If Dogs Run Free – best cocktail bars

This place is more than a bar. Actually, on first impression, it’s hard to define what this place actually is – a cocktail bar or a dark corner of your subconscious in which hard liquor is served. But that’s the idea, according to part owner Gregorio. “The space itself is meant to invite fantasy – just like the name, the space should invoke that ambiguous question – ‘what if?’” There are the old school classics – the Old fashion, the Margarita, the Boulevardier. We sample the first original house-made invention – the Damascus Sour. It’s boozy, tasty and very different. While you see cocktail mixologist across the city nowadays, this place opened in 2012 when cocktails were the new hot girl at school in Vienna. The difference between ‘dogs’ and the others is that here, they’re mad scientists rather than mixologists, with a serious commitment to their booze. “We want people to identify with ‘their’ drink,” Gregorio tells us. We ordered a round of shots – ‘one Russian cocaine, one Piranha, and one Pickleback, bitte.’ It sounds like the mad hatters tea party, doesn’t it? The ingredients combination is as odd as their names: Russian Cocaine: a vodka shot glass with a coffee-sugar-dipped lemon on top, the Piranha: vodka and Tabasco with a cherry on top, the Pickleback: Irish whiskey and pickled gherkin juice. This is the sort of place you can ask for a recommendation from the bar staff and know you’ll get something outlandish put in front of you. Cocktails change like the seasons here, so keep your eye on their Facebook site for updates on their new cocktail brews.

How many cocktails are on the menu? This is forever changing as there are new cocktail creations each week.