At any given Italian restaurant, often a decent-to-good Aperol spritz or Negroni and a handful of apertifs and digestifs on the bar shelf are all that's required of the barmen. But bartenders are raising the status quo for cocktail programs at emerging restaurants. This all is no more apparent than in Phoenix, where, more and more often, great craft cocktails arrive for the public in the context of an exciting restaurant rather than in a standalone bar. Still, Tratto barman Blaise Faber could have mailed it in with some simple twists on Italian classics, maybe stocked a few esoteric Italian liqueurs, and called it a very good craft cocktail program at Phoenix's most exciting new restaurant. But, evidently, Faber was shooting for more. Whatever the case, it's clear that Faber has far exceeded any expectations except for perhaps those he holds for himself. It's apparent that he has been studious, crafting obscure, Old World-sounding Italian liqueurs from scratch (in addition to stocking the Valley's most exotic collection of Italian amari — again, going beyond expectations). He has a passion for whipping up truly inventive cocktails that feel genuinely Italian and, often, very Arizonan as well, incorporating the local flora and creating the feeling of time and place that has always been the modus operandi for Tratto's Chris Bianco himself. Hats off to Faber. He's the right man for the job.