The Narrows Bar.

Juneau is a strange and wonderful place. It's a state capital you can't even drive to. Seriously. Your options are boat, plane, or presumably some death-defying trek through the mountains. And then there are the bears. Actual black bears just casually wandering down the street. I encountered one while walking to get a drink. As a city boy, I found this equal parts terrifying and incredibly cool.

But perhaps the biggest surprise of my time in Juneau wasn't the wildlife or the isolation. It was discovering The Narrows Bar.

I wasn't expecting to find a cocktail bar of this caliber tucked away in a relatively small Alaskan town. But The Narrows isn't just a good bar for Juneau. It's a genuinely excellent cocktail bar, period.

There's a difference between a place where you can get a drink and a place where you can get a cocktail. Juneau has plenty of the former. The Narrows is where you go for the latter.

The back bar alone tells you these folks take their craft seriously. An impressive selection of aperitifs, an extensive whiskey collection—including some beautiful Japanese expressions—and bartenders who aren't afraid to break out the egg whites and make a proper sour. These are people who understand that a great cocktail is about more than just combining ingredients.

And then there's the Falkor.

Created by bartender Mattison Smith, this was easily one of the most memorable cocktails I discovered on my trip. Built around Pimm's, of all things, and finished with a gorgeous, silky egg-white foam, it's a cocktail unlike anything I'd tasted before. Almost dessert-like in its richness, yet somehow light, refreshing, and endlessly sippable.

It tastes like a beautiful fall day in Juneau—warm sunshine on your skin, a little sweetness in the air, and that cool Pacific breeze reminding you exactly where you are.

I was so taken with it that Mattison graciously gave me permission to share her recipe here on the blog. And I'm glad she did. It's one of those drinks that deserves a much wider audience.

I ended up visiting The Narrows three nights in a row. Once I discovered it, there really wasn't much question about where my evenings would begin. I'd stop in for a proper cocktail before heading out to explore whatever else Juneau had to offer.

What makes The Narrows special isn't simply that it's leagues above the other cocktail options I encountered in town. It's that it would hold its own in just about any major city's cocktail scene.

And there's something particularly wonderful about finding that level of craft in a place where the mountains meet the ocean, the wilderness is literally walking down the street, and the only way home is by boat or plane.

If you find yourself in Juneau, go to The Narrows. Order something adventurous. Trust the bartenders. And if the Falkor is on the menu, don't miss it.

Just watch out for the bears on your way there.