booze

In November, we here at Philadelphia magazine are going to be rolling out our drinking issue. There’ll be bars and stories about bars, tales of cocktails past and present, lists and guides and advice on how to drink your way through this lush life like a champ. Philly is a great bar town–a great drinking town–and we’re already hard at work doing all the research necessary to make this issue sing like a vodka-drunk housewife at a karaoke party.

But while plotting our assault on the bars of Love City, it occurred to us that one thing that’s missing from the alcoholic landscape is a true Philadelphian cocktail. Something that just screams Philly with the force of a thousand cheesesteaks. Sure, there’s a couple punches (Schuylkill and Fish House), the ubiquitous shot-and-a-beer in its myriad forms. And while an argument can certainly be made for a pint of Yuengling and a long pour of Jameson whiskey being the ultimate Philly cocktail, we really think the city can do better.

And that’s where you come in.

In the drinking issue, we’re going to be naming a new, official cocktail for the city of Philadelphia. But before we do that, we need to find one. And we are doing that by turning to some of the city’s best bartenders, smartest drink-slingers and drinkiest historians and asking them to invent a brand new cocktail which can stand proudly as Philly’s own. We’re also asking you, our readers, because 1) we know you all like to drink a bit. And 2) none of you are shy about sharing your opinions.

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