The best part of adulthood is fulfilling childhood fantasies such as living in a tree house, buying a pet armadillo, and wearing a drinky-bib not because you have to, but because it feels right. Top off a few more liquid dreams with today's Groupon: for $8, you get $16 worth of specialty cocktails and beers at Atomic Koi Cocktail Lounge in Fitchburg.

Atomic Koi Cocktail Lounge's extensive drink menu includes a wide range of mixed drinks, each hand-crafted with precision by Atomic Koi's beverage-blessing bartenders. Fans of fruit can indulge in mango or pomegranate mojitos, swiftly concocted with fresh mint, lime, sugar, and rum ($5 each), and sweet teeth and their tongued companions can swirl through a chocolate martini ($6). For niche desires, the tenders turn out other inventive selections, such as the Dreamsicle ice-cream drink dancing in Three Olives Rangtang, Dr. Vanillacuddy's, amaretto, and orange juice ($7), or the Zen elixir, a champagne beverage bubbling with green-tea-liqueur brilliance ($5). In terms of straightforward yet satiating sippables, the bar provides a favorable selection of spirits, and the seasonal beers are said to change as often as the tangential conversations held around them.

Atomic Koi Cocktail Lounge offers a warm décor of dark, Zen-inspired wood, rock-lined walls, and plenty of booths throughout its spacious, welcoming interior. Between swigs, guests can shift their attention to shuffleboard, pool, darts, board games, and the many TV screens that happily tune to Badger and Packer action. Before Old Man Winter moves into town, fermented friends can also bask outside in the open-air patio—unless said friends are friends of Old Man Winter, a notoriously terrible tipper.

Reviews

Though reviews are limited for Atomic Koi Cocktail Lounge, six Yelpers give the liquid lounge an average rating of 4.5 stars:

• This place is pretty sweet. Great atmosphere, good selection of music. Good tap beers. Old movies on roll, nice chill bar. – M. M.
• The bartender was very attentive and the drinks were great. If you're looking for a more "hip" bar scene and want to be off-campus, check this place out. – Diedra T.