Amaro Cocktails At The Tar Pit, Tasting Kitchen, Library Bar And The Roger Room In Los Angeles

Italians know how to soothe a full stomach after a big meal: Have a swig of restorative amari like Averna, Cynar or Fernet. But these bittersweet digestifs are just as good in cocktails as they are on their own.

Made from a dizzying array of herbs, roots, flowers, bark, spices and other ingredients, amari add an herbal complexity to classic drinks, and bartenders across the country–and here in L.A.–have taken notice.

At The Tasting Kitchen on Abbot Kinney, the appropriately named Cure-All ($13) is a pungent concoction of Fernet, rye whiskey and myrtleberry liqueur. And the Library Bar's signature Negroni ($15) gets a little extra bite from Averna instead of Campari.

Leave it to the Roger Room to spotlight the more common knockoff of Amer Picon, a pecan-flavored French liqueur that's difficult to find in the States. The Pecan Millionaire ($12)–made with Torani Amer, pomegranate juice, vodka and Punt e Mes vermouth–will make you feel like a million bucks (click here to download the recipe).