The Office

There is no sign. There is no menu visible from the street. There is, in fact, no street presence whatsoever. The Office exists beneath The Aviary in Chicago's Fulton Market district, accessible only through a hidden door in the kitchen of its upstairs sibling — and only if you have a reservation, which you almost certainly do not. Getting a table at The Office is the cocktail world's equivalent of securing a Willy Wonka golden ticket, and the experience, once you're inside, justifies every ounce of that mystique.

THE DRINKS

Grant Achatz and Nick Kokonas — the same duo behind Alinea — have applied their obsessive culinary philosophy to cocktails here, and the results are genuinely unlike anything else on earth. The Ramos Gin Fizz is prepared tableside with theatrical precision, shaken for a full twelve minutes by a dedicated bartender who treats the process like a religious ceremony. The result is a cloud of citrus and egg white so light it barely seems to exist. The Old Fashioned comes served in a smoked glass dome; when the dome is lifted, the entire table fills with the scent of charred oak and vanilla. Every drink is an event, a conversation, a small piece of theatre.

THE ATMOSPHERE

The room is small — perhaps twenty seats — decorated in the manner of a Prohibition-era private club, all dark wood panelling, leather banquettes, and the kind of low amber lighting that makes everyone look like they're in a 1920s photograph. There is a working fireplace. The service is impeccable without being formal; the bartenders know the provenance of every bottle on the back bar and will discuss it at length if you're interested, or leave you entirely alone if you're not. It is, in every sense, a room designed for adults who take pleasure seriously.

THE VERDICT

The Office is not cheap — expect to spend north of $100 per person before you've ordered anything solid — and it requires planning months in advance. But for the serious cocktail traveller, it is one of the handful of genuinely unmissable experiences in the world. Not because it is the best bar in Chicago, though it may well be, but because it represents cocktail-making at its most ambitious and most accomplished. Gerald's advice: book the moment reservations open, go on a Tuesday, and order whatever the bartender recommends.