In Arnaud’s French 75 Bar, the act of making a drink is an art form: The way each bottle is handled with the greatest ease and each chilled glass is filled with careful perfection.

On nights when Chris Hannah works the bar, his choreographed ballet behind the counter creates drinks where every sip could be likened to a waltz through the French Quarter, leaving each patron with a little more bounce in their step.

The 36-year-old bartender has worked for Arnaud’s French 75 Bar in the French Quarter for six years. Since his arrival, the diminutive but stunning establishment has made ripples large enough to attract national attention.

Every year, Food and Wine magazine collects 130 recipes from the nation’s best bartenders and publishes a book. In the most recent one, “Cocktails 2009,” Hannah’s latest creation, “The Bywater Cocktail,” was included in the list.

Despite the success, the most recent concoction was, in a way, created through mishap.

“Actually, I was initially trying to create a Brooklyn Cocktail so I made my own Amer Picon,” an orange bitter liqueur, Hannah said. “Well, it turned out I had so much of it that I started thinking what other way I could use the rest of it. So I decided I needed to make something cool and hip. I needed to make a drink to really represent a part of this area.”

Hannah intended the cocktail’s ingredients to be as diverse as a New Orleans neighborhood.

“The spirit I used as the base in this drink was rum because of the rich history New Orleans has with this drink,” Hannah said. “There is also Chartreuse in Bywater and I feel it adds to the cool and somewhat hip flavor.”

The remainder of the cocktail’s ingredients include Averna Amaro, which is an Italian bitter, and a Velvet falernum,  a sweet, spiced syrup from the Caribbean.

Hannah named his newest cocktail creation after an area of New Orleans he has grown fond of over the last few years.

“Bywater is just a really cool, hip place right now,” Hannah said. “It represents what Louisiana is all about. The neighborhood has great people and great bars.”

Because he creates drinks for which patrons demand the recipes, the whispers that Hannah is one of the best bartenders in the country have quickly turned into muffled roars of acknowledgement.

“I usually can tell when someone walks through our doors what kind of drink they need to have,” Hannah said. “If they look tired and like they’ve had a long day, I’ll try to fix them something that has a refreshing element to it. Being able to read people is a major part of this job.”

Hannah said his love for creating drinks was always there. The sense was just elevated when he moved to New Orleans, the city known for being enamored with cocktails.

“I have always liked making cocktails, but I didn’t truly fall in love with it until I came to New Orleans,” Hannah said. “When I got here, I started researching the history of drinks here and it really just pulled me in.”

A cocktail’s origin and why it received its name are more intriguing facts to Hannah than what the latest bar trends are. The innovative bartender is quick to admit that his style is more classic than cutting edge.

“I’m reading and I’m always trying to learn something different. Whenever I travel, I like to see what drinks are popular in that city,” Hannah said. “The drinks represent what kind of place the city is. It tells a lot about the area.”