A Cocktail Legend’s Tips to Drinking Better Wherever You Go

Kara Newman here, your Top Shelf cocktail and spirits expert. Last week one of my Threads went viral, about a conversation I overheard between a bartender at Italian restaurant Massara on Park in New York and a guest, who requested Casamigos tequila and was rebuffed. My social media rarely (OK, never) gets that kind of traction, so why this one?

The interaction name-checked a brand formerly owned by a celebrity, which I assume pleased the algorithm gods. But the hundreds of comments reveal layers: Some wanted to talk about the bartender’s push toward a tequila without additives, a hot-button topic among agavephiles these days. Many had a visceral response to the bartender’s blunt response—which some found refreshing, others quite rude. And still others wanted to share their own tequila picks or wondered which pour the guest ultimately chose (spoiler alert: Fortaleza, one of my favorites too).