The Best Places to Drink and Do in the United States

Globe pendant lights, brass accents, and two misters-in-summer courtyards make this woman-owned taproom on Roosevelt Row feel like the anti-brewery brewery. The flagship pale ale is called Herstory, which tells you everything about the vibe. Rotating experimental brews sit alongside core taps, and if you get hungry, a QR code on the table summons food from nearby spots. Trivia nights and live music fill the calendar, and Phoenix New Times named it one of the city's top 100 bars.

This is an English-style pub on Belmont, low-ceilinged and wood-beamed, with decades of cigarette smoke apparently still living in the walls. The beer comes in proper 20-ounce pints, there are real metal-tipped darts, and the Scotch eggs and fish and chips have outlasted every menu update. Regulars fill it by evening, and the vintage posters, flags, and brass plaques suggest nobody has felt the need to redecorate since the Reagan administration.

Lux Central is a coffee shop, bakery, and bar that can't commit to one job, and the schedule makes that a feature. Pastries hold down the morning, the bar wakes up soon after, and the egg plates and hashes drift into diner-leaning fare as the day goes on. Plenty of people arrive for a quick latte and are still at the table when the cocktails show up, laptops open, no one embarrassed.

The mahogany L-shaped bar gives away what Paul Bar/Food is before you've ordered anything: a serious cocktail bar that happens to feed you well. It sits next to a strip-mall dispensary, which keeps the tourists guessing and the locals comfortable. Classic drinks get quiet tweaks, a frozen Sidecar here, a black Manhattan there, alongside a short food menu of wings, burgers, and steak frites that nobody's complaining about.

Sandy Hut is a neighborhood dive on a traffic island on NE Sandy, now dwarfed by the apartment buildings that sprouted around it. It has been cleaned up a bit, so the food is better and the drinks cost more, like everywhere. Parents stop in after soccer practice for a pint and a shot, punks work the pool table and video poker, and the late-night crowd returns for hangover brunch. Portland's Best Bars list includes it.

A dark, stylish room next to the Twist PS hotel that takes itself a little more seriously than most of what Palm Springs has to offer, and earns it. Tailor Shop is a cocktail bar with a short, well-considered menu, the kind of place where a Ward 8 or a Sazerac arrives looking like someone thought about it. The crowd tends toward dressed, not sunburned.

The red leather booths survived the renovation intact, and the 1970s diner vibe is so well-preserved you half-expect a harvest-gold appliance somewhere in the back. The Heyday is a casual burger shop on North Palm Canyon serving smash burgers, fried chicken sandwiches, and wings alongside strong classic cocktails and a retro playlist that earns its keep. The kind of place that makes Palm Springs feel less like a wellness retreat and more like a road trip stop.

The menu lists a spicy margarita riff called The Party Lobster, which tells you most of what you need to know about the vibe. Mister Paradise is a cocktail bar in the East Village where the drinks are built with serious technique, clarification, sous-vide, the works, but presented with enough wit and noise that you'd never call it stuffy. Locals land here and stop leaving, which is either a warning or a recommendation depending on your Thursday.

The dining room at this West Hollywood EDITION hotel restaurant looks like a luxury spa that decided to feed people: white velvet booths, staff in beige, and enough greenery to require a groundskeeper. The menu leans vegetable-forward but keeps dry-aged lamb and steaks around for the unconvinced. Prices sit firmly in hotel territory, which the hotel guests seem not to notice.

A cocktail lounge called Ok Yeah tucked into the back tells you everything about the vibe here. Hey Kiddo is a playful, Asian-inflected restaurant and bar on the third floor of a Tennyson Street building, with a rooftop deck most people don't find on the first visit. The menu runs on shareable plates, and the team behind it earned a James Beard Outstanding Restaurateur semifinalist nod. The room skews young and loud in the best way.

The taproom is built to look like a church, which feels appropriate given how seriously Houstonians take their hometown brewery. Texas's oldest craft brewery pours its own Art Car IPA, Amber Ale, and H-Town Pils alongside a full kitchen running stone-fired pizzas and bar bites. The outdoor garden catches a downtown view when the heat relents. A good place to convert someone still loyal to Miller Lite.

A photo wall of Diana Taurasi greets you at the door, which tells you everything about what kind of sports bar this is. Planted in Phoenix's Melrose district, Title 9 is a beer bar and grill built around women's athletics, with imagery spanning players to sports journalists across every wall. The color palette reads as a quiet nod to the lesbian pride flag, a detail that fits the neighborhood perfectly.

Enormous screens cover the top half of a high-ceilinged room, with smaller ones tiling every corner so there is no bad angle on the game. Backyard is a sports bar and casual eats spot in north Phoenix, with a long beer list, wings, burgers, and pizza keeping things low-key. There is also a dog park on the premises, because apparently watching the game while your dog runs laps was a need that went unmet for too long.

Willow is a basement cocktail bar tucked beneath Savannah Blue, where a giant faux willow tree rises from the floor and sends its branches, strung with hundreds of fairy lights, across the ceiling. It's Detroit's first Black-owned speakeasy, with portraits of famous Black Detroiters on the walls and a Southern-leaning drink list. Reservations run through Tock, so plan ahead for the secret.

This Corktown brewery and beer garden pours a dozen drafts, plus hard cider from its sister brand and a housemade prebiotic soda for anyone in the group sworn off the good stuff. A pavilion with open-air seating handles the warm months, while the semi-industrial indoors does communal tables and solo bar stools. Instead of a mug club, you can join something called the United Federation of Eaters and Drinkers, which is a lot of governance for beer.

Concrete Rose is a cocktail bar in the old Purse Building, right across from the ballpark, built around agave spirits. The menu leans on tequila and mezcal, with drinks involving mole and tomatillo that sound like a dare. There are no dress codes or bottle service, but there are vinyl nights, and the bar bites run from beet tacos to fish crudo, so dinner is covered if you commit.

MotorCity Wine is a Corktown wine bar where the night can turn into a live band and a little dancing if you time it right. The patio does most of the heavy lifting in warm weather, and a taco truck parks in the lot throughout the week, so dinner is handled without anyone fussing over a menu. Charcuterie and guest-chef bites cover the rest, and the bottles are easy to share.

Two James is a working distillery in Corktown with a tasting room built around a round concrete bar, which is the right shape for a place where everyone ends up talking to the bartender anyway. Cocktails rotate with the seasons and lean on the house spirits, with alcohol-free versions for the designated driver. You can book a tour, and Supergeil, the döner spot across the street, handles the food.

1111 is a Montrose cocktail bar and restaurant that takes its cues from Mexico City, which explains the cave-like room and the oval bar at its center. It's pronounced "eleven eleven," a favor to anyone who'd otherwise say it four ways. The margarita comes crystal clear under a cloud of salty lime air, and it sits next door to a jazz club, so the evening practically plans itself. Expect cocktail-hour prices and a good outfit.

The beer names tell you everything: a cream ale called Dome Foam, a porter called Mission Control, a red ale called Cougar Paw. This Houston brewery wears its civic pride the way other places wear sports jerseys. The taproom pours a full lineup of house beers alongside THC seltzers for the sober-curious crowd and cocktails for anyone who wandered in expecting a bar and found one anyway.

A cocktail bar inside Bryant Street Market's food hall in Edgewood, Alegria spun out of a beloved 14th Street agave spot and kept the Latin spirits focus while widening the net. Hibiscus, cacao, and fresh fruit make their way into the drinks alongside a beer list that moves from Pacifico to a Hyattsville local. Canned cocktails go out the door for those who can't be contained to 26 seats.

Sichuan cooking and serious cocktails share equal billing at this Dupont Circle spot, which holds a Michelin Bib Gourmand and lands on Eater's list of D.C.'s top cocktail bars. The menu runs funky and affordable, with cumin lamb that arrives tender and vivid with spice. No reservations needed if you're happy at the bar, which always has room and is probably where the better conversations are happening anyway.

Menu painted on the front windows, high tables, espresso foaming in the morning and a cocktail shaker going by afternoon: Babas is a small all-day European-style cafe and bar that operates on a pleasantly loose schedule. The kitchen moves from overnight oats and baked goods at breakfast through deviled eggs and a caviar sandwich later on, which is a pretty wide range for a room you could cross in six steps.

A brewery on Fulton Street that leans hard into the Space City thing, with a hazy IPA called Fake Landing for hop heads who enjoy a conspiracy theory alongside their pint. The beer program covers lagers, IPAs, and hard seltzers, and there's wine by the glass for anyone who wandered in for the foosball. The foosball table, it should be noted, is not a metaphor.

The bones of the building are original 1950s auto-service center, which gives this neighborhood brewpub a satisfying reason to look up at the ceiling. IPAs anchor the tap list, with other ales rotating by season, so regulars tend to have a new reason to stop in. A nice wrinkle: if someone in your group isn't feeling beer, the wine bar next door will send them over with a glass, no drama.

Bar Angie is a 16-seat cocktail bar upstairs from Angie's, with its own private entrance, so you can skip the downstairs wait without anyone knowing you're hovering. The room goes full Italian Deco, all violet marble and bronze-tinted mirrors, lit warmly enough to forgive a long day. The seasonal drinks come from a former Anvil bartender, with a mortadella sandwich nearby for ballast. Eater included it among Houston's best new cocktail bars.

Bar Brine is what the vegetarian cafe Sneaky Pickle becomes after dark, a neighborhood cocktail bar in the Bywater that swaps the daytime tofu crowd for people who care about shrubs. The drinks lean on housemade cordials, including a rum, passion fruit, and absinthe punch and a coconut-and-cognac answer to the espresso martini. The kitchen keeps going too, with meat and fish alongside the plant-based menu, so nobody has to eat a cocktail onion for dinner.

The martini here comes with pickled shiitake mushrooms, kombu, and bonito flakes, which tells you most of what you need to know about Bar Chinois. It's a French wine bar by aesthetic and an Asian dim sum spot by appetite, and the kitchen takes both halves seriously. The cocktails are genuinely theatrical, and the dumplings, shrimp toast, and braised pork meatball give you every reason to stay past the second round.

A bright green sign on 20th points you toward a cocktail bar where the drinks are named after the paintings hanging in the hotel around it, so you can order your art by the glass. The room is low-lit and plush, a nod to the Heights' old drinking clubs, and nobody will rush you out of your seat. Bar bites include salt and vinegar chips under smoked trout roe. Eater put it on a list of Houston's best new cocktail bars.

You reach this cocktail lounge by emerald carpet, a private elevator, and a pair of floor-to-ceiling green doors, which is a lot of ceremony for a drink. The menu follows the lunar cycle, from a mint-washed gin on the light side to black sesame rum and ube cold foam on the dark one. Golden Hour means $10 cocktails and oysters on weekdays, and weekends bring DJs. Dress like you were told about the elevator.

Barebottle is a warehouse-sized brewery in Bernal Heights where you navigate dog toys and stroller wheels just to reach the taps. Arcade games, foosball, and a wall of TVs keep the kids busy while the adults drink, and whatever food truck is parked out front handles dinner. Odds are good you'll run into your third grader's classmate, and their dog.

You pass through a cocktail bar to get to the dining room, which sets the tone. Bastion is a tasting-menu restaurant in Wedgewood-Houston built around contemporary Southern cooking that treats the region's pantry as a creative dare rather than a comfort blanket. The kitchen holds a Michelin star and a James Beard nomination, and earns both by keeping things loose enough that the whole thing still feels like a good night out.

A neighborhood sports bar in Clarkston where the TVs outnumber the pretensions and the crowd comes to actually watch the game. Wings are the reason most people show up, with Buffalo and sweet-and-spicy doing most of the heavy lifting, but the patty melt and Reuben hold their own. The BPH fries arrive loaded with blue cheese, roasted garlic, and tomatoes, which is either a salad or an occasion, depending on your mood.

Bubble Bath Back Bay is a penthouse cocktail bar atop the Citizen M hotel on Newbury Street, with skyline views most Boston bars can only dream of. It's built for ending a shopping day with visitors in tow, someone cradling a prickly pear mezcal drink while bags pile up at their feet. Order champagne, or let the caviar cart roll up and serve it with potato chips and cannoli. It's The Infatuation's pick for the best bars in Boston.

Bumbo's is a neighborhood bar in Hamtramck where the cocktails are cheap enough that nobody has to feel precious about ordering a second. The menu rotates, but a house sour with your choice of spirit is the sort of thing that keeps showing up. The nonalcoholic shelf is unusually deep, so the designated driver gets more than a sad soda. There's a pool table inside and a covered patio out back for hiding.

By The Wayside is an East End cocktail bar on Navigation Boulevard with a stage inside, a patio outside, and a calendar that includes movie nights, vinyl DJs, and the occasional market. Drinks lean on fresh fruit, so a mezcal-tequila number with strawberry sits comfortably beside a floral vodka one with violet. The kitchen sends out brisket nachos and Korean barbecue wings, which is how you stay for a third round. Eater put it on its fall 2026 list of new cocktail bars.

Cafe Sous Terre is a basement cafe and bar tucked under a brick mansion that now rents rooms to strangers, and it plays the French cafe of a century ago with green subway tile and long banquettes. By day it's laptops, coffee sodas, and quiche. After dark it's martinis, a croque monsieur, and weekly Vinyl Wednesdays. Eater lists it among Detroit's best bars and best coffee shops, so the same table does double duty.

Case Chocolates is a speakeasy hidden behind a bookcase in the back of a tiny East End chocolate shop, which is the kind of sentence that should be illegal in a Wes Anderson film but is merely a Tuesday here. The tasting runs three courses of chocolates filled with spirits like gin and carajillo, and the liquor stays polite about it. It's a date-night bet for people who've already done dinner and a movie.

Chopper is a tiki-ish cocktail bar that swapped the grass skirts for robots, with Star Wars characters turning up in the barware and the drinks billed as "lab tested," as if a bar had a lab. Mai tais and rum runners get their own spin alongside a rotating seasonal menu, and the coffee drinks tend to be the interesting ones. A taco truck usually parks out front, so dinner is basically handled.

A craft brewery on a quiet residential street on the north side of town, City Acre feels less like a taproom and more like you wandered into a very well-stocked backyard. The sour series gets regulars talking, and the PB&J porter answers a question nobody asked but everyone is glad got asked. The patio pull is real, which means arriving early if you want a seat that doesn't feel like a compromise.

Clarkwood is a Montrose cocktail bar that spends its evenings halfway to a nightclub, and the heavily garnished drinks leave the bar by the thousands. Dom bottle service shares the room with singles scouting the next prospect and couples whose public affection is testing the tables. Around 10pm on weekends the staff pulls the barstools to make room for more people, which tells you where the seating plan ranks.

Cøllect is a small beer bar on Detroit's east side, tucked into an arts hub from the Library Street Collective crowd. Nine beers share the tap wall with cider, wine, and a few pours of Four Roses, plus Gatorade on draft, which is either a hydration plan or a very good joke. There's a basketball hoop in the middle of the room, so you can earn the second round or at least pretend you did.