The Best Places to Drink in Panamá

The cocktails here pull from Japanese technique and Panamanian ingredients, landing somewhere that feels like neither borrowed nor forced. It's a sleek bar inside Panama City's top Japanese restaurant, all clean lines and warm wood, with a drinks list that outshines most dedicated cocktail bars in town. The hand rolls have their own following, but this is a room where ordering just a drink and sitting with it a while makes complete sense.

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The name is a portmanteau of Maito and Maido, the two restaurants whose chefs co-own this cocktail bar, which tells you the whole story before you sit down. Martin Hudak, a bartender with serious credentials, runs the drinks list, and the food, from duck dumplings to nigiri, exists to keep pace with the glasses rather than the other way around. The crowd tends to dress for it.

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The founders import the spirits themselves, which you can also buy straight off the shelf while you're there, a nice bit of vertical integration. Amano is a second-floor cocktail bar in San Francisco with the feel of a jungle that got into the drinks business, fruity and fun rather than serious, with ribs and fish tacos to keep things grounded. The crowd tends toward the kind of people who'd rather have a good time than impress anyone.

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