WHILE SOME PURISTS WILL still tell you that wine is the only appropriate choice to accompany a good meal, it’s rare to sit down at a restaurant these days without being handed a cocktail menu. Not only have notions of what makes an appropriate pairing shifted; the drinks themselves have changed.

The problem back in the pre-cocktail-renaissance era—and even now, at places that have yet to catch up—is that many cocktails were too sweet to do anything but obliterate the taste buds. Meanwhile, at more craft- and retro-leaning spots, the pendulum has swung too far to the bitter side. While bitter aperitifs are great for stimulating the appetite, the result is often the same as with sweet drinks: You can’t taste much else while drinking them.

Bartenders have found that a sprinkle of salt is a way to work around these issues and create drinks that complement dishes rather than cancel them out. Indeed, salt can serve many purposes in cocktails, said Will Thompson, bartender at Straight Law in Brookline, Mass. “It will make other flavors [in the drink] pop,” he explained. “We’ve been seeing the use of salt and bitter together more and more in the last few years.” The first he can recall was at Boston’s Drink, in a cocktail called Little Giuseppe, made with Punt e Mes vermouth; Cynar, a bitter artichoke liqueur; lemon juice; Angostura bitters; and a pinch of kosher salt.

Arunas Bruzas, lead bartender at Acadia restaurant in Chicago, uses salt in everything from the smoked-Tahitian-vanilla-and-saffron syrup in his Sazerac and Old Fashioned to various mezcal, campari and cucumber cocktails. He said he was inspired by reading food scientist Harold McGee’s “On Food and Cooking,” which posits that salt inhibits our ability to perceive bitterness. Mr. Thompson concurs: “Using salt as a way to friendly up some of these interesting drinks is an awesome thing to have at your disposal. Bitter can be overwhelming, especially the way a lot of bartenders use it.”

“The first time you use salt in a cocktail it’s like a light bulb goes off,” said David Kupchinsky of Eveleigh in West Hollywood, Calif. “It makes sense in all the same ways that it makes sense for a chef to use salt. It’s a flavor enhancer. It definitely works better with some things than others, but you almost start to wonder why you don’t put salt in all drinks.”