When I asked my friend Jake—who makes high-end cocktails for a living—if he referred to himself as a “mixologist,” he rolled his eyes so hard the floorboards groaned. 

“I’m a bartender,” he said, then he spread his arms like a magician who just finished the trick. “I tend a bar.” 

I’d been sitting at the bar Jake tends in Chicago’s west loop for about an hour, sampling his latest seasonal concoctions. So I was feeling nice and warm and chatty when I asked him a question that—in the moment—I was sure he’d never been asked before: “What’re your go-to cocktails?”

“Hmm,” he said, pretending to ponder a question that—I realize now—he’s been asked a hundred times. 

“Like when you want a drink, but don’t wanna think about it?”

Jake pursed his lips, polished a glass.

“Like... fancy cocktails, but ones I could make at home,” I said, fearing I wasn’t being understood.

“Right, I got it.”

I present to you now, Jake’s answers.

Check back soon for more fancy cocktails you can make at home!