THE NEW COCKTAILIANS: WHERE TO DRINK NOW

LA WEEKLY ,March 6-12 2009

Rustic Canyon

Technically speaking, Rustic Canyon, the crowded Santa Monica restaurant whose lemon cornmeal cake and sustainable, humanely raised organic lamb T-bones with baby artichokes make it one of the toughest reservations on the Westside, doesn't even serve cocktails. It's a wine bar.

You drink Côtes du Rôhne. It goes with the food. But Jon Hoeber, who serves as the bartender for want of a better term, does the sorts of things with Prosecco that other creative bartenders do with gin, flavoriting it with lemongrass and ginger, mixing it with blood-orange juice and homemade bitters, or serving it on the rocks with salt, chile sauce and wedges of lime, which I can assure you is not how it is done in the Veneto.

1119 Wilshire Blvd., Santa Monica, 310.393.7050, rusticcanyonwinebar.com