"“We wanted to create something fun and sexy, a place for people to feel good and feel good about themselves,” Omar Ferrer says of El Malo. And it appears he and his partners have done just that with their new sexy-as-hell cocktail bar, where design, drinks, food, and music converge at Atlanta Dairies. You enter El Malo via a narrow hallway lit in red neon and into a space devoid of windows, yet filled with verdant greens and royal reds and purples, disco balls, and bold patterns. DJs spin everything from disco and funk to 1990s house music and old salsa and Latin tunes. Cocktails lean into agave spirits and rum in imaginative takes on classic drinks, milk punches, and clarified cocktails. The Take a Bow mixes Dominican rum with Crème de Banane, pineapple amaro, and clarified lime juice, while the martini at El Malo is given a Caribbean twist with gin, rum, guanabana and Dimmi liqueurs, and cardamom bitters. Pair cocktails with rock shrimp ceviche, oysters, and ropa vieja served with plantain chips. Make sure to wear your dance shoes, too. Reservations highly encouraged." - Molly Harris, Eater Staff
