It’s an astonishing and wondrous time to be a drinker in Boston. In a town where it was once hard to find a properly made Negroni, never mind a nip of Fernet-Branca, tipplers can now patronize establishments large and small that sling serious drinks, where bartenders channel the spirit of the pre-Prohibition halcyon era of cocktails and the 1930s advent of high-craft Tiki drinks. Better yet, there’s a culture of innovation at work, a community of artisans feeding off each other to exploit our century’s unprecedented global array of intriguing spirits, fortified and aromatized wines, bitters, syrups and shrubs, plus a botanical garden’s worth of fresh fruits, herbs and spices. Every new indie restaurant seems to open with a serious bar program; bartenders increasingly rely on their kitchens for novel culinary elements to dazzle jaded palates. Stifle that Fireball or dirty vodka martini order for a moment, and consider the offerings of this array of bartending talents both grizzled and fresh-faced. And thank your lucky stars you arrived on time for Boston’s new Golden Age of Cocktails.

Click Below to see all twelve bartenders.

Like the Japanese after-work taverns that inspired it, this raucous new spot in the Verb Hotel near Fenway Park prizes good drinking as much as good eating. The kitchen turns out marvelous sushi and sashimi, charcoal-grilled skewers, ramen and more; the cocktail list alternates goofy party drinks (frozen White Russian, anyone?) with serious craft concoctions. Working the latter idiom, Mr. Swisher deftly underscores a hoary classic with a surprising culinary element to subtle, dreamy effect.

Trina’s keeps killing it on the Camberville line near Inman by serving homey fare (think glorified hot dogs and chicken ’n’ waffles) at really nice prices with zero pretension. You’re doing something right if throngs of restaurant workers use a precious off-day to patronize your Monday brunch. No surprise, then, that the cocktails, like Ms. Soares’ clever Tiki-inspired drink, are also a magnet for your favorite servers, bartenders and cooks. Trust the pros on this one.

Wood smoke and umami permeate many dishes at chef Michael Scelfo’s acclaimed Harvard Square restaurant, and his kitchen contributes useful ingredients to the bar’s superb craft cocktail program. The scholarly Mr. Pontius harnesses both accents in this drink, deftly moderating the challenging funkiness of rhum agricole with a smooth unaged cachaça and some oddball components—what, you don’t know Suze, either?—to create a witty original.

East Cambridge was recently blessed with an outpost of Allston’s Lone Star Taco Bar, which has brought its fine take on casual Mexican and border food and great beer list to a rollicking, tight (bordering on cramped), affordable package. Better yet, it dragged along the craft cocktail sublimity of Lone Star’s sister restaurant Deep Ellum, as evidenced by Ms. Travers’ complex, aged-tequila-based riff on an herbally amplified Manhattan.

Perched between Porter and Harvard Squares, newcomer Shepard leverages the work of long-venerated culinary talents Susan Regis and René Becker to deliver a sensational, ultra-seasonally focused New American menu with refined French technique. At the bar, Mr. Mansur echoes their devotion to great ingredients and clear flavors with this muscular, deceptively simple, well-balanced cocktail. Notorious Hollywood hell-raiser Sam Peckinpah would doubtless have approved.

The meteoric career of self-taught wunderkind Ran Duan continues upward at the Baldwin Bar in Woburn’s Sichuan Garden II, whose upstairs room recalls a genteel British officers’ club in mid-century Burma. When you’re busy collecting international awards for your wildly creative cocktails, it’s smart to hire highly skilled lieutenants like Mr. Isaza, who shares Duan’s penchant for channeling the ghost of ur-Tiki master Donn Beach. Share an Uber with friends and get there now.

Chef Daniel Bojorquez’s East Somerville restaurant brings a novel sophistication (and plenty of terrific wood-fueled grilling, roasting and smoking) to a neighborhood that previously lacked modern, upscale cookery. The bar here nicely meets the demands of its diverse, arty crowd with a geeky beer list, carefully curated wines and a thoughtful cocktail program. Here, Mr. Hoover offers an original that the waitstaff describes as a “sort of fall margarita,” to his nodding approval.

We’ve long touted Moody’s Delicatessen & Provisions in Waltham as Greater Boston’s only destination deli. Then it added the Backroom, a full-service restaurant that makes great use of a gorgeous wood-fired oven in addition to the swoony cured, smoked and pickled fare produced on-site. Gilding the lily is a comfy bar that slings precisely made, fabulous drinks, several of which revel in the kitchen’s winning way with wood smoke, as in the gifted Ms. Borras’ rye-and-sherry creation.

Rising from the ashes of legendary old-money institution Locke-Ober, Yvonne’s blends cheeky nightclub glamour with envious nostalgia for a vanishing Boston Brahmin refinement. The extravagantly accomplished Mr. Sullivan works the more sedate of the two rooms—library-themed, equipped with old L-O fixtures and a fireplace—and pours a potion that embodies Yvonne’s white-hot fusion of elegantly antique and fiercely of-the-moment. Lines are already out the door; better book your table for next month today.

Chef/owner Matt Jennings’ blazing-hot restaurant at the edge of the Financial District, with its extraordinary menu centered on charcuterie and raw bar, happily debuted last winter with real craft cocktails. Ms. Benson’s technique and hospitality have helped make its sizzling bar and lounge an after-work and late-night destination in its own right, as has her creativity, on display in this potent, very modern take on a Champagne cocktail.

Sarma won Restaurant of the Year in The Improper’s Boston’s Best issue this summer for a few reasons, starting with chef Cassie Piuma’s vivid, Turkish-centric, Mediterranean-spanning menu of small plates and a lively, casual vibe that suits its Somerville neighborhood perfectly. But we also love its terrific bar program, exemplified by Ms. Neuman’s smoky, bracing original that garners a fascinating floral bitterness via a unique syrup from the kitchen’s eclectic larder.

The courtly, genteel Mr. Mehta has tallied at least two remarkable achievements at the South End’s lovely, traditional Spanish taberna Estragon. One, he was a groundbreaking pioneer of the currently voguish sherry-based cocktail, exemplified here. Two, he assembled a brilliant, refined cocktail program within the straitjacket of a beer/wine/cordial license. We can’t wait to see what he does with Estragon’s recent upgrade to a full liquor license.