Second Best opens in Midtown Detroit, with house Zima and cocktails.

Sometimes, you want a swanky night out and sometimes, Second Best is exactly what you’re looking for.

Now open in Midtown Detroit, Second Best is a low-key neighborhood watering hole and the sister to Grey Ghost, located right across the street. Despite its cheeky name, Second Best is far from unimpressive, offering a selection of classic cocktails, local and national beers, batch cocktails served from a soda gun and a selection of shots reminiscent of a time when Kamikazes and Jager Bombs were all the rage.

“We’ve had a lot of fun building this drink list, with playful iterations of some of our favorite old-school drinks,” says Beverage Director Will Lee. “This is also my first foray into recreating such recognizable cocktail ingredients; look for the likes of a house Zima, smoked strawberry daiquiri and a few others gracing the menu.”

Paloma at Second Best (images: Michelle and Chris Gerard)

The Smokey Strawberry Daiquiri (featured image) is made with white rum, housemade strawberry chipotle syrup and lime with a strawberry sugar lime dust rim, while the Paloma mixes blanco tequila, grapefruit sherbet, lime, simple syrup, soda water, Collins mix and fresh grapefruit. My First Old Fashioned is a classic preparation of the cocktail, with bourbon whiskey, Luxardo orange syrup, orange bitters and Angostura bitters, garnished with an orange slice and Luxardo cherry.

Hungry? There’s food, too. The selection of elevated bar snacks includes a changing selection of pizza puffs, steak tartare and a ramen noodle salad, as well as a fried chicken sandwich.