Best of Boston

McGuirk is a throwback to a time when cocktails were made without a measuring cup, lighting a lady’s cigarette was cool, and bow-tied bartenders had all the answers. Even his deep, warbling voice resonates with black-and-white romanticism; he recently auditioned to do voice-overs for the Cartoon Network. He can make any drink you can think of, from a simple martini to a B-Side standard, the aviation. And if you can’t think of one, he has an eerie ability to mix exactly what you didn’t know you needed (like a suffering bastard). What really sets the defending champ McGuirk apart is that he’s there when you need him—with a refill, with a bit of barkeep philosophy, with a Red Sox update—and he knows when you don’t.