Summer provides an excuse as good as any to enjoy a good Pisco Sour. Slapdash sours are easy to find. Good ones are rare. Here are some of our favorites from clean to classic to quirky. All feature fresh juice, craft bitters and spirits, and a liberal dash of bartender pride.

Dear Irving (55 Irving Place)
From greeting through parting, from entrance to comfortable seat, Dear Irving exudes a genteel hospitality that harks back to gentler times. In keeping with that genteel air, head bartender Meaghan Dorman pours a Pisco Sour that’s as elegantly balanced as a prima ballerina. Dorman chooses La Diablada Pisco for the “floral touch” it gets from Moscatel.

She first gives the drink a dry shake — no ice — to add texture to the foamy head that’s a characteristic of a well-made Pisco Sour. A shake with ice brings the drink to a crisp chill. A drizzle of bitters, a crafty swirl (Latte art, eat your frothy heart out.) and Dorman presents a Pisco Sour that lets the citrus, the sweetness, and the artisanal spirit’s complexities shine through. Swing by Dear Irving on impulse, or plan ahead and book reservations.

NoMad (1170 Broadway; 212-796-1500)
If she wanted a Pisco Sour, and Dear Irving wasn’t on the map, Dorman would go to NoMad. Fortunately for New York City drinkers, both bars are on an elegant and courteous map. Where Pisco Sours are concerned, they have unusual, half-hidden company.

Botanic Lab (86 Orchard St.; 212-777-2600)
In order to find Botanic Lab, you’d have to know it was there to be found. The candle-lit lounge is hidden below Casa Mezcal. In order to get an agave-sweetened Pear-Sage Pisco Sour, a summer sour, you’d have to know it was available. That would be a neat trick, because the drink isn’t on the menu. Ask Miguel Aranda or Mcson Salicetti (brother of mixologist/consultant Orson Salicetti; spirits run in this family) for a Pear-Sage Pisco Sour, and it’s yours.

While purists might sniff at the thought of muddled-with Pisco Sours, this particular twist on the staple is twisted to a purpose. The pear’s ripe sweetness underscores the Pisco’s fruitier notes, without making the cocktail saccharine. Sage brings brisk aromatics. In the middle of a New York summer, that touch of coolness is hard to resist – and you don’t have to.

Attaboy (135 Eldridge St.)
Ask the Salicettis where they’d go for a Pisco Sour, presuming that their spots were not on the menu, and a lengthy conversation will ensue. Patience is rewarded with three syllables: Attaboy. That Lower East Side bar has an industrial edge and innovative cocktails, but the bartenders know how to mix an old-school drink.

Betony (41 West 57th St.; 212-465-2400)
Of course, you can go to a place that looks as classic as an old-school cocktail. Midtown and upscale, Betony is as elegant as New York restaurants get, but you don’t have to book dinner to stake a space there. Pick a place at the bar and order what may be the most classic Pisco Sour in the city.

If you catch general manager Eamon Rockey behind the bar, grab your chance to get both a Pisco Sour and its history. Rockey first picked up the Pisco Sour habit with a Peruvian classmate, a man who remains a close friend. Research, development and experimentation (There’s house-made gum arabic syrup in your Pisco Sour.) followed. In that rigorous tradition, Betony serves a Macchu Pisco Sour that takes aromatics, flavors, texture and temperature, and pins them in a finely balanced glass.

Panca (92 Seventh Ave. South; 212-488-3900)
Rockey is uncompromising about Pisco Sours in cocktail bars. It’s Betony or nothing. When he’s out for Peruvian food, though, there has to be a Pisco Sour on the table. That leads to Panca for a hearty meal and sours to wash it down.

Photos: Seanan Forbes