The Best Home Bar Doesn’t Need the Fanciest Bottles

The key to stocking your own standout home bar is focusing on quality basics. To find the best, we surveyed a broad spectrum of bartenders at top cocktail spots, from craft havens to celebrated dive bars, about the well spirits they use for five of the most commonly ordered cocktails.

The well—aka the speed rail in easy reach of the bartender and often out of sight of the customer—is where the most frequently used bottles are stored. Traditionally, “well drinks” are made with spirits that maximize profit margins for the bar. That might mean bottom-shelf brands, sometimes even bottles that are pushed by distributors and that the bar can’t get rid of any other way. So it’s no wonder that well spirits often carry a reputation as cheap swill and that many guests prefer to request their favorite brand instead.