Cha-ching in Chicago: high-end cocktails ring true with guests.

If you know the Chicago food scene, you know about Nacional 27, where Latin food is treated with the respect it deserves. But that's not all that's notable about Nacional 27, a member of the Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises portfolio. The hip eatery is also famous for its tequila and mezcal selections. Lately, it's become widely heralded for its extensive wine list and the ability to pair selections of all ilks with high-brow Latin food.

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But there's even more going on. Adam Seger, general manager and bar chef at Nacional 27, is also a headstrong cocktailian, known for building a legendary bar program at the Seelbach Hotel in Louisville, Ky. in the 1990s. At Nacional 27, he has surprised more than a few folks with his new "Reservado Cocktails" menu. The decidedly high-end cocktails are not only making waves with customers, they're making a financial splash as well.

The cocktails include a $25 Mojito. What makes it so special? The rum, for starters, is 40-year-old Pyrat Planters rum. The sugar cane is flown in from Central America. Seger's table-side Margarita Reservado is made with Patron Gran Platinum and Grand Marnier 100; it's moving briskly at $35. For that cocktail, and other such gold standard concoctions, the restaurant squeezes more than 1,200 limes each week, and all mixes are house made.

Nacional 27 isn't a tiny little bar hidden down some alleyway--its location on West Huron is heralded by a sleek vertical marquis--and you don't need a password to enter, but the drinks are handmade nonetheless and the quality of those drinks is very high. On any weekend night, you have to squeeze into the place, yet I've never seen the drinks suffer.

As with all high-quality bar programs, every ingredient is examined. House-made Maraschino cherries are featured prominently in a delicious Rob Roy, called the Richy Roy. At $45 a drink, it deserves its own name and that one is certainly apt. Seger uses Adelfi Single Barrel 26-Year-Old Cask Strength Glenlivet as his Scotch in that particular cocktail. Agave syrup, the new necessity behind any tony bar, shows up in more than one cocktail, including the Margarita, in which it's a great version of simple syrup. The Sangrita Completo is the product of chef/partner Randy Zweiban; he offers both a spicy tomato and a pomegranate-citrus version, each priced at $15.

Some may think Nacional 27 goes too far. But these cocktails are selling, even at prices some would regard as criminal. It's not extortion because the ingredients in these cocktails, as well as the work involved, speak in their own defense. Even the criminally rich Century Alexander, with Caymus XO Cognac, Blandy's 1934 Verdelho Madeira and homemade ice cream and Maraschino cherries, is just as successful with the customers. And at $55 a drink, not only is the restaurant ringing more dollars, Chicago diners can't stop talking about it.

Doug Frost is a Kansas City-based wine and spirits writer and educator. He is one of only three people in the world who is both a Master Sommelier and Master of Wine.