The Best Places in the United States

L.A. Jackson is the rooftop bar atop the Thompson in the Gulch, where a giant tree strung with tiny white lights sits in the middle like it's auditioning for a wedding. The cocktails lean on tangy shrubs, the sparkling rosé arrives with a guava pomegranate popsicle in it, and the hot chicken croquettes are the smart order. Weekend nights bring a DJ, so dress for a skyline and a crowd that came for both.

A converted firehouse turned wine bar with a retail shop stocking over 200 bottles you can also drink on the spot. The menu rotates around whatever the chef's neighbor harvests from the garden across the street, which keeps things genuinely seasonal in a way most places only claim. The backyard runs to lawn chairs and picnic blankets, with DJs on weekends. It landed on the New York Times Restaurant List and Bon Appétit's Best New Restaurants in the same year.

A miniature wrestling ring doubles as the karaoke stage, which tells you everything about the Lariat Bar's priorities. This White Center dive is floor-to-ceiling WWE memorabilia with an actual craft cocktail menu, a combination that shouldn't work as well as it does. The nonalcoholic drinks are listed under "Kayfabe," a wrestling term for keeping the fiction alive, which is either the nerdiest menu label in Seattle or the most honest one.

Las Almas Rotas is a Dallas agave bar that stocks small-batch mezcal, bacanora, and raicilla instead of celebrity tequila, which means the flights can include pechuga mezcal, distilled with raw poultry, and bottles that fit no known category. It was a James Beard Outstanding Bar Program semifinalist. Margaritas and palomas let the spirits do the talking, and carne asada tacos and pozole rojo keep the evening from getting too educational.

Lookout Tavern is a north Phoenix sports bar with something like 50 screens, so the real challenge is finding a wall that isn't showing a game. It's also the Steelers headquarters during football season, which means plenty of black and gold in the desert. Trivia, bingo, and UFC watch parties fill the calendar, and the weekend brunch involves shareable cocktails. Sliders and loaded fries cover the food side, and two patios handle the rest.

Everything cooks over open white-oak fires behind a tattered ranch house on Johns Island, sailcloth and outdoor chandeliers overhead, the smoke visible from the road. The chef grew up in North Georgia and knows his Lowcountry, so collards and roasted clams show up alongside chimichurri and tamarind. The New York Times put it on their 2024 Restaurant List. Arrive hungry enough for the charred semolina sourdough that lands first, and don't skip the carrots.

Martha My Dear is a neighborhood cocktail bar on Gallatin Ave, in a space that spent a short, theatrical stretch as a WWII-themed Euro bar before closing without much mourning. The new owners kept some of the Old World bones and swapped the concept for something calmer, with drinks built by a bartender who came up through Attaboy. It's casual and low-key, with cocktails that take their job seriously and nothing else around them does.

Melrose is a basement dive bar where the entertainment is built in: pool, ping pong, foosball, darts, and shuffleboard, so nobody is ever forced into conversation. It has survived floods, an era of indoor smoking, and a brief closing, and it came back with a light spitshine and most of the old character. Drinks are local beer and basic liquor, the popcorn is free, and dress code is whatever you wore to work.

Mickey's Tavern is a dive bar on Gallatin Pike with enough light to find your drink and not much more. The bartenders will still make you a proper Negroni or a Last Word without a flicker of judgment. There's a pool table, darts, and a fenced backyard of picnic tables and string lights that turns dirt into ambience. Food is a hot ham and cheese sandwich, which is a full menu if you squint.

My Girl is a glamorous cocktail bar tucked beneath Yvonne's, with gold leaf, rosy marble, and passion fruit martinis that clearly expect you to dress for them. The Sox hat stays home. Reservations help at prime time, though the place hits its stride after 10, when Boston finally decides to stay up late and live music takes over Thursday through Saturday. The Infatuation put it on its list of the best bars in the city.

Off The Record is a downtown cocktail bar that passes for a record shop until you step behind the curtain, where stacked vintage speakers and framed gold records set the tone. The music runs loud enough to feel in your sternum, yet nobody has to shout, and even the bartenders sing along to the DJ's Al Green. Grab a couch upstairs and watch the room. The Infatuation lists it among the best bars in Houston.

OHSO is a brewpub in downtown Gilbert whose backyard doubles as a neighborhood park, with lawn chairs, a dog run, an arcade corner, and a screen the size of a drive-in's, so game day comes with grass underfoot. Groups can claim a shaded cabana with its own TVs, which turns a Sunday into a private viewing party. Expect pints, casual pub food, and flip-flops that nobody questions.

Tucked into a historic greystone next door to Moreno's Liquors, a southside family institution, Osito's Tap is a neighborhood cocktail bar where the drinks lean hard into Latin American classics, agave spirits, and Micheladas done right. The connection to the liquor store isn't just sentimental; the spirits selection reflects it. Low-key enough that you might walk past it, specific enough that regulars don't want you to find it.

Padre's is a wine shop and bar on White Oak where you can grab a bottle for home or settle in with a glass, and the by-the-glass list is long enough to need its own reading time. Chilled reds get unusual respect here, along with mostly European and West Coast bottles and the odd orange wine from the country of Georgia. It's usually packed and loud, so conversation tends to be limited to nodding at your pour.

Pal's Lounge is a neighborhood bar on North Rendon, and the front door comes with a small welcoming committee of smokers, vapers, and dogs you'll have to politely wade through. Beer-and-shot specials and cocktails stay cheap, so the Selfish Lover, a floral vodka sipper, won't drain your wallet. There's no kitchen to speak of, but food pop-ups drift through serving sandwiches and stir-fried noodles. The Infatuation lists it among New Orleans' best bars.

Parachute HiFi is a Korean listening bar from the Parachute team, built for people who'd rather hear a record than their own thoughts. Vinyl spins while the menu runs street-food mashups, like a burger drowned in Comté fondue and tteokbokki in a pad Thai situation, alongside cocktails. It's casual and dressy-ish in the way a good record collection is, and it takes reservations but still keeps room for walk-ins.

A Strip diner that has been waving off the casino buffets for decades, with fake trees, flamingo lamps, and enough neon to make the omelets feel like a decision. Out back, the lounge has sunken booths, water features, and scorpion bowls, a James Beard America's Classics winner that somehow still runs all night. Hungover tourists and bikers split plates of marinara-soaked eggs, and no one finds this strange.

The pianist in a bow tie playing show tunes while couples in cocktail attire eat caviar off gold-leafed tacos is either your scene or it isn't. This upscale piano bar inside the Bellagio has a front-row view of the Dale Chihuly glass ceiling and leans hard into the caviar service. Classics, bellinis and Negronis, are the move at the bar. James Bond would approve, though he'd probably skip the lavender basil lemon drop.

Rebel Rebel is a tiny natural wine bar tucked into the shipping-container-sized stalls of Bow Market, and it works as a salon as much as a place to drink. Talks with food writers, chocolate pairings, and a Beaujolais Nouveau party where pot-au-feu comes out of a cauldron are all on the calendar. It's casual, the glasses are small-producer pours, and it has been a James Beard semifinalist for wine and beverage programs.

The entrance is a walk-in freezer door at the back of an ice cream shop, which sets the tone perfectly. Behind it is a sci-fi cocktail lounge with a glowing backbar and B movies running on the wall, where the drinks are named after cult films and built with ingredients that require a moment to process. The kind of bar that rewards people who ask questions.

You enter through the alley behind Easy Street Records, following a painted 'R' on the wall, which is either thrillingly covert or a lot of effort for a cocktail bar, depending on your mood. Inside, a 70s-futurist room with chic lighting anchors a menu built entirely around Black-owned breweries, distilleries, and wineries. The DJ booth fills most nights, running from Afrobeat to soul, and the cocktails are serious enough to deserve your full attention before the music gets loud.

A honky-tonk on lower Broadway where the band plays for tips, the cowboy boots for sale hang on the wall, and a High Life costs about what it did when your dad was young. The kitchen turns out fried bologna sandwiches and cheeseburgers off a griddle, which suits the steel guitar fine. It smells like leather and fryer grease, and the tourists who wandered in for one beer tend to stay through the second set.

Rosé and Rye is a cocktail bar parked next to Crisp, where the kids run the show, so consider this the 21-plus annex where the adults retreat. The menu leans on riffs like a cherry-vanilla-foam Negroni, and the patio is built for lingering with friends over charcuterie, marinated nuts, and olives. Industry Night settles your tab with a coin flip, so you pay five dollars or full price, depending on your luck.

Follow the signs through an industrial neighborhood off Dravus, past the fluorescent hallway, past the distillery, and you'll land in a small cocktail bar that smells like a very good apothecary. SennzaFinne makes its own amaro here, and the open bins of calendula and angelica aren't decorative. The chalkboard rotates, the hours are short, and the crowd that finds it tends to feel quietly smug about that.

Shady Acres Saloon is a Heights dive built to look like a small-town square, complete with an outdoor stage that resembles a country general store. The cornhole and horseshoe setups are generous, which feels like a zoning requirement in this part of town. Lone Star tall boys and banana pudding shots come cheap, the single pool table starts arguments, and whoever's on stage keeps the two-steppers busy.

A cocktail bar tucked inside the Roost food hall on Capitol Hill, Show of Hands leans hard into herbal liqueurs and brown spirits, with a menu organized by mood rather than spirit. The low-ABV side of the list is taken seriously, not grudgingly. Pop-up menus occasionally pay tribute to celebrities, which sounds gimmicky until you realize the drinks are the point and the theme is just the excuse to show up.

Shyboy is an underground Downtown bar where the soft-serve machine shares the building with serious DJ talent. Cocktails run to fizzy Japanese highballs and lychee sours, and the main room is big enough to dance and still find a table. The real draw is the Blue Room, a lounge behind a vault door with couches and a sound system that makes listening sessions feel like a small religious experience. Tickets are cheap, so dress for dancing.

Skinny Dennis is a honky-tonk dive that moved down from New York and blended in so well you'd swear it grew up on Gallatin Pike. The drinks are cheap, the music is live Americana, and the frozen coffee arrives in a blue bodega cup, which is a lot of cowboy for a coffee. Line dancers take over the back while pool players try to negotiate through them. Sundays bring a vintage market, so you can buy the fringe jacket on the spot.

The 12th-floor balcony of this penthouse lounge looks out over RiNo, and the room inside, all emerald banquettes and moon-like pendant lights, is doing its level best to compete with the view. Cocktails lean botanical and a little precious, saffron gin and rose water that kind of thing, which fits the vibe perfectly. The snacks are luxe and unapologetic. Eater named it among Denver's best bars, and the crowd tends to dress for the occasion.

SPKRBOX is a downtown Detroit coffee shop that answered the question "what if this also served negronis" and kept going. The second-floor seats overlook the street, the espresso drinks get fancy, and the cocktails come with coffee syrup in them. The basement is a soundproofed, futuristic lounge called the Orange Room, so the 3 p.m. latte and the 11 p.m. second wind both have somewhere to go.

Spot Lite is a bar, gallery, record shop, and event space on the East Side, which is a lot of jobs for one building, and it seems to be handling them. You can get a morning coffee, an after-work draft sangria, or a DJ set that spills into the night, depending on when you wander in. Wings, vegan smash burgers, and loaded fries come from the kitchen out back, so nobody has to leave to eat. It's on Eater's list of Detroit's best bars.

Starduster Lounge is a neighborhood cocktail bar on North Main with a pull toward the Southwest, enough that a phone starts to feel like an unnecessary accessory. The side room has peacock chairs with cowhide seats and tiny leaves painted on an archway, so there's plenty to stare at besides your drink. The Marfa Spritz arrives pink and cold. It's on The Infatuation's list of the best bars in Houston.

State Park is a wood-paneled basement bar that treats a flea-market aesthetic and a craft cocktail list as perfectly compatible. A Miller High Life and a smoky mezcal-amaro drink share the same menu without anyone flinching, and the pimento cheese dip and chicken katsu sandwich keep the food from being an afterthought. There's pool, pinball, and a brunch it takes seriously. The Infatuation lists it among Boston's best bars.

At this Korean wine bar on Division Street, banchan is the main event, not the preamble. The chef builds a daily set of small plates that sit somewhere between Seoul, Lyon, and Palermo, leeks vinaigrette with Chinese hot mustard, eggplant crushed into something caponata-adjacent. The kitchen is tiny, the room tinier, and the menu stubbornly its own thing. The New York Times placed it among the city's 100 best restaurants.

This is a tiny sushi counter downstairs from a Japanese listening bar, where the walls come with a vinyl collection and the rules come with a certain hush. It's the kind of room where nobody talks over the record, and the tuna rolls are taken seriously by people in dark jackets who have strong feelings about turntables. It's small, so plan on cozy, not spread-out. The Infatuation has it on their Best Bars In Boston list.

Sylvestro is a small Italian-leaning wine bar that shares a wall with its sister restaurant, Urbano Cafe, which makes it the easy answer to the question of where to take a date after dinner. The pastas come out of the same kitchen if you'd rather eat here, and the wine list leans Italian. The digestivo shelf is the real draw, deep enough to include a Japanese fernet, so you can digest in several languages.

Three stories of industrial space with a rooftop view of downtown Houston make Tejas Brewery hard to miss along Summer Street. It's a full-service beer bar where the house lagers, a Clara and a Negra, anchor the taps alongside a coffee porter. Cocktails and half-bottle wines round things out for whoever showed up not really wanting beer. Pretzel bites and street tacos keep everyone from getting ahead of themselves.

The Authentique is a French wine bar on Gallatin Avenue that went all in on art nouveau: Mucha paintings, embossed wallpaper, and a bar lined with bottles, like a Parisian apartment someone's romantic cousin decorated. The list leans Burgundy, picpoul, and Châteauneuf-du-Pape, with flights for the indecisive. The savory crepes are the draw, especially the raclette one, which makes a strong case for never ordering wine alone again.

The Bixby is a cocktail bar tucked inside Long Point Social Club in Spring Branch, with its own entrance and not a single TV, so nobody will be asking you who's winning. The menu runs to fermentation, clarification, and house-made cordials, with a gin drink involving strawberry and kombu. Eater named it one of Houston's best new cocktail bars. Burgers, wings, and Nashville chicken nuggets keep the science project grounded.

The Boardroom is a North Beach sports bar that seems to have more screens than anywhere else in the neighborhood, yet the walls hold surfboards and skateboards instead of signed jerseys, with slushy machines standing in for a trophy case. It feels closer to a casual meet-up than a game-day shrine, so you can show up without a team allegiance. On Monday Night Football the wings drop to 50 cents each, and the honey garlic is the move.