This Camarillo restaurant is made for celebrations, be they birthdays, anniversaries, or promotions. A menu of steak, sushi, and craft cocktails, with each item artfully plated or presented (one drink comes in a small chest), makes even an everyday dinner here feel like an event. Also an event is the Land of Gold cocktail, made from Westward Whiskey, vermouth, brandy, and yellow Chartreuse, a balanced drink that is still composed like a summer blockbuster — when all else fails, add more.

Copper Mine is a sports bar, with enough televisions to show every game on football Sundays. It’s a brunch spot, with a Bloody Mary bar. And it’s a lounge, with a dark interior and DJs spinning on the weekends. A jack-of-all-bars deserves a jack-of-all-drinks, like the Midnight in Manhattan, which elevates the classic with housemade bitters to go alongside Westward Whiskey Original and sweet vermouth. It works coupled with pizza, ribeye steak tips, or just dancing the night away.

The giant whiskey barrel-shaped building in North Hollywood (one of L.A.’s great remaining examples of novelty architecture) has drawn in people driving by since its construction in 1941. It was brought back to life in 2015, just like the Desert Vibes cocktail brings back the Sazerac with only the smallest, but most vital of tweaks: replacing the sugar cube with a blood orange syrup adds a sunset-like hue and an extra hint of citrus. NoHo may not be the desert, but the back patio on a hot, late summer day can certainly recreate some of the vibes.

Retro without the kitsch, this Studio City restaurant feels like a midcentury-modern Palm Springs home. The Westbound & Down cocktail has a similar sense of place, thanks to the desert-friendly mix of Westward Whiskey, prickly pear, and Palo Santo, along with citrus notes from lime and dry curacao. Grab a seat under the patio’s hanging lights, ignore Ventura Boulevard’s traffic, and start looking out for tumbleweeds.

This Universal City lounge earns its name through its cocktail program, where drinks never overwhelm spirits with long lists of mixers and other ingredients. There’s little simple about the taste of the American Donkey, though, thanks to both the Westward Whiskey and the ginger-and-peppercorn syrup, which adds a heatless kick to this whiskey sour spin. Get here earlier in the evening for a more laid-back atmosphere or arrive later for the reverie.

This West Hollywood standby has been a neighborhood favorite for decades for fans of old-school, red-sauce Italian food — but not every drink here is a traditional spritz. The Westward Watermelon is not only an easy sipper, but also a perfect transition from summer (as represented by the titular melon) and fall (thanks to the drink’s use of yuzu, which is in season in the fall and winter). The addition of arugula and black pepper gives the cocktail an Italian feel and finish.

This city-within-the-city isn’t known for its late nights, but this whiskey emporium and lounge can help you prepare for one with its Espresso Martini. Westward Whiskey, coffee liqueur, sugar, and espresso will keep you up well past when the mansions turn off their lights. Pair it with the leg of lamb or another main entrée: the lounge is the sibling of Saddle Peak Lounge in Malibu Canyon, so the kitchen is certainly dinner worthy. 

DTLA’s favorite for yakitori and other Japanese dishes brings a pan-Asian approach to the Joshua Tree collaboration. The Son of a Peach takes Westward Whiskey and adds white peaches and Thai basil-infused honey to add sweetness and spice simultaneously. The smoking basil leaf garnish adds not only a fun visual effect but also an herbal aroma, which plays nicely with the grilled meat marinades and flavors.

Like its sister joint in the West Valley, the Nickel is most things to most drinkers, including a pizza joint, a brunch spot, a place to dance, and a place to watch the game. Its dark brick-and-wood interior feels refined, even when local post-grads are screaming at the televisions on college football Saturdays, making the Midnight in Manhattan an appropriate choice: polished, but with a whiskey kick.

Joshua Tree’s titular tree may be its most iconic sight, but there’s certainly more growing in the desert. Along with Westward Whiskey, grenadine, bitters, and lemon juice, the Yucca Palm Trees cocktail at this Long Beach bar makes use of a prickly pear passionfruit syrup, which adds an extra tanginess, along with a drinkable connection to the Yucca Valley (the prickly pear cactus is native to the Southwest).

This bar falls somewhere between classic Long Beach and 1980s Miami (the televised version, at least), and its Desert Rose cocktail represents a similar meshing of cultures. The drink incorporates Westward Whiskey Original, lemon juice, prickly pear, and bitters, then adds a Tiki-forward twist with two of the style’s favorite mixers in orgeat and falernum — making it of the desert and the tropics.

This Santa Ana favorite may have opened outposts in Los Angeles and the Inland Empire, but the original’s rooftop deck still draws crowds for its diverse beer selection. It’s more than a brewpub though, as shown by drinks such as the What’s the Name, a mashup of Westward Whiskey, a gin infused with botanicals from the Pacific Coast, prickly pear syrup, and lemon juice.

After departing its original location inside Union Market last year, this tiki bar reopened in a much bigger space less than four miles down the road. All of the neighborhood’s cocktail favorites made the move as well, and now add to that the Westwood Ho: a take on the whiskey sour with the addition of a Mexican corn liqueur with a spicy chile and lime rim.

The Paragon in Costa Mesa has plenty to offer throughout the week, including a strong happy hour, but weekend brunch draws the biggest crowds. For those looking to try something beyond a mimosa, there’s the new specialty cocktail, Butterscotch. The combination of Westward Whiskey, honey, salt, and chocolate mole bitters makes for an Old Fashioned that works well with breakfast dishes like French toast.

It has been said that everything, including time, moves a little slower in the desert. It’s fitting, then, that this Mission Viejo gastropub takes its time with its Barrel-Aged Caro Kahn: It’s made with Westward Whiskey, amaro, and cherry liquor, then aged for a month. The wait adds complexity to the drink, with extra notes of oak and vanilla. Pair it with a burger or fish and chips for a proper pub meal.

This seaside stop in San Clemente brings a touch of country to the surf, with live music most nights and a Western-themed drink menu (concoctions with names like Copperhead and Calamity Jane set the scene effectively). The 019, a potent mix of a shot of Westward Whiskey, mint-flavored amaro, honey syrup, and coffee liqueur, has a rodeo-strength kick.