The Joint

Poor quality. Bad attitude. *sigh* Daytona Beach needs something like this. But it just fails on so many levels. Rude bartenders and half-​assed drinks.

The best drinks around! Friendly, knowledgeable staff! Custom drinks, handcrafted– fantastic atmosphere– no drama, variety of music

The Joint is a new bar and restaurant on Seabreeze opened by a seasoned pro in the restaurant business (he owns the place next door, too) and while the Joint serves burgers and other bar food – apparently with a gastro-​pub style approach and emphasis on quality, though I’ve not tried their food yet), the real focus here is on the drinks. The owner was tending bar himself when I stopped in and explained that despite the way the craft cocktail craze has taken off like wildfire many places, it hasn’t manifest itself in Daytona, despite the plethora of bars in Daytona. Strange, he thought, so he opened the Joint and the emphasis is on craft cocktails. I have to agree with him on two counts: one, no, there aren’t that many places you can get a good classic cocktail in the Daytona area and two, his efforts at the Joint are right on the mark. My Old Fashioned was made perfectly as a traditional Old Fashioned ought to be made – not too sweet, either. Many places they try to make an Old Fashioned and somehow a whole box of sugar cubes seems to fall into the drink. Not hear. It wasn’t too sweet and the flavor of both the whiskey and the bitters came through.
The owner (I feel bad but I didn’t get his name) clearly has a passion for what he’s doing here and he knows his liquor and how to make first-​class craft cocktails, too. The rest of his staff seemed highly competent and attentive, as well. This bar is new and the space is obviously recently remodeled – so recently, in fact, the whole bar still smells strongly of lumber. Not a bad thing, but surprising. As there were few patrons there even by 10pm on a Saturday night, no one was playing pool and hardly anyone was paying attention to the singer-​songwriter dude singing. It was the type of vibe that would have spoken poorly of the bar however, the drinks spoke very highly of the bar and the owner, other customers and I speculated that the big boxing match coupled with the Kentucky Derby probably kept people at home or viewing parties today. Makes sense. Most nights apparently it’s a happening spot. Certainly worth checking out, and again, I cannot say enough: this dude knows how to make craft cocktails – everything from his knowledge of liquor to the bottles of Bourbon behind him to that Old Fashioned say he does.