Connoisseurs of classic cocktails should plant themselves down at this long and very serious Chapel Hill bar, the best in town for mulling over mixology. A perfectly balanced blend of tang and bite, the Modern Cocktail – blended whiskey, sloe gin, fresh-squeezed lemon, absinthe and bitters – deserves a Nobel Peace Prize. Cocktails go for $10 to $14.
Because they don't serve food, they should in theory charge a $5 membership fee, but it’s lax outside high season.