The Best Cocktail Bars Near Alumni Kitchen Table, by the Record

1. The Pinnacle Guide 1 Pin

1. Difford's Guide 4.5 stars · Difford's Guide

Dark panelling runs floor to ceiling, the shutters stay half-drawn, and the gold lettering on the built-in cabinets is the kind of detail someone spent real money on. This cocktail bar on Dawson Street occupies a building with a wig-making past, and the room leans into it without tipping into costume. Worn floorboards, vintage bar, no natural light to speak of. The sort of place that makes you order a second drink before you've finished deciding on the first.

1. Difford's Guide 4.5 stars · Difford's Guide

Tucked off the lobby of the Shelbourne, this cocktail bar claims to have invented the Black Velvet, Guinness tipped into champagne in a tall glass, sometime in the early 1870s. London's Brooks's Club disputes that. The bar doesn't seem bothered. It's quieter and more intimate than the hotel's larger bar up front, the kind of place where you order the house claim, because obviously you do, and settle in.

1. Difford's Guide 3.5 stars · Difford's Guide

The address arrives by email after you book, and even then it takes some finding. That's the point: The Blind Pig is a proper speakeasy cocktail bar tucked somewhere off Wicklow Street, named for the cops who looked the other way during Prohibition. The team behind it are among Dublin's most serious bartenders, and the whole production, the secrecy, the hidden entrance, lands as atmosphere rather than gimmick.

1. Difford's Guide Difford's Guide