Many bars on this list attempt to channel a sense of cocktail history, but few have actually lived it. Bryant’s has. A bar since the ’30s (and largely unchanged since a 1971 fire nearly took it completely out of commission, necessitating a rebuild), Bryant’s lack of a menu for its arsenal of 450-plus cocktails doesn’t feel like an inconvenience. It’s suggestion that you let the bartenders help you find something you like doesn’t feel like hipster preciousness. It just feels right. Of course, if you just want to skip the thinking, drink like a proper Wisconsinite, and down a perfect brandy Old Fashioned (somehow just five bucks during cocktail hour every day except Friday and Saturday), that’s a perfectly defensible way to proceed.