The Best New Cheap Eats in Atlanta

Cocktail Shorties

Photograph by Caroline C. Kilgore

“The way to drink a cocktail is quickly, while it’s still laughing at you.” So famously said Harry Craddock, author of The Savoy Cocktail Book, aka the Bible for any good bartender. Two-ounce “shorties”—or halfsies or half-pours—are built for such quick-sipping, and they’re popping up on bar menus around Atlanta. Plus, at half the price of your average cocktail, they’ll lighten your bar tab.

Snaquiri
Cast Iron
Bartender Michelle Louise Bird considers the two-ounce Snaquiri (as in “snack-sized daiquiri”) a liquid amuse-bouche. Made with rum, lime juice, and sugar, it’s “something to get you started while you peruse the menu.” It’s just $5, which is also what Bird’s Jelly Roll, two ounces of cava with a splash of cherry liqueur, will cost you. “Shooting Champagne rules,” says Bird. $5, 701 Highland Avenue, 404-228-2005

Gangsta’s Paradise
Sweet Auburn BBQ
Slide over a $5 bill and ask for this off-menu cocktail—a tropical, pleasantly bitter mix of Fernet, coconut rum, and lime juice—by name. Beverage director Blake Carter says the two-ounce drink is meant to be sipped, but he won’t judge if you take it down in one go. After all, it’s served in a shot glass. $5, 656 North Highland Avenue, 678-515-3550

The Last Word
Illegal Food
This Prohibition-era cocktail is traditionally made with equal parts gin, green Chartreuse, Maraschino liqueur, and lime juice. Illegal Food bartender Devon Eagle likes it so much, she serves a two-ounce version for $6 as a palate cleanser. Eagle recommends taking it in three sips or less—a woman after Craddock’s own heart. $6, 1044 Greenwood Avenue, 404-254-2141

Lil’ Champ
Foxtrot Liquor Bar
Foxtrot, which opened in Midtown last October, serves two-ounce “Bartender’s Tastes” for $6 to $7. Half of the drinks are riffs on classic cocktails, and the other half were developed in-house. Try the Lil’ Champ from the latter list; it’s made with reposado tequila and Sfumato, a rhubarb-based bitter amaro that Italy’s Cappelletti family has been producing for nearly a century. $6-7, 45 13th Street, 404-856-4266 —Beth McKibben

This article originally appeared in our April 2017 issue.