Savannah Style Cocktailing — The Alley Cat Lounge

Savannah is a small Southern city with a big drinking tradition. The Alley Cat Lounge is one of the great cathedrals of Savannah’s cocktail renaissance. You have to respect a place that has “We love booze, and so do you” as its motto. Ms. Cocktail Den and I went there the first night we were in town, and we had such a great experience we returned twice.

If you’ve read my reviews of other bars, you know I usually focus on two things — drinks and people.  After extensive testing over three nights, I can tell you the drinks are top notch across the board. Some of the cocktails will be the feature of other posts.  Take your time reading the lengthy drink menu, which looks like a newspaper.  I appreciate that because I’m sort of old school in that I actually read a newspaper (kids — think of a newspaper as a prehistoric Facebook feed without a power source ha ha).

Besides creating some fine cocktails, the people behind the bar are friendly and knowledgeable.  You have to be knowledgeable if there are more than 100 cocktails on the menu, many of which you won’t find in 99.9% of other bars.  Fortunately the bartenders will share their knowledge and make recommendations without being pretentious.  That attitude is emblematic of the Alley Cat Lounge — seriously good drinks without taking itself too seriously.

During our time in Savannah the Alley Cat Lounge became our go to place for a cocktail. Ok, maybe more than one. In speaking with bartenders at other local watering holes, we learned that it’s a go to place for many of them.  Will the Alley Cat Lounge become your go to place when you’re in Savannah?