Perhaps it’s because this particular bar reviewer isn’t getting any younger, but we sure appreciated this year’s national trend toward lower-proof spirits, session beers, and health-conscious cocktail ingredients. While the stresses of 2018 did still inspire us to throw a few back, it was nice that our mornings after weren’t quite as harsh.

Baltimore also saw the rise of natural wines and welcomed the opening of some outside-of-the-box bars and breweries this year. In no particular order, here were 10 of our favorite ways to imbibe in 2018.

Aperol Spritz at Little Bird Coffee Bar
We dare you to find anything more refreshing than sipping an Aperol Spritz on the terrace of the newly opened Little Bird Coffee Bar in Hampden. From the owners of the cocktail gurus at Bluebird just upstairs, this cafe is quaint and charming in all the right places. Our absolute favorite part is the menu of spritzes (a welcome trend at other bars and restaurants), which come in Aperol, Campari, Cynar, and Elderflower varieties—simply a balanced ratio of each base spirit mixed with crisp Primaterra Prosecco, club soda, and an orange twist. Ah, total relaxation.

Epoch Rye by Baltimore Spirits Company
Okay, granted, this does not qualify as a low-proof spirit, but we had to give a shout to Baltimore Spirits Company for finally releasing its whiskey (and a few other distillations to follow) after it had been aging in American oak barrels since 2015. As with many whiskies, it turns out it was worth the wait since Epoch has a perfect balance of spicy rye notes like clove, cinnamon, and tropical fruit with the sweeter flavors of vanilla and honey imparted from the barrels. This was made all the better inside the distillery’s new tasting room at Union Collective, which opened its doors in September.

Gose O’s by DuClaw Brewing
This past year, thanks to the addition of brewing legend Ernie Igot (formerly of Peabody Heights), DuClaw Brewing in Rosedale has been putting out some of its tastiest beers since it was founded in 1996. (Be sure to check out the “Sour Me” series in peach, mojito, and dry-hopped versions or its recent barrel-aged Retribution releases.) But the latest iteration of Gose O’s—released in time for Orioles season—had even crisper notes of cantaloupe and sea salt, making it the perfect accompaniment to a summer game, no matter the score.

Midori Highball from Regal Beagle
One of our favorite new bar additions of the year, Regal Beagle opened its doors in Canton at the beginning of May and we soon wondered how we lived for so long without its vintage, tiki vibes. Inspired by the Three’s Company era, the bar has a distinct late ’70s/early ’80s feel and the fun and colorful cocktails reflect that. One of our initial favorites was the Midori Highball with with Nikka Japanese gin, Green Chartreuse, yuzu juice, fresh honeydew, and salt. We love a good liquid time machine.

Duck Season Old Fashioned at Wit & Wisdom
It is with a bittersweet palate that we recognize how Wit & Wisdom has revolutionized the Baltimore cocktail scene since it opened in the Four Seasons hotel in 2011. Though the bar will pour its last drink on December 31, Wit is going out with a bang as newly hired Gina Netisingha brought the program to an entirely new level this year. Take the Duck Season Old Fashioned in which Four Roses Yellow Label Bourbon was carefully infused with duck fat and rosemary to give it an incredibly silky texture and finished off with simple additions of sugar and bitters. Classic, just how we’ll remember the place itself.

Hello by Wet City
This Mt. Vernon bar has been a go-to place to try experimental beer styles since it opened a couple years back. But this year, finally, we were able to see what the Sullivan brothers could do with their own, newly built brewery system. Wet City’s first release, aptly dubbed Hello, was a perfect example of how a popular New England-style IPA should be: tropical pineapple on the nose, thick in body from flaked oats and barley, and super piney and citrusy tasting notes. We were sure glad to be introduced to this one.

Autumn Cider by Old Line Spirits
This was also the year that Baltimore welcomed its first bar inside a distillery, as Old Line Spirits opened The Ready Room at its Highlandtown facility. The bar menu was clever and made use of Old Line’s single-malt scotch and aged Caribbean rum, but we were particularly excited about this autumn cider by bar director Steve Lamb. A combination of the American Single Malt Whiskey, apple cider, chai tea, cinnamon, star anise, clove, and lemon, the cocktail was cozy and felt like our official drink of fall.

Chrysalis by Monument City Brewing
While Monument City is known more for its classic beer styles like rye IPA and brown ale, the brewers went a bit outside the box with the purple-hued Chrysalis. Brewed in collaboration with veteran organic food producer Hex Ferments, they used the company’s butterfly-lime kombucha to create the 3.5 percent (!) gose. The butterfly pea flower gave the beer its unique color and tart, refreshing flavor. We love how this brew got us to think about beer in a whole new way.

Pétillant-Natural Piquette by Old Westminster Winery
In 2018, we learned all about the versatility and funky flavors of natural wine, thanks to the opening of Fadensonnen, a wine bar and beer garden in Old Goucher. One of the best (and local!) varieties we tried at the bar was the Pétillant-Natural Piquette by Old Westminster Winery, which is spritzy, lower in alcohol, and a natural byproduct of the sustainable winemaking program out in Western Maryland. And, damn, if it isn’t juicy, refreshing, and beautiful in color. You’ll surely want more than one glass.

Keeper Stout (Nitro) by Checkerspot Brewing
The long-awaited Checkerspot Brewing Company debuted in South Baltimore this year and we were stoked to try their home-brew recipes on a larger scale. Known for its genre-defying styles and unique, local ingredients, Checkerspot kept us on our toes with every new release. Most recently, the Keeper Stout on nitro, a beer that’s fortified with crab shells from J.M. Clayton Seafood Company in Cambridge, has been the most satisfying winter pour.

PressBox’s second annual Best Of Baltimore Sports highlights the Sportspersons of the Year and more than 60 honorees celebrating the top sports people, performances and moments of 2018.

Who made the cut as the best upset, newcomer, surprise and more? Find out at PressBoxOnline.com/BestOf

This was the year that I ate my way around the world—without having to leave Baltimore where global cuisine continues to soar in this city. From France to Japan to Peru to Spain to England to India (and America, too!), these are my picks for best bites of 2018.

Pan con Tomate at La Cuchara
Think of this dish as a Basque Country take on pizza—grilled bread brushed with high-quality Spanish olive oil and topped with crushed tomatoes and garlic and a sprinkle of flaky fleur de sel. You can pick from a variety of mouth-watering toppings like boquerones (white anchovies) or Spanish olives. I like mine topped with near-transparent sheets of hand-carved, melt-in-your-mouth Ibérico ham.

Robata Prawns at Azumi
There’s nothing quite like the robata prawns at this Harbor East sushi emporium. Earlier this year, the staff took a trip to the Land of the Rising Sun and brought back new ideas to refresh the already excellent menu swimming with some of the highest quality seafood in the city. The Robata prawns—think Japanese barbecue cooked over hot charcoal—are one example. The shellfish, sourced from the waters of the Pacific, is sweet and spicy, and nearly lobster-like in size. When the meat was gone, I shamelessly sucked on the shells.

Grilled Cheese Spiked at Artifact Coffee
It may seem strange to single out an item that graces every children’s menu in America, but if that’s what you’re thinking, then you’ve never tried the grilled cheese at Artifact. The sharp cheddar cheese oozes into every nook and cranny of the buttery house-made potato bread, but what really makes it is the fact that the sandwich comes “spiked” (a no-so-subtle reference to co-owner and James Beard Award-winning chef Spike Gjerde) with onions and house-made pickles. Kids will like it, but it’s also a grilled cheese that any adult would love. I’m among them.

Ceviche at Puerto 511
Having spent eight days eating ceviche night and day (and day and night) in Peru last August, I feel like I’m practically a certified ceviche specialist. The charming Puerto 511, run by Peruvian-born chef Jose Victorio Alarcon and his wife, features three types of ceviche—and you can’t go wrong with any of them, though I favor the one listed on the menu as “Clasico,” which is advertised as: Best ceviche in Balitmore ever.” Anywhere else, that might sound like hyperbole, but here it’s the total truth. This ceviche has all the hallmarks of authenticity: kernels of oversized Andean corn, hunks of glazed sweet potato, and leche de tigre (tiger’s milk), the citrus-based marinade used to cure the seafood, and, of course, piles of fabulous fish.

Chicken for Two at Chez Hugo
The Italians have their pasta, the Greeks have their lamb, and the French have their chicken. Steve Monnier’s take, the poulet roti au foin pour deux—or the whole roasted chicken for two—entails a painstaking six-day process. The process begins with marinating the meat for many hours, slow-roasting the bird on a bed of hay, and cooking different cuts in the oven to make sure that every part of the bird is prepared just so. The result: A bird that’s juicy on the inside, crispy on the outside, and perfect from breast to thigh. As they say, Rome—or Paris, in this case—wasn’t built in a day.

Beef Wellington at Gordon Ramsay Steak
The Michelin-starred celebrity chef brings his signature dish to Gordon Ramsay Steak inside the Horseshoe Casino. Believe the hype—the chateaubriand is slathered with Dijon mustard and stuffed with duxelles and chestnut mushrooms, then wrapped in a blanket of transcendent puff pastry that could just as well be considered dessert for dinner.

Goa fish at Ananda
Pretty much anything you point to on the menu at this romantic Fulton restaurant is a winning dish, but the whole pan-fried fish off the coast of the Subcontinent is coated in roasted garlic, tamarind, and scallions. It bursts with flavor and spice.

Macarons from Sacré Sucré
There’s no such thing as a bad cookie, but the exquisite gems at this new Fells Point bakery rival anything I’ve eaten in Paris. Unlike most macarons, which are made with buttercream or artificial flavoring, these treasures are packed with fresh fruit. Try the fig or the raspberry and count it as your fruit serving for the day.

Fried Chicken at Rye Street Tavern
If I’m going to commit to fried chicken, it had better be great. This dish, served with a pickle spear and a biscuit, lives it up to the hype. To perfect his recipe, chef Andrew Carmellini traveled to the country’s best chicken shacks and came up with this version. Consider spicing it up by ordering the chicken fried with Old Bay.

Salmon at Neopol Savory Smokery
This Belvedere Market purveyor features fish that is smoking delicious. Neopol highlights house-smoked Scottish salmon with a variety of wet and dry rubs, from candied ginger and dried cranberry to cracked peppercorn and green tea. I’ve tried them all. My favorite is the Herbs de Provence spice rub that adds a note of savoriness to the sweetness of the salmon.

We traveled to Appalachia to sit inside the last honky-tonk bar in Winchester, Virginia, and took a ride back in time to learn about Maryland’s rich history in music. We were mesmerized by the timeless mystique of mermaids and disheartened by the dire state of the Chesapeake Bay. We got perspective into our city’s history, through stories of the 1968 riots after Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated, the Baltimore Uprising of 2015, and the aftermath of both.

And we did this all through books that were penned by Baltimore authors.

We pored over poetry, novels, art books, children’s books, collected essays, memoirs, and handbooks, all of which provided insight into understanding our world and ourselves. Here are our top picks for the must-read books of the 2018. (Spoiler alert: in the case of Michael Northrup’s book, it’s a must-see.)

I Wrote This Book Because I Love You
Tim Kreider (Simon & Schuster)

It’s no surprise that when he’s not writing for The New York Times, Tim Kreider is also a cartoonist (many in Baltimore may know him for his dark-humor comic strip “The Pain—When Will It End?,” which ran for 12 years in City Paper). The Baltimore native’s second collection of essays is chock full of laugh-out-loud moments, mostly at his own expense, as he puts his love life on display with stark honesty. Like the time he briefly dated a prostitute (er, fetish model), or when he followed a girl to the circus and posed as her husband, or when he tracked down the psychologist who tested him as a child for the renowned Strange Situation study that’s used to predict attachment issues into adulthood. All the while, he’s discovered a thing or two. Kreider isn’t solely a humorist—he’s also part philosopher, part psychologist, part poet. Paired with his depth of insight into the human condition and startlingly sharp observations, this intimate collection is as hilarious as it is poignant, as it explores what it means to love and be loved—even if it’s love shared with your 19-year-old cat.

Hummingbirds in the Trenches
Kondwani Fidel (self-published)

Kondwani Fidel’s raw, brutal, and unabashedly honest account of growing up in Baltimore and losing family and friends to murder, drugs, and gang violence is painful to read but also refreshing, uncompromising in its integrity to tell the truth as he sees it. There’s a sensitivity and a fire to the voice of this 25 year old, who has already traveled the country and world to give lectures and readings. His new collection of memoir-esque essays, one-liners, conversation excerpts, and rhythmic poetry—referred to as “The Tracklist” in the table of contents—encompasses the writer’s ruminations and research. Here, he reflects on the repercussions of slavery and systemic racism in America: the toxic lead paint study on black youth; kids suffering in public schools without air conditioning or heat; and general poverty, depression (including his own), suicide, drugs, and blood on the streets of East Baltimore. If you’re not aware of what growing up in a rough neighborhood is like—what it’s like to be a hummingbird in the trenches—this book will pry your eyes wide open.

Clock Dance
Anne Tyler (Knoff)

In Anne Tyler’s latest novel, the Pulitzer Prize-winning Baltimore author explores the passage of time and how pivotal moments come to define us. In blocks of narrative that skip ahead 10 to 20 years at a time, she tells the story of a rather ordinary character, Willa Drake, whom we meet as a daughter, wife, and mother of adult children who longs to be a grandmother. We see her through love and loss, from childhood into retirement—and we watch as she evolves (albeit slowly). It’s Tyler’s graceful prose and solid narrative, peppered with her subtle sense of humor, that makes this book a joy to read. Whether it’s Willa’s straight-and-narrow, slightly miserable second husband; her sardonic little sister; or the badass, motorcycle-riding neighbor in leather pants, these characters come to life off the page, another one of Tyler’s gifts.

Dream Away
Michael E. Northrup (Stanley/Barker)

In this limited-edition art book, Baltimore’s Michael E. Northrup presents a series of 66 photographs of his now ex-wife that revolve around femininity, revealing the girl in the woman and the woman in the girl. These portraits also serve as a love story and an intimate look into the photographer’s own life. “As for the subject matter, we met in 1976, married in 1978, and divorced 1988,” Northrup says succinctly. We see her life—and body—change as she goes from lover to mother, from casually smoking cigarettes and skinny dipping to donning a bare-bummed baby over her shoulder and modeling breast pumps. Black-and-white images are juxtaposed with color, giving a sense of reflection on past times. With Northrup’s imaginative experiments with shadow, strategically placed objects, and curated poses, the moments-in-time feel of a family album is elevated to fine art.

Liza Jane & the Dragon
Laura Lippman (Black Sheep/Akashic Books)

The New York Times best-selling author Laura Lippman’s foray into the arena of children’s literature is delightful and yet manages to maintain the author’s quirky sense of humor. In this tale, a little girl named Liza Jane fires her parents and hires a dragon to take their place . . . until she realizes the dragon has only one tactic for solving problems: breathing fire. Late to school? Set the secretary’s desk on fire. Pizza delivery man got delayed? A fiery blast to his car. The picture book is illustrated by Maryland painter Kate Samworth, who brings the characters to life and gives us visual clues for reading this story in a broader context. While this story is a fun romp through what might be the occasional daydream of many children, it also serves as a political allegory. The dragon has a familiar blond mane that swoops between his two horns.

Before and After Loss: A Neurologist’s Perspective on Loss, Grief and Our Brain
Lisa M. Shulman, MD (Johns Hopkins University Press)

This poetic and insightful, if heartbreaking, memoir from neurologist Lisa M. Schulman stems from her own bereavement of her late husband, Bill Weiner, former chair of neurology at the University of Maryland, as she chronicles his diagnosis and eventual succumbing to cancer. His journal entries, her recorded dreams, and photos of meals they shared add a personal touch to the book that illustrates their love for one another, while interspersed quotes from philosophers, mystics, poets, and psychotherapists offer wisdom on death, dying, and grieving. Combined with the latest scientific studies in traumatic brain injury and holistic approaches to healing, Schulman has created a unique book that touches on all aspects of the process of grieving—the psychological, physiological, and overlap between neurology and psychiatry. Ultimately, Shulman points out that whether brain injury is caused by physical or emotional trauma, it results in similar long-term effects—and also that post-traumatic stress can become post-traumatic growth, with the right tools. In short, it could prove to be an invaluable aid to counselors, psychotherapists, and medical doctors, as well as anyone moving through grief toward wholeness.

A Memory of the Future
Elizabeth Spires (W.W. Norton & Company)

In this new poetry collection, Spires seems to channel Rumi or Buddha or both. The poems feel like prayers, and in some cases koans—each unique but all with a timeless, spiritual quality. To say they’re Zen-like would be both literal and figurative; references to Zen Buddhism are strewn throughout Spires’ work, and her verses unfold like meditations. The Goucher College professor of English possesses the rare gift to present lovely, solemn passages with a light touch and deft use of metaphor while simultaneously feeding her readers profound and heady truths. These little nuggets of wisdom come like offerings placed on an altar, quietly, with grace and intention.

Homeplace
John Lingan (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)

Homeplace is an honest, bittersweet, and at times humorous look at small-town America through the lens of Winchester, Virginia, in the Shenandoah Valley. Lingan, who grew up in Catonsville and has written for Oxford American and New York Times Magazine, examines Patsy Cline’s hometown and its longtime resident Jim McCoy, the honky-tonk owner who discovered her (and who continued to smoke, drink, and make music well into his 80s). What we ultimately see is a town in the midst of an identity crisis—from a slow-paced, Southern area known for its apple production to a burgeoning suburb of new establishments that have attracted an influx of urbanites from Washington, D.C., and Northern Virginia. But the book also feels like a travelogue at times—clearly the observations of an out-of-towner with a voice of his own. His four years of researching and writing it is evident, as he reveals the town’s (and neighboring towns’) quirks while bringing into focus a broader, nostalgic story of a vanishing way of life, as factory farms, opioids, big-box stores, and even music streaming services swallow up what once was.

The Chesapeake in Focus: Transforming the Natural World
Tom Pelton (Johns Hopkins University Press)

Pelton, one the country’s leading environmental journalists, offers us a wealth of knowledge about the Chesapeake Bay, collected from his more than two decades of reporting on this ecological, cultural, and historical treasure (you may also know him from his show Environment in Focus on WYPR). His book is part history of the bay’s watershed region, part political history of its preservation, and, to a lesser extent, part personal history, as Pelton draws gorgeous imagery of scenes he’s experienced as an avid kayaker on the bay’s waters and tributaries. In total, he paints a compelling portrait of what it is he wants to preserve. Divided into four sections (The Waters, The People, The Wildlife, and The Policies), the book covers a lot of ground, from Baltimore’s sewage issues to the over-harvesting of wild oysters. The highlight, perhaps, comes toward the end, when Pelton proposes 10 realistic steps for bay restoration. We should listen to him.