The Resy Guide to Where — and What — to Drink This Fall in Atlanta 

Tipsy Thaiger was designed around gub glam (Thai drinking food), so it’s no surprise that experimental cocktails are a core part of this restaurant’s identity. Byrdie Niyomkun, Tipsy Thaiger’s product and experience director, shares that this season’s newest drink is inspired by both Bua Loy Nam Khing (บัวลอยน้ำขิง) — a warm, Chinese-influenced dessert of rice balls with black sesame paste she grew up enjoying in Thailand — and whisky sours. Moon & Fortune combines bourbon, fresh ginger, honey, and lemon for a “warming, silky, and nutty drink,” she describes, with a bit of a zing accented with three black sesame dots that recall the drink’s original roots.

Already making national headlines for their uber-seasonal approach to food, the beverage program at So. Fox is no different. There are no wrong choices from the low-intervention wine list by sommelier Rachael Pack, but the same goes for the tight cocktail list, expanded for fall to five options. The stonefruit gin, chamomile, and sparkling tea G & Tea combo is a lovely way to ease into an evening, but also try the new namesake So. Foxy, made with scuppernong whey vodka, vermouth, and lime leaf. The spirit of the harvest is further channeled with Hay! (hay liqueur, rum, and lime), while the darker side of the season’s embraced by The Straight Jacket’s bourbon and walnut or the smoky mezcal, black apple vinegar, and citrusy Casoni of The Fairest.

The menu at this blush-hued gem in Southern Post mostly transcends seasons, channeling the agricultural abundance of the Lebanese Mediterranean climate, letting diners mentally change the weather with every dine. But for fall, chef Marc Mansour has unveiled a new drink with rich fig and pomegranate flavors that feel heady and zesty with lemon, aquafaba, and aromatic bitters. The result is a cocktail with “a silky texture, warm spice, and subtle anise finish,” he says — perfect for heartier snacks like meatballs in a sour cherry sauce, wings glazed with pomegranate molasses, or comforting mains like the vegetarian stew-like eggplant and chickpea Lebanese moussaka.

As a pioneering restaurant that’s locally loved and nationally lauded, you pay attention when its beverage manager, Carter Culwell, says a new drink “encapsulates our ethos.” For this highball-style cocktail, lead bartender Preston McKale washes rum with house-rendered duck fat, combines it with a Japanese-style malted whisky finished in umeshu plum liqueur casks, then freezer-batches it with a cordial of local apples. It hits the table with a spritz of club soda and clear ice. “You taste tons of fruit and the flavors of the whisky and rum up front before it slowly transforms on your palate to baked apples and savory duck fat,” McKale says.

As this Korean fine-dining sanctuary of hybrid cooking eases into cooler months with an updated and expanded menu, Orestes Cruz, Mirae’s bar manager, makes a grand reveal of his own. Leave the tough decision of choosing between lobster orzo or A5 Wagyu with yuzu butter to eeny-meeny-miny-moe while you skip ahead to catch the tiger by its tail with a new signature drink by that name. Prepared similarly to an Old Fashioned, but incorporating demerara syrup and mole chocolate bitters, it highlights the spice notes that rye, bourbon, cognac, and calvados all share. Cruz calls it “a beautiful fall cocktail, with cozy stone fruits, oak, and baking spice flavors that warm your soul.”

Everybody knows this tiki/basement/garage hangout spot in Krog Street Market for their cocktails; their strong drinks are as notorious and only slightly less loud than the dinner bell that announces their famous Chuck Wagon Dinner. This season, warm up with the signature Rising Fall, made with smoky mezcal, Amer “Ticon,” sherry, dry vermouth, orange-flavored Creole Shrubb from Martinique, and bitters. It’ll go well with cooler weather mains like a skillet-roasted porterhouse pork chop and their year-round veal-sweetbreads with lemon brown butter.

The pH-balanced luxury water served here is the highlight of a beverage program centered around light and harmony. An acclaimed vermouth drink selection and cocktail list follow that lead, with names like Master of Light playing with those concepts. This fall, try the Green Curve, a gin- or vodka-based (your choice) drink accented with lime cordial and a seasonally appropriate tincture of black pepper. Have it with braised beef and smoked ricotta ravioli with celery, herbs, and parmigiano. Or order the roast chicken with Swiss chard and vermouth-Dijon to pair with The Maestro, yet another fall-appropriate drink with rye, bourbon, and Armagnac.

Step into a New York City-style brownstone’s living room with something similarly old-school this season. The Plantain Old Fashioned pairs Edmonds Honor bourbon with housemade roasted plantain-demerara syrup, both of which give the drink notes of caramel. For balance, there’s an added orange finish, a blend of bitters, and saline. A custom H-stamped (for Heritage) King Cube ensures the cocktail maintains its chill and flavors well. Finally, the fried sweet plantain chip makes a great bookend for a beverage whose individual components help chef Demetrius Brown tell his story of the flavors that hold meaning for Black foodways.

Settle into one of only four stools at the bar of this 40-seat restaurant and choose one of four drinks by beverage director and co-owner Shyreatha Sheats. Her current favorite is the Gin N Sherry with manzanilla sherry and botanical liqueur, but for fall, give the Brandy Cooler with calvados, lemon, and orange flower sparkling water a go. The combination is an ideal complement to seasonal roasted meats like pork sirloin and braised dishes. Even simpler – grab a class of organic, French estate-grown Le Pere Jules Cidre de Normandie, whose ultra-ripe apple flavors are accented with natural citrus and honey notes.

Excellent cocktails warrant a full stop at this former train depot. The closed-in brick patio, bright with greens from hanging plants even in the dead of autumn, is an especially charming place to have a drink with a plate of oysters during this peak season. Warm up in the breeze with their spin on a classic, which incorporates green apple, cardamom, fresh cider, and Pommeau de Normandie. For a lighter take, there’s the Green Apple Gimlet with mutsu, lime, and caraway. Or, pivot to pear: The New Tokyo and Pear Blossom No. 2 feature the fruit, the first with a pine and pear brandy with ginger, and the second with Bartlett pears and French spices.