Thursday evening we started our beverage adventure with cocktails at Harry & Izzy’s, including the famous Elmo’s Cola. Read all the fine details about it here. As a quick review, St. Elmo Steakhouse has an exquisitely infused bourbon that they serve with a glass bottle of Coca Cola. It was so good, we stopped and picked up a bottle of the St. Elmo Steakhouse Straight Bourbon before leaving town. Good thing, too, because the only online vendor I’ve found willing to ship it across state lines is The Liquor Barn and shipping is more than the bottle. You can find the St. Elmo Bourbon in Indianapolis at Big Red Liquor or Kroger. So, again, if any of you Missourians are planning a trip to Indy let me know if I can rent a little trunk space for some Indy cargo.

The other drinks of note from Harry & Izzy’s are the Izzy Spritz, light and reminiscent of a grapefruit margarita; and the Solar Storm, a fruity cocktail with edible glitter. Need I say more?

Slippery Noodle Inn

This establishment came as a recommendation based on the fact that the husband and I wanted to get a few drinks but not go clubbing. There couldn’t have been a better place for us to head after dinner Thursday night. First of all, the St. Louis Blues game was on the TV right in front of our table. Secondly, maybe more important to the masses, apparently on Thursdays drinks are half off. Yes, you read that right. We had two beers for about $5. Cheaper than I honestly expected to pay for even one beer. They also had some laid back live jazz music in the other room, so we got the best of both world here. I would highly recommend this bar to someone looking for a laidback time.

Photos above are thanks to The Slipper Noodle Inn.

Quills Coffee

This coffee shop came as a recommendation from some friends who frequent Indy. I was pretty excited based off their menu online. I was deciding between their regular menu items the cafe miele (honey and cinnamon latte) or the alchemist (mocha, cinnamon, cayenne latte). Then I saw their seasonal menu, which had a ginger espresso tonic, which the barista described as a ginger beer with espresso. So, obviously I just had to get two rounds. I started with the cafe miele, then followed it up with the ginger espresso tonic. The cafe miele was very balanced, no overwhelming flavors one way or the other. The ginger espresso tonic was not bad, but I have very high standards for my espresso tonics thanks to Sump Coffee, and this one didn’t quite measure up. Also I like a really strong ginger flavor, and I felt like the ginger was barely perceptible, if at all. On a more positive note, the almond croissant was delectable. The bacon cheddar scone was pretty good, but was more of a traditional biscuit than scone. Just saying.

Above: Cafe Miele, and an almond croissant (photo sniped from yelp)

Guggman Haus Brewing

Guggman Haus Brewing has a great biergarten feel. They had a minimum of twenty beers on tap when we visited (menu pictured above) and I think they had a few extras featured as well. The beers were all awesome. We selected a variety of IPAs and fruity, hazy beers, and they were all 100% awesome. I highly recommend the Into the Wild Sour (blueberry, strawberry, raspberry), the Mountaintop NEIPA, and the Festbier. See more about how awesome Guggman is at untappd.

Exchange Whiskey Bar

Friday night we walked down Massachusetts Avenue looking for a quiet place to get a few great cocktails. We stumbled across Exchange Whiskey Bar, which I initially thought was just a liquor store. It wasn’t. It was a pretty awesomely curated house of whiskey and cocktails. Explore their fabulous menu for yourself.

The Exchange Executive Old Fashioned is a fun one, a great old fashioned delivered in smoke. Ryan and I tried both their other legacy cocktails, the Don’t Tell Lies in Heaven (Woodford rye and bourbon, smoked amaro, cherry and vanilla bitters) and the Monday Morning (cold brew coffee with Tanner’s Creek bourbon and salted pecan syrup). I also tried the Stawberr-rye at the server’s recommendation (all I gathered was it was rye with a strawberry shrub). All the drinks were awesome. We were there for a few hours, but I didn’t get hit by the liquor at all, these were all smaller cocktails, but delicious. Ryan had a flight of Rye whiskey (Woodford, Masterson’s 10, High West Double Rye), and my buddy Phu had a flight of Japanese Whiskey (Nobushi, Kura, and Toki). And then we walked home.