Austin’s Bartenders Share Their Go-To Hangover Drinks

Breakfast Week of course includes brunch, and with that weekend meal comes plenty of drinks. While there are always Bloody Marys to help cure those inevitable lingering hangovers from drinking the night before, there are other drinks out there. Eater asked local bartenders and owners for the cocktails they reach for to get rid of that headache, perfect for brunch. Here are their cocktail hangover cures.

Jennifer Keyser’s Americano
1 oz Campari
1 oz Sweet Vermouth
Topped off with soda water
Garnished with a slice of orange

Jennifer Keyser, Geraldine’s
My favorite hangover cure cocktail is definitely an Americano. It's low proof and an aperitif, so it gives you just enough hair of the dog to make you feel better, but not so much that you get buzzed again. It also has soda water and bubbles make you feel so much better after a long night.

Josh Loving, Small Victory
Painkiller: Orange juice for vitamin C., pineapple for my vitamin C, electrolytes and anti-inflammatory nutrient, coconut cream for more electrolytes and good saturated fats for the brain, Lots of rum for the hair of the dog, and it's like a smoothie.

Chris Bostick, Half Step
Why, a Michelada of course. I prefer mine with no tomato juice, made only with beer, fresh lime, good Mexican hot sauce, Worcestershire sauce, ice, and a salted rim. Can't be shy with the ingredients either. It's nice for a hangover as it doesn't have as much booze as a Bloody Mary. That being said, if by chance you are in need of more booze, a shot of tequila in the Michelada is a perfect way to turn the volume up a little bit. But not too much. Remember, there's a hangover creeping around here.

Justin Lavenue, Roosevelt Room
I'm a fan of taking a full shot of Angostura bitters to the face. It cures an upset stomach (which I always have after a night of long night of drinking, since I most certainly had 3 a.m. pizza, even if I don't remember doing so) and it slaps you awake. That hair of the werewolf will turn you back into a human that morning, so that you howl at the moon again that night.

Jessica Sanders’ Absinthe Frappe
1.5 oz Absinthe
.5 oz simple syrup
8 mint leaves
3 oz soda water, like Topo Chico (the fizzier, the better!
Gently muddle the mint with the simple syrup. Add your absinthe and some crushed ice and give it a swizzle. Top it off with some soda water and a little more crushed ice. If you’re feeling extra fancy, garnish with additional mint.

Jessica Sanders, Drink.Well, forthcoming Backbeat
Recovering from a hangover requires something bright and bracing. I love a classic Absinthe Frappe as a mid-morning pick-me-up. Broadly speaking, this is just a mojito that substitutes the rum for absinthe. It’s strong enough to put a swift kick in your step but refreshing, icy and easy to make when your brain may still be a bit foggy. An approachable absinthe is best here—Tennyson Absinthe or Herbsaint Legendre are mild, affordable and relatively easy to find on most liquor store shelves.

Miguel Lopez, Isla
I love drinking a paloma because grapefruit wakes up the senses, the fresh lime kickstarts the stomach, and the tequila ensures your day will get better. I also like what I like to call the San Antonite—Jamaican rum to kickstart the mental faculties, fresh lime for digestion, jalapeño honey for the sinuses, and bitters because it’s what the doctor ordered.

Rob Pate, Péché and Isla
The Corpse Reviver #2. It’s an old school drink that’s delicious and potent.

Jason Stevens, La Corsha Hospitality Group
We do a off-menu hangover cocktail at Second Bar called the Seaward. It’s a little bit of high flavor gin with Aperol, raspberry Emergen-C, grapefruit, lime, and Peychaud’s bitters. It’s really quite delicious.

Jason Stevens’ Seaward
.5 oz High flavor gin (such as St. George Terroir, Hendricks works here, too)
1 oz Aperol
1.5 oz grapefruit juice .25 oz lime
1 easy dash Peychaud’s
1 packet of Raspberry Emergen-C
Build all ingredients in a collins glass, then stir to combine. Make sure the Emergen-C has fully dissolved into the other liquids. Fill Collins glass with a ton of crushed ice, pack it in tight. If you can handle being upright for a few more seconds, garnish with a grapefruit peel.

Justin Elliott, The Townsend
I'm a huge fan of the Corpse Reviver #2 (so named for its place in a series of other "corpse revivers," all purported to have restorative powers, though looking at the other surviving cocktails in that broadly-defined family, I don't think most of them would make for particularly satisfying hangover drinking). The Corpse Reviver #2 is equal parts gin, lemon juice, Cointreau, and Kina Lillet (though I advise you to use Cocchi Americano in lieu of the much milder modern version of Lillet, which lacks the bracing quinine bitterness of the historical Kina Lillet) and a dash or two of absinthe (I'm partial to Tenneyson here). Shake it hard, drink it fast. It's refreshing and light and cheerful, but still capable of cutting the fog pretty quickly. I've also been known to nurse myself back to strength with a pint of Guinness on more than one occasion. For particularly persistent hangovers you may consider sneaking a little mild Irish whiskey into that pint, too.

And of course, black coffee and a shot of Fernet Branca.