Bitters and aperitifs are having a moment — and not just as cocktail ingredients. More people are sipping them straight, building aperitivo hours at home, and actually learning what's in their Negroni. If you're in Chicago and want to stock your bar with something worth drinking, here's what we'd grab off our shelves at Off Premise right now.
There's a reason bartenders everywhere treat Fernet like a handshake. Milan's most iconic bitter liqueur is built on a secret blend of 27 herbs and spices — think menthol, saffron, chamomile, and something that tastes like it was aged in a medicine cabinet from 1845. That sounds like a criticism. It isn't. Fernet is bracingly herbal, intensely bitter, and genuinely refreshing in the right context. Sip it cold as a digestif, mix it with Coke the Argentine way, or use it as a half-ounce backbone in a stirred cocktail. At $45, it's one of the most versatile bottles you can own. Buy one and it'll outlast six bottles of whatever tequila you're impulse-buying.
Everything about this bottle punches above its weight. Bordiga is a small house out of Cuneo, Italy, in the Piedmont Alps — they make everything in-house, from distillation to bottling. The aperitivo hits that classic bitter-orange groove but with more herbal complexity and less artificial sweetness than the big names. It's the Aperol alternative you didn't know you were looking for. Spritz it, use it in a Paper Plane variation, or just pour it over ice with a slice of orange. And the 1L format means you're getting serious value. If you're building a home bar and can only grab one aperitivo bottle, make it this one.
Vermouth gets underestimated constantly. Mata Tinto fixes that. This Spanish red vermouth is built on fortified wine and loaded with botanicals — dried fruit, warm spice, a bitter finish that keeps it from going flabby. It's the kind of vermouth that makes your Negroni taste like you actually know what you're doing. And at $24? It's almost irresponsible not to buy it. Serve it over ice with a twist and a splash of soda for the simplest aperitivo you'll ever make. Keep it refrigerated after opening and it'll stay sharp for weeks. Most people overlook vermouth. Don't be most people.
If you live in Chicago and don't own a bottle of Malört, that's a personality flaw we can fix. This city's most beloved/feared spirit is a Swedish-style bäskbrännvin distilled locally — built around wormwood, which gives it that infamous grapefruit-pith bitterness that clears your sinuses and your social calendar simultaneously. The thing is, once it clicks for you, it really clicks. It's genuinely complex, completely unlike anything else in the liquor cabinet, and historically important to Chicago drinking culture. Buy it for the experience. Keep it for the cocktails — a half-ounce of Malört in a whiskey sour is a revelation. And at $30, the price of admission is low enough to find out which side you're on.
We're at 1128 W Armitage Ave in Lincoln Park. Come in and let us help you build a bar worth drinking from — or order online for pickup.
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