Photographs by Corey Lund

The Hilltop neighborhood of Tacoma, Wash., is an unlikely cocktail hot spot. While the city has undergone a resurgence over the last decade, spearheaded by the Chihuly Museum of Glass and a vibrant downtown antiques and arts district, Hilltop remains its roughest patch and largely ignored by visitors. But hidden there is 1022 South, home to some of the most fascinating apothecary cocktail work on the West Coast.

The interior flickers under exposed light fixtures, dark wood bouncing soft light upon countless jars, beakers, bottles and tinctures. The owner and operator Chris Keil offers more than 40 herbal liqueurs — from Amaro Montenegro to Zwack — 35 selections of whiskey and a carefully chosen display of small-batch rums. (Sniffing Cross and Scarlet Ibis are standouts.) But it’s Keil’s dazzling array of infusions that steals the show: Miller’s Gin muddled with echinacea and cayenne, saffron and cardamom bitters, kava kava tinctures, Grand Marnier floated with Earl Grey tea leaves, homemade absinthe, an earthy nettles infusion, jars of honey dosed with pestled lavender and chamomile, and more — all of it delightfully displayed on the back bar.

The house-aged Fire Cider features apple cider vinegar, horseradish root, cayenne, garlic, onion and ginger, left to wilder for six weeks and served hot. One of Keil’s signature cocktails, the Hilltop New Yorker, is a tart dance of craft whiskey, fresh lemon and (yet again) house-made rhubarb bitters, served up in a martini glass and floated elegantly with a dash of red wine. It’s served for $5 during happy hour. The Echinacea Cocktail starts cold, then sweet, then hot, a marriage of echinacea-enhanced gin, lavender/chamomile honey and cayenne pepper. Every last mixer is made in house; Keil strips his own Cinchona bark for the tonic water, blasts seltzer with carbon dioxide, and deconstructs Coca-Cola into an herbaceous, sweet, sparkling elixir.

A none-too-precious diamond in the rough, 1022 is worth a stumble off the beaten path.

1022 South J Street, Tacoma, Wash. (30 minutes south from SeaTac Airport). Happy hour 4 p.m. to 8 p.m.