Our Guide To The Bay Area's Essential Cocktails

The cocktail renaissance has run amok in the Bay Area. For that, we raise a glass.

But with such a glut of thoughtful bartenders and peerless cocktails, it can be difficult to know where to drink when a craving strikes.

We have a sippable solution: Tasting Table San Francisco's Best Cocktails 2010, a right-now road map to the Bay Area's essential drinks (click here to visit the site).

This collection of 15 cocktails features a snapshot of why each drink matters, along with a recipe. That way, whether you want to imbibe in or out, you know where to find the finest libations as well as how to assemble them at home.

The guide runs a boozy swath from the legendary (Buena Vista Café's iconic Irish Coffee) to the classically ideal (the Negroni at BIX) to cocktails that could exist nowhere else but in the Bay Area (the Thai Boxer at Cyrus and The Candace at Prospect).

So ubiquitous now are well-crafted cocktails that it's easy to be jaded about our region's great drinking. Our guide is a handy reminder that a good cocktail always transcends trends.