The Best Bars in Five Points & around

A cocktail bar that calls itself a nerdy cocktail bar, a natural wine bar, and your favorite dive bar, and then has the audacity to be all three. The Old Bay Martini landed it on Esquire's radar and the Spirited Awards named it the top U.S. cocktail bar, but the room itself is the tell: hot dogs share menu space with wine you've never heard of, and nobody in here seems to think that's unusual.

1. Spirited Awards 2024 · Winner · Best U.S. Cocktail Bar
2. The 50 #67 · North America's 50 Best Bars
3. Esquire The Best Bars in America

The conceit here is that every night out feels like a dinner party at a sommelier's apartment, right down to the records spinning in the background. Bobby Stuckey, the master sommelier behind Frasca, built this wine bar around the idea that great wine and great music belong together. Wednesday flights pair pours with a specific artist's catalog, moving from Billie Eilish to Hendrix depending on the week. A James Beard semifinalist for its beverage program.

1. Wildsam The 50 Most Essential Bars in America
2. Wine Enthusiast Forward 50 Restaurants
3. Esquire The Best Bars in America

The martini here gets shaken with both vodka and gin, which is either a provocation or a correction depending on your religion. Death & Co is a cocktail bar that started in New York and landed in RiNo, bringing the same intricate, unhurried approach to drinking. The room is loungey and deliberate, the kind of place where settling in for three rounds feels like the obvious move rather than a guilty one.

1. Esquire The Telegraph · The Best Martinis in America
2. Thrillist The Best Bars in Denver
3. Eater The Best Bars in Denver

1. Punch The Who’s Who of Beer Cool
2. Westword 2023 · Best Beer Service · Best of Denver
3. Westword The Top 50 Bars in Denver Right Now

A wine bar in RiNo that keeps fried chicken and tinned fish on the menu alongside Khikhvi, Nerello Mascalese, and a Mencía from Oregon that has no business being that good. The list leans hard into natural, biodynamic, and small-production bottles, and the staff can talk you through all of it without making you feel like a student. Grape nerds and people who just want a glass with snacks coexist peacefully here.

1. Thrillist The Best Bars in Denver
2. The Infatuation The Best Bars In Denver
3. Eater The Best Bars in Denver

1. Eater The Best Bars in Denver
2. The Infatuation The Best Bars In Denver
3. Westword The Top 50 Bars in Denver Right Now

A portrait of an imperial bulldog greets you at the door, which is a fair warning. Pony Up is a cocktail bar in LoDo that earns its personality through drinks like a tequila-shochu-sherry situation spiked with Korean chili paste, and shots of George Dickel chased with roast-beef jus. That jus comes from the kitchen, which runs French dips as its signature, an odd pairing that somehow makes complete sense by the second round.

1. Thrillist The Best Bars in Denver
2. Eater The Best Bars in Denver
3. Westword The Top 50 Bars in Denver Right Now

Tucked below the Dairy Block, this cocktail bar serves its menu on a deck of playing cards, which tells you everything about the room before you've ordered. Plush banquettes, leather chairs, patterned wallpaper, and cabinets of rare vintage bottles conspire to make it feel like a speakeasy that never quite left. The martini section alone could occupy an evening, and the reserve cocktails lean into vintage spirits for those feeling loose with their wallet.

1. Eater The Best Bars in Denver
2. The Infatuation The Best Bars In Denver
3. Westword The Top 50 Bars in Denver Right Now

The menu at this Uptown Mexican restaurant isn't fully translated into English, which the staff treat as a feature rather than a bug. Chef Erasmo Casiano's cooking runs from dry-aged hamachi crudo to duck carnitas tacos, and the cocktails lean on prickly pear, tomatillo, and jicama. Esquire named the Martini Cochinero among the best martinis in the country, which tells you something about where the bar program sits.

1. Esquire Martini Cochinero · The Best Martinis in America
2. Westword 2025 · Best New Restaurant · Best of Denver
3. 5280 The 25 Best Restaurants in Denver

Southern cooking and a cocktail program that pours buttermilk and benne seed into the glass share equal billing at this casual Five Points restaurant and bar. The chef runs with heirloom grits and collard greens but also hot-and-sour catfish and sorghum-tamarind pork shoulder, so the kitchen respects the tradition without being hostage to it. The team behind the preeminent cocktail bar Yacht Club runs the drinks side, which explains the ambition in a room that looks relaxed about the whole thing.

1. 5280 The 13 Best New Places to Eat and Drink in Denver
2. Eater The Best New Restaurants in Denver
3. Westword 2026 · Best New Bar · Best of Denver

1. Eater The Best Bars in Denver
2. Westword The Top 50 Bars in Denver Right Now

1. Thrillist The Best Bars in Denver
2. 5280 Best for a Big Night Out · The 23 Best Bars in Denver
3. Westword 2023 · Best Use of a Leopard Speedo · Best of Denver

1. The Pinnacle Guide 1 Pin
2. Sunset Better Bars · Where to Eat and Drink

1. Thrillist The Best Bars in Denver

1. Thrillist The Best Bars in Denver

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.

1. Eater The Best Bars in Denver

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.

1. Eater The Best Bars in Denver

1. Eater The Best Bars in Denver

1. Westword 2025 · Best New Neighborhood Bar · Best of Denver
2. Westword The Top 50 Bars in Denver Right Now

1. Westword 2023 · Best Beer to Drink Ringside: Helles · Best of Denver
2. Westword 2024 · Best Brewery to Take Visitors · Best of Denver
3. Westword 2026 · Best Brewery Upgrade · Best of Denver

1. Westword The Top 50 Bars in Denver Right Now

1. Westword The Top 50 Bars in Denver Right Now

1. Westword 2025 · Best New Bar Where Everything Is $5 · Best of Denver
2. Westword The Top 50 Bars in Denver Right Now

1. Westword 2025 · Best Distillery for Cocktails, With or Without Booze · Best of Denver
2. Westword The Top 50 Bars in Denver Right Now

1. Westword 2026 · Best Bar Programming · Best of Denver
2. Westword The Top 50 Bars in Denver Right Now

1. 5280 Best for Slow Sipping · The 23 Best Bars in Denver

1. Westword 2024 · Best Coffee Shop for Conversations · Best of Denver
2. 5280 Best for Catching Multiple Buzzes · The 23 Best Bars in Denver

The name comes from David Bowie's "Space Oddity," and the kitchen leans into the theme without going full theme-restaurant about it. This New American bar and restaurant on Larimer keeps things approachable, with a concise menu that rotates through tight, careful cooking. It shares a block with the tasting-menu sibling next door, so the crowd tends to know what they're doing, which keeps the energy easy without feeling sleepy.

1. 5280 The 25 Best Restaurants in Denver
2. 5280 Best for Filling Bellies · The 23 Best Bars in Denver
3. Westword 2023 · Best Pork Chop · Best of Denver

1. 5280 Best for Day Drinking · The 23 Best Bars in Denver