says Ross Simon, who brought the concept to life 10 years ago. “We strive to provide a premium product at an approachable price point for our patrons, as great cocktails should be enjoyed anytime, not just on special occasions.”
In recent years, guests have also experienced the establishment’s dedication to sustainability, like bamboo straws made from sustainably-grown plants, to their in-house water filtration system, which creates less waste than other filtration systems and their house-made clear large-format ice, to their dedication to maximizing all of their ingredients, for more than just a one-use application.
To learn more, visit bitterandtwistedaz.com.