Birmingham is still perfectly capable of giving us an 85-degree afternoon in September, but apparently our bartenders have decided fall is here anyway.
We support this decision.
The city’s current cocktail menus are leaning into apple, maple, bourbon, warming spice and darker spirits, but thankfully not everything tastes like someone dropped a pumpkin pie into a blender.
From an unapologetically pumpkin-spiced drink downtown to an apple-butter tequila cocktail underground, these are the fall cocktails we’d order in Birmingham right now.
Velvet Apple at The Margaret
2113 1st Ave. N., Downtown Birmingham
If your idea of a fall drink begins with apple cider, start here.
The Velvet Apple keeps things remarkably straightforward with caramel vodka, apple cider and apple. It’s $12, appropriately autumnal and considerably less complicated than some of the cocktails you’ll find elsewhere on this list.
The Margaret has gone all-in on fall, actually. Its current seasonal menu also includes the Hot Girl Gourd with vodka, coffee liqueur, pumpkin spice and whipped cream; the maple-and-coffee Phat New Fashioned; Harvest Smoke with mezcal and a little heat; and the rum-based Autumn Remedy.
So if one fall cocktail turns into research, you have options.
Witch’s Kiss at Pilcrow Cocktail Cellar
2015 1st Ave. N., Downtown Birmingham
Apple butter, but make it tequila.
Pilcrow’s current Witch’s Kiss combines reposado tequila, lemon, Strega, agave and apple butter. It’s exactly the sort of drink we like seeing on a fall menu because the seasonal ingredient is obvious without the entire thing turning into liquid dessert.
And Pilcrow already feels like the right place to drink it.
The bar is tucked beneath Founders Station in an 1881 cellar, with its entrance marked by a red neon pilcrow symbol in the alley between Cayo Coco and La Fête. When the sun starts setting earlier, going underground for tequila and apple butter seems perfectly reasonable.
If apple isn’t your thing, the current Shady Character combines dark rum, absinthe, Cynar, peach, maple and lemon.
Campfire Vibes at Culinary Dropout
241 Summit Blvd., The Summit
This one understood the assignment.
Campfire Vibes starts with 100-proof Kentucky whiskey and adds chai-spiked apple cider, Spanish vanilla and roasted five spice.
That’s fall.
It’s a little richer, a little spicier and better suited to the point in the evening when you’re finally willing to admit you might need a jacket.
Culinary Dropout’s current menu also has a Giddy Up Espresso Martini made with cinnamon-spiced cold brew and an Old Fashioned American Spirit featuring burnt demerara and spiced cacao, so there are a few ways to get into cooler-weather territory without ordering cider.
Hot Girl Gourd at The Margaret
2113 1st Ave. N., Downtown Birmingham
Yes, we’re putting The Margaret on here twice.
Mostly because they named a drink Hot Girl Gourd.
But also because if you’re going to do a pumpkin cocktail, you might as well commit.
Vodka, coffee liqueur, half & half and pumpkin spice get topped with whipped cream and cinnamon. This is the drink for the person who has spent the last several weeks pretending not to care that pumpkin season arrived in August and has finally given up.
We respect the surrender.
Rally Cap at Bygones Cocktail Bar
210 22nd St. S., Birmingham
Not every fall cocktail needs cinnamon.
Bygones is the stop for someone who wants the mood of fall without drinking something that tastes like a candle.
Its recent menu includes Rally Cap, built around Candy Cap mushroom bourbon, roasted chaga Cocchi vermouth, Golden Chanterelle Fernet-Branca, house bitters and lemon oil.
Mushrooms, bourbon and earthy botanicals? We’ll count it.
Bygones has quickly established itself as one of Birmingham’s more inventive cocktail rooms, and its drinks tend to reward the person who is willing to order something they wouldn’t attempt to make at home. Its current program has focused heavily on house ingredients, unusual botanicals and seasonal Alabama produce.
Phat New Fashioned at The Margaret
2113 1st Ave. N., Downtown Birmingham
For the bourbon person who would prefer everyone stop putting pumpkin in things, there’s the Phat New Fashioned.
The current version combines fat-washed bourbon, maple and coffee bitters, with orange and bacon rounding things out.
It’s smoky, rich and much closer to sitting beside a fire than wandering through a pumpkin patch.
We’ll leave it up to you which version of fall sounds better.
Or Let The Collins Bar Make Fall Up for You
2125 2nd Ave. N., Downtown Birmingham
The Collins Bar makes this list without a single named fall cocktail.
That’s because there is no cocktail menu.
You tell the bartender what you like and they build from there. The bar’s current approach specifically lets guests steer drinks toward profiles such as smoky, berry, herbaceous, floral or tropical.
For fall, give them a spirit and a direction. Bourbon and warming spice. Something smoky with mezcal. Apple without being sweet. Dark rum and baking spice.
Then let them do their job.
Sometimes that’s more fun than ordering by name anyway.
Harvest Smoke at The Margaret
2113 1st Ave. N., Downtown Birmingham
For people who like fall but don’t particularly like sweet drinks, Harvest Smoke may be the better move.
Mezcal supplies the smoke, while Grand Marnier, orange, lime and agave bring citrus and sweetness. Then comes sriracha.
It isn’t pumpkin. It isn’t apple cider. It isn’t pretending to be pie.
But smoky, spicy and citrusy feels pretty good once Birmingham finally decides summer is over.
Fall Drinking, Birmingham Style
The nice thing about Birmingham’s fall cocktail season right now is that there isn’t one version of it.
You can absolutely have pumpkin spice and apple cider. You can also have tequila with apple butter, bourbon with mushrooms, mezcal with heat or simply walk into a bar and ask someone to make you something that tastes like October.
Considering actual October weather in Birmingham could mean sweaters or shorts, that feels appropriate.
Menus and seasonal cocktails change, so check with the bar before making a trip specifically for one drink.
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