Flip Cocktails In Chicago, New Orleans, D.C., And L.A

In recent decades, whole eggs have been seriously marginalized behind the bar, appearing once a year in December in the form of eggnog.

But the flip–a classic, pre-Prohibition cocktail shaken with a raw, whole egg–has made a resounding comeback, and the reunion between yolk and alcohol couldn't be sweeter.

Plus, a flip's creamy body is well suited to cold-weather drinking. At Chicago's The Violet Hour, an egg smoothes the bitterness and plays up the caramel notes of rum, Bonal (a French wine-based aperitif) and Amaro Nardini in the Notorious F.L.I.P.

Egg meets citrus, bourbon and sweet vermouth for a lively effect in the L.A. cocktail at Big Bar in Los Angeles.

And we've heard rhapsodic accounts of an egg's ability to make the simplest mixture satisfying. Case in point: the Cynar flip (Cynar and an egg) at Drink in Boston and an equally elementary flip assembled from Amaro Nadini, simple syrup and an egg at New Orleans's Cure.

At D.C.'s The Columbia Room, bartender Katie Nelson calls The Chocolate Flip "a very decadent, grown-up chocolate milk." The combination of brandy, cream, an egg and fruity, lightly sweet sloe gin produce a marked chocolate flavor (click here to download the recipe)–which we'll swap for a chocolate bar any day.