Philly has a healthy cocktail-bar scene, but the truth is it’s a beer town. That’s why the most widely found drink in town, besides Yuengling or Yards, is the citywide special: a shot and a beer. That’s historically true, too. The city claims to have invented two, maybe three classic cocktails — the Clover Club, the Fish House Punch, and (arguably) the Brandy Alexander. That’s a fraction of what New York or New Orleans have contributed to the bar scene.

But our tippling legacy is nonetheless worth honoring, so The Inquirer rounded up five drinks that showcase Philly spirit. These are their stories.

1/10

• The Special

  Bob & Barbara’s

  1509 South St

  

  Bob & Barbara’s is among Philly’s best dives not only for its top-notch live music, the bar’s Naugahyde cushion and timeless decor, and its drag-show tradition. It also originated the Special, the dirt-cheap shot-and-a-beer combo that spread across the city, hence becoming “the citywide.” (Unsurprisingly, the origin story has competing narratives.) As B&B’s manager Katrina Duva tells it, the Special came about shortly after her father bought the bar in 1995, as he was looking for ways to drum up more business. He hired the late, legendary booker/barkeep Rick “D” Dobrowolski, who suggested offering something extra to bring people in on slow weekday evenings. “‘You’ve got Jim Beam, get a case of PBR, we’ll do a can and a shot for $3,’” he recommended. According to Duva, that first case of PBRs sold out the first night, so the bar stocked up the next night — and pretty much every day thereafter. “From there until now, it’s almost 100 cases a week. Up until the pandemic we were the top account for Jim Beam in the state, top fifth in the country. And it’s pretty much all due to the Special.”

  • Websitebobandbarbaras.com
  • Instagram@bobandbarbs
  • Phone(215) 545-4511

• Clover Club

  Philadelphia Distilling

  25 E Allen St

  

  A true Philadelphia original, this pre-Prohibition cocktail takes its name from the men’s club that invented it in the late 19th century. The epicurean Clover Club was founded in 1882 and met in the Bellevue-Stratford Hotel at Broad and Walnut for extravagant dinners for more than a century. According to Philadelphia Distilling general manager Josh Philips, when new members were inducted, they were welcomed in with several rounds of this frothy, pink drink, made with gin, lemon juice, egg white, and raspberries. You can still order a Clover Club in at least a few Philadelphia bars (including the Bellevue’s 19th-floor bar XIX), but Philadelphia Distilling makes a well-balanced iteration that features Bluecoat Gin and a housemade raspberry cordial spiked with French vermouth, as the original version was rumored to be. The offering isn’t printed on the menu, but the bartenders make at least one every night they’re working. “It’s the kind of cocktail that sells itself,” Philips said, gesturing at a beautifully prepared Clover Club. “When you walk that through the dining room, everybody’s like, ‘Oh, I have to have one of those.’”

  Read More
  • Websitephiladelphiadistilling.com
  • Instagram@philadelphiadistilling
  • Phone(484) 671-0346

• Fishtown Iced Tea

  Interstate Drafthouse

  1235 E Palmer St

  

  This cocktail demonstrates how trash can become treasure. A decade ago, a bartender at Interstate Drafthouse got frustrated sweeping up litter outside the Fishtown bar. One item in particular really got to her: smushed cartons of Arctic Splash iced tea. In the ‘00s, their reputation for skittering around city streets and sidewalks became so outsize they became known as Arctic Trash. As now-owner Mike McCloskey tells it, she thought to herself, “Let’s turn a negative into a positive.”

  She invented Fishtown Iced Tea, a play on the infamous booze-on-booze beverage, by swapping out Arctic Splash for the Coke. Arctic Splash by the carton was discontinued in May, just as McCloskey and partners launched a canned-cocktail business. Now you can get a Fishtown Iced Tea in area bars and restaurants, and even in New Jersey, where it’s outselling its Pennsylvania counterparts. And for Interstate Drafthouse regulars, McCloskey commissioned an artist to make ceramic cartons that patrons can buy and bring to the bar for $1 discount per can.

  • Websiteinterstatedrafthouse.com
  • Instagram@interstatedrafthouse
  • Phone(267) 455-0045

• Scrappy Marry

  Down Home Diner

  51 N 12th St

  

  The Philly region’s love affair with scrapple — the crispy-creamy mystery meat that’s traditionally a mix of pork scraps, cornmeal, and spices — is long and well-documented. City chefs have whipped up scrapple sandwiches, scrapple pizza, artisan scrapple, and even scrapple ice cream. Recently, Reading Terminal Market’s Down Home Diner contributed a new entry that goes down wonderfully easy: the Scrappy Mary, a lightly spicy Bloody Mary spiked with Cajun seasoning and garnished with cubes of deep-fried scrapple from Leidy’s in Lancaster. The drink is the brainchild of a food-Instagrammer friend of owner Jason McDavid, who bought the 35-year-old diner from his father last summer. The friend sketched out exactly how the cocktail should appear, and McDavid and team executed in August, just as the diner debuted its bar menu. “Scrapple is such a versatile thing,” McDavid said. “It’s a carrier for salt and texture. It’s got this great, crispy shell and creamy inside. You can really do a lot with it.”

  • Websitedownhomediner.net
  • Instagram@downhomediner
  • Phone(215) 627-1955
Advertisement

• An Apple a Day

  Four Humours Distilling

  1712 N Hancock St

  

  Apple brandy, or applejack, has a colonial air about it, and for good reason. It was first distilled in Monmouth County, New Jersey, but quickly crossed state lines (as do the bottles of many modern-day Philadelphians). Applejack fell out of favor in the 20th century, but it’s experiencing a revival, and it’s only natural that Pennsylvania — one of the country’s top apple producers — has some great iterations to offer. You can sample one made from Berks County apples at Four Humours Distilling, which snapped up a bunch of Resurgent Whiskeys’ apple brandy when it hit the market last year. “We bought as much as we could before they sold out,” said Four Humours cofounder John Anolik. Four Humours uses it to make An Apple a Day. Besides the apple brandy, it features Kinsey bourbon from Philly’s New Liberty Distillery and rhubarb liqueur from Pittsburgh’s Wigle Whiskey. (Maple and lemon round out the booze.) “It really shows all the ways three different parts of the state come together make a beautiful cocktail,” Anolik said.

  Read More
  • Websitefourhumourswhiskey.com
  • Instagram@fourhumoursdistilling
  • Phone(610) 324-3915