11 Rum Cocktails to Drink in Bars Now

One of the more fun spots in all of Boston is Hojoko, open in Fenway since summer 2015 by the venerable O Ya crew. Besides the hip, expansive space, boozy slushie machines, excellent modern Japanese izakaya plates and quality sakes, bar managers Daren Swisher’s and Joe Cammarata’s playful cocktails are worth a visit alone. Rum dominates the whimsical cocktails, and it’s hard to resist Hojoko’s version of a Piña Colada, mixing Plantation and Wray & Nephew rums with pineapple, coconut and torched marshmallow fluff.

(image: Virginia Miller)

One of the more delightful rum offerings now is not so much one drink but three, part of a $35 three-course cocktail tasting menu in the intimate, chill basement of The Franklin Bar. General manager Sara Justice ensures one of the most elegant, drinkable menus in Philly, while bartender Zach Kessler created the Pure Imagination, a Willy Wonka–inspired tasting menu. Rum shines with the Golden Ticket, a clarified piña colada topped with a Dark & Stormy foam, and also the Everlasting Gobstopper, a silky, hot buttered rum with sweet potato and a duck fat prosciutto wash.

(image: Virginia Miller)

Three-Michelin-starred Saison is one of the great fine-dining restaurants in the world, complete with San Francisco precision and quality that are married to a welcome casualness. But you can also slip into the bar for Anthony Keels’ exquisite cocktails, in line with the most inventive drinks you might find in London, Berlin or Tokyo. Case in point: His intriguing, breezy Yakuza’s Chichi recalls Tokyo with its use of Hitachino Nest White Rice ale and lighter-than-air Japanese glassware. The gentle beer brightens up a blend of Angostura 1919 eight-year-old and El Dorado 12-year-old rums, balanced by lime and velvet falernum.

(image: Virginia Miller)

Opened at the end of 2015, Sparrow is one of Chicago’s more romantic escapes, an inviting 1930s-era Art Deco apartment complete with a vintage phone booth and wall of hotel room keys, inspired by historic hotel lobby bars. A friendly bar staff pours craft beers from 10 rotating draft handles, while $5 Daiquiri Mondays and 1940s and ’50s tunes make it feel like a neighborhood bar though in the Gold Coast. Barman Peter Vestinos curates an extensive rum selection and cocktail menu of rum classics, like the Hotel Nacional. But go off-menu, and the skilled staff can pull out more obscure classics like a Cuban rarity, the Dutchie: Here, it’s Smith & Cross rum with Bols genever, Yellow Chartreuse, lime, cane syrup and Peychaud’s bitters, served on crushed ice.

(image: Virginia Miller)

San Diego’s idyllic year-round weather lends itself to Kettner Exchange’s expansive rooftop patio surrounding an olive tree and upstairs dining room gazing out at San Diego Bay. Bar manager Steven Tuttle creates a cocktail menu appropriate for the setting, heavy on Tiki drinks and rum (alongside excellent food), with superior versions of a Piña Colada or Scorpion Bowl. But the Tiki Cross is the house signature, a vivid blend of three rums—Jamaican, white and añego—given depth from a balanced mix of velvet falernum, orange curaçao, pineapple, lime, orgeat and black walnut bitters.

(image: Virginia Miller)

As a modern izakaya and sushi den, Uni is also a sleek Boston escape for thoughtful wines and cocktails. Revamped in February with a greatly expanded space from its original tiny basement sushi bar (which is still there) and new bar manager Jason Kilgore (formerly of the revered Hawthorne), Uni offers a Tiki menu alongside elegant house cocktails. The depth and funk of a Jamaican rum mingles seamlessly with cognac and port in the USS Richmond, given intrigue from citrus, black tea and just a splash of cava for subtle effervescence.

(image: Virginia Miller)

Jacques Bezuidenhout and Ken Luciano (of the PlumpJack Group and Forgery), opened Wildhawk in April with a stellar bartender lineup, run by Karri Cormican (formerly of Comstock Saloon), set in a beautiful Mission space marked by dark green and zebra print. On a widely varying cocktail menu with more than a couple of standouts, the Super Fine plays the rum-banana game to subtle effect, combining Hamilton demerara rum and Giffard Banane du Brésil liqueur and giving umami, soy and saline intrigue with a pickled shiitake mushroom brine from the kitchen.

(image: Virginia Miller)

Just off Philly’s busy Rittenhouse Square and neighboring its larger restaurant, a.kitchen, a.bar is an all-day respite for ceviche, burgers and cocktails from bar manager Dan Hamm. A recent favorite was the Moravian Fizz, a unique stunner of Appleton Reserve rum, lemon and mulled wine, given texture (both creamy and frothy) from house-made buttermilk and egg white, with a savory dash of black pepper. Cocktails change seasonally, and other rum highlights might include the Sonny Boy, in which El Dorado rum and Dolin Rouge vermouth are kicked up with a lemon-coriander shrub, or the Soothsayer, combining Cruzan Black Strap rum, lime and mint with myrtle berry liqueur.

(image: Virginia Miller)

With cocktails from backbar’s Sam Treadway, Ames Street Deli is a casual all-day spot in Cambridge, Mass., where drinks are grouped in sections like Grad Student: You Can Afford It (a cost-conscious $8 cocktail section) or Refreshing: Wicked Taaaht & Tangy. The Ames Old Fashioned is the house favorite, a boozy blend of rum and rhum with Rittenhouse rye whiskey, sugar and Bittermens Elemakule Tiki bitters to round it out. (Note: The pop-up whiskey bar, The Olde Mouldy, is hidden upstairs and generally open on Saturday nights.)

(image: Virginia Miller)

Anthony Parks continues to make Michelin-starred Mourad a draw for cocktails, too, playing with ingredients and spice mixes from chef Mourad Lahlou’s kitchen. Pull up to the long bar in a historic SoMa building, and sip drinks named for their key ingredients. The Pineapple & Artichoke is an elegant, spirituous cocktail in which lush El Dorado five-year-old rum gets bitter backbone (and the artichoke) from Cynar and is brightened up by pineapple gastrique with a Champagne vinegar base, lime, Petite Canne sugar cane syrup and Angostura bitters.

(image: Virginia Miller)

From Heisler Hospitality (Trenchermen, Sportsman's Club, Queen Mary Tavern, Pub Royale), Bad Hunter is slated to open this summer next door to another Heisler bar, Lone Wolf, and beloved restaurant Au Cheval. Though there will be meat on the menu, Bad Hunter dishes will focus on vegetables first. Similarly, bar manager Josh Fossitt (who was behind the bar at Queen Mary Tavern), will use high-proof spirits but in small doses, featuring low-proof cocktails that pair with veggie-forward dishes. Enter his Riesling Rickey, a light green imbibment that tastes of spring with spring pea syrup and lime, glowing with riesling and just a hint of welcome funk and depth from a bit of La Favorite agricole rhum.

(image: Virginia Miller)