Best White Sangria 2009 | Lola Tapas | La Vida | Phoenix
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Best White Sangria

Lola Tapas

Listen closely: There's this drink in town. It's a drink you must try. It's a drink we hear calling our name in the summer months. We'll catch a whisper of the word, "Sangriaaaa" in the winds of the monsoon. In this heat, a boozy iced beverage is just what we all need to make life manageable. And we've found the best white version of it in the Valley. It's at the quaint Lola Tapas restaurant in the Camelback Corridor. Once the thermometer reaches 100, you may well see us parked at the family-style tables, gnawing on traditional Spanish tapas of shaved jamón or a slice of tortilla as the ice melts in our pitcher of white sangria. The folks at Lola keep it simple (white wine, lemon juice, and Triple Sec), then spice it up with sliced peaches and whole sticks of cinnamon for an aromatic teaser. Be sure to ask your server for an extra fork to fish out the peach slices if you really want a healthy buzz to set in. And if you're with a companion, go ahead and shell out for the $28 pitcher because one glass each will just leave you panting for more.

Best Red Sangria

Ticoz Resto-Bar

Wine-lovers are the first to line up for good sangria, but getting a beer drinker to try the fruity wine cocktail is like getting a child to eat foie gras instead of chicken strips. That's why we're sold on Ticoz's passion fruit sangria. Everyone we've cajoled into drinking the stuff — from our beer-swilling husbands to Harley-riding, whiskey-drinking Cousin Lou — can't get enough. Cloudy magenta in color, Ticoz's red sangria is made with Oak Creek Cabernet and a splash of real passion fruit, pineapple, and orange juices. The citrus notes are the highlight, masking the bitter taste some wine-haters complain about. It's also light and refreshing enough to accompany Ticoz's awesome weekend brunch. But don't be fooled. It's way too easy to down a couple or three of these before you even notice the buzz, so take your time and feel free to load up on Ticoz's massive taco salads or a hearty gringo breakfast of chicken-apple sausage and farm eggs before driving home.

Best Mojito

Trader Vic's

We've consumed many a silly mojito in our day — including, heretically, one with an umbrella in it — and we held out no great hopes for the interpretation of the national drink of Cuba served up by tiki-couture chain Trader Vic's. But this Trader Vic's ain't your mom and dad's kitschy '70s version of the island restaurant. The new-millennial Trader Vic's, while still plenty of fun, is damned serious about its high-end surf-and-turf and its extensive repertoire of tropical drinks.

The Vic's mojito is an unadorned but perfectly crafted blend of the five sacred ingredients (white rum, sugar, lime, carbonated water, and mint leaves), served in a plain, tall highball glass. It's lip-smacking good and as deadly as a voodoo snake. We downed a pair of the blessed vipers in the sublime open-air lounge. The first knocked us loopy. The second had us dancing in the fire pit. Ah, Polynesian paradise.

We usually go to this ravishing canal-side eatery to see and be seen — not to drown our sorrows. But then we stumbled onto a gorgeous new twist on the classic margarita that has us second-guessing our sobriety. The white peach and hibiscus margarita is a lovely soft pink, served on ice in a tall glass. But don't let its pink-lemonade looks fool you: This drink packs a tasty punch, with subtle tequila blanco, hibiscus syrup, and such an authentically delicate white peach flavor that you could never mistake it for the cloying nectar you get in a can. It's the perfect drink for a special occasion — but down too many, and it'll be an occasion you won't want to remember (not that you'd be able to).

Best Specialty Margarita

Olive & Ivy

We usually go to this ravishing canal-side eatery to see and be seen not to drown our sorrows. But then we stumbled onto a gorgeous new twist on the classic margarita that has us second-guessing our sobriety. The white peach and hibiscus margarita is a lovely soft pink, served on ice in a tall glass. But dont let its pink-lemonade looks fool you: This drink packs a tasty punch, with subtle tequila blanco, hibiscus syrup, and such an authentically delicate white peach flavor that you could never mistake it for the cloying nectar you get in a can. Its the perfect drink for a special occasion but down too many, and itll be an occasion you wont want to remember (not that youd be able to).

Best Budget Margaritas

Mi Patio

Meagan Simmons

With the economy dragging, we've become a little less shy about pinching our pennies in public. If we're hitting a bar or a club, then we're pre-gaming at the Circle K around the corner with our friend, the tallboy. If there's something a bit dressier popping, we're filling our flask and hitting the lavatory to indulge between slow sips of overpriced wine at the table. Thankfully, Mi Patio exists to alleviate some of our shame. Their $1.75 margaritas are a good way to drink in the company of others with no shadiness. The refreshing cocktail of choice at the Mexican grub house is like our cad-in-arms, Hugh Grant — it doesn't necessarily pack a huge wallop, but it certainly does the trick. At the cost of your average 24-ounce beer cannon, you can actually afford to have a few and act the fool.

Best Pitcher Margaritas

Oaxaca

Courtesy of Oaxaca

The margarita can be a tricky mistress. Ordering one on a per-glass basis, really, is only going to lead to one or two more. So, you might as well ante up and go hard with a full pitcher. That goes double if you're cavorting with friends. And if it's been a hell of a week for your crew, then you should probably triple up. If you do resort to ordering margaritas by the pitcher, then we can give no greater recommendation than the cocktail that Oaxaca slings by the gallon. Its homemade margarita concoction is a bit more limey than the average margarita around town — but who wants average?

Best Use of Horchata

The White Rabbit at SideBar

We've long been fans of horchata, the delightful, delectable Mexican rice milk. But even our affection for that sweet drink did nothing to prepare us for the joys of the White Rabbit, an horchata-based cocktail at the downtown hotspot SideBar. A sweet yet never cloying mixture of horchata, Frangelico, and White Godiva liqueur, the White Rabbit is served in a giant "up" glass with a sugar rim — kind of like the adult version of the last sweet drops of milk in your bowl after a breakfast of Cinnamon Toast Crunch. Yummy!

Best Latin Club

Club Rain

If your weekend plans involve a trip to Club Rain in Scottsdale, it'd be wise to apply a few extra coats of Axe body spray, because the pulsating Latin dance warehouse (situated in the same McDowell Road mini-mall that houses the lively Club Tropicana) gets quite muggy with its wall-to-wall levels of writhing bodies. To paraphrase the Fergalicious one, there are lots of girlies wiggling their fronts in the go-go cages or moving to the beats that will surely make "ya bump ya rump." During Sexy Saturdays, the club's biggest night, that means plenty of dollops of reggaetón and pop en español emanating from DJs working the ones and twos at a claw-like booth. By the end of the night, it's almost guaranteed you'll leave Club Rain a few pounds lighter, que no?

Best Latin Dance Night

Latin Ladies Saturday Night

Weekends are traditionally prime time for Latin dance nights around the PHX, with discotecas like DWNTWN and Scottsdale's Club Rain making serious scrilla by spinning up tropical sounds and other muy caliente beat treats for hundreds of Hispanics. Club Silver also gets in on the action with its self-described "urban Latin night" every Saturday night, and it's a supersize Sábado smackdown featuring chicas aplenty grinding their collective culos to the music emanating from DJ Skandalis' turntables. (Ladies also get in free before 11 p.m.) The Power 98.3 spinster's mix of reggaetón by artists like Wisin y Yandel and Hector El Father goes with dollops of cumbias from Pee Wee and Kumbia Kings, as well as some salsa and merengue for good measure. Skandalis recently brought in his bro Kyko to help out on the decks, which means there's double the DJ action.

Best Gay Latin Dance Night

Vertigo Fridays

Karamba

It's been three years or so since the proprietors of Karamba broke many a scenester's heart by pulling the plug on the infamously wicked Hot Pink! electro/glam night. But the hipster community's loss has proved to be the gay scene's gain, as the notorious night was replaced with Vertigo Fridays, which has become a big hit with the Latin LGBT crowd since launching back in 2006. The club becomes a virtual "body shop" during the evening as a bounty of booful barrio boys come out to show off their ab-fab abs and soak up the Latin dance jams and reggaetón broadcast by the talented DJ Melo. If that doesn't satisfy your man-candy cravings, a variety of go-go boys are featured and are usually seen dancing atop several platforms. After last call, the 18-and-over crowd can also join in the fun, as high-energy dance music is spun until 4 a.m. for those who wanna party long into la noche.

Best Of Phoenix®

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