Ariel Kanter

True to her name, Ivy Mix stirs an incredible cocktail, especially in the company of Julie Reiner. The drink pros made quite the formidable pair at the Clover Club, Reiner’s Cobble Hill cocktail institution where Mix served as head bartender, but they’re testing if lightning strikes twice at this Pan-Latin follow-up. (Spoiler: It does.) In a mystic-cool space fitting for such bartender worship—rigged with Indio candles, cathedral-pew booths and a golden tin ceiling imprinted with crosses—Mix takes the reins on the cocktail menu and proves she’s worthy of the title leyenda (Spanish for legend). ORDER THIS: South of the Border cocktails that go well beyond tequila. Pulling from her time spent living and working in Guatemala, Argentina and Peru, Mix pours the pisco-charged Hey Suze ($12), which soothes gin, absinthe and the biting Peruvian liquor with sweet, subtle sugar snap peas, and the Maiden Name ($12), which plays up sugary cachaça with a warming fusion of coconut, vanilla, cinnamon and nutmeg. Groups are well suited to pitchers like the pineapple-and-grapefruit ¡Oye Rubia! ($38), splashed with fino sherry, sauvignon blanc and blanco tequila. GOOD FOR: An alfresco evening. Grab one of Mix’s more tropically minded numbers—like the Mia Tia ($13), a riff on a mai tai made with mescal, rum, lime, orgeat and curaçao—and head for the breezy, tree-filled, salsa-soundtracked patio out back. You’ll feel less like you’re in central Brooklyn and more like you’re in Central America. T

At first glance, this Boerum Hill cocktail bar doesn’t look particularly lofty—through shaggy red Chilean-print curtains, you’ll find a curved wood bar, whitewashed brick walls and unfinished wood floors, with blue-painted stools adding small pops of color—but the talent behind the joint damn sure is. The all-star owners include Mile End’s smoked-meat savant Noah Bernamoff, Rucola’s Julian Brizzi, Prime Meats barman Damon Boelte and notable food photographer Daniel Krieger. Despite such heavy-hitting clout, the watering hole operates with a low-key, neighborly ease, though with microgreen toasts and coupe-glass quaffs instead of burgers and beers. ORDER THIS: Boelte’s potent cocktails ($13) are inspired by old American railroad lines, like the Kansas City Southern, a smooth blend of bourbon mellowed by sweet turbinado syrup and mint sprigs, served in a silver mug over heaps of crushed ice. The orange-flower water, grapefruit and lime juices make the Trans-Siberian go down as easily as lemonade on a hot day, but the vodka and Aperol add a sneak-up booziness at the finish. GOOD FOR: Your next cocktail-bar Instagram session. Boelte’s as quick to grab a flashlight—literally —to help you take a better iPhone photo as he is with a drink suggestion or ingredient primer. And the bar is full of picture-ready curiosities, from the Technicolor prints on the walls to the twee mignonette-filled eye droppers (salty ponzu, fiery jerk) that accompany the impressive selection of shucked-to-or