I’d heard the refrain about a million times: Queer bars are going extinct. The thinking goes they just aren’t needed anymore amid the rise of online dating and social media. Yet here I was, sipping a disconcertingly delicious concoction of Jägermeister, lime juice, and triple sec in the purple glow of Mother, a new lesbian bar in San Francisco. Good luck telling the regulars the golden age was over. Great bars like Mother do more than meet an obvious need. They bring new life to our neighborhoods, create portals to other worlds, and give meaning to the sometimes shapeless hours after 5 p.m. And there are so many great new bars.
A tiny Miami den with a monster obsession and trading cards for a menu? Why not? A pink-lit East Village hot spot turning out mole Negronis and adobada slushies? Absolutely. And how we ever lived without the Seattle bar blending imported teas with the eye-watering Chinese liquor baijiu, I’m not sure.
Some bartenders are taking this moment to reinterpret classic historic cocktails while others are charting entirely new paths. Whatever you’re into, these are boom times for bar lovers. So start with one of these 11 spots and see where the night takes you. —Elazar Sontag, restaurant editor
Bartenders are turning out inspired milk punch, going all-in on savory cocktails, and taking the zero-proof movement to new heights.
Equipment Room
1101 Music Ln, Austin
Down some stairs and through a hallway padded with sound-absorbing foam is Austin’s most exclusive new bar. At Equipment Room, conversation exists at a respectfully low murmur as a DJ spins more than 1,200 records. The bar takes cues from Japan’s jazz kissa, where patrons gather to listen to vinyl and sip cocktails, but while Equipment Room may flirt with that tradition, it grounds itself in Texas; the voices of Willie Nelson, Beyonce, and other local legends fill the room. The menu is similarly two-pronged, offering A Sides—classics including a Martinez and New York Sour—and B Sides—inspired cocktails incorporating ingredients like green plantain and aged white tea. These drinks are whisked through the room and presented with panache: a smoldering piece of palo santo to go along with one, a cloud of mesquite smoke enshrining another. It’s easy to forget your hushed surroundings as all this plays out and let an audible gasp escape. —Elazar Sontag
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The Coral Wig
In the alley, 2 E Read St, Baltimore
This moody, tropical-but-decidedly-not-tiki lounge from Baltimore restaurateurs Lane Harlan and Matthew Pierce is a shapeshifter of the highest order. Meant to evoke the Manila officers clubs of Harlan’s mother’s youth, one’s experience of the meticulously curated space depends entirely on what time of day you visit. Duck in early, while the late afternoon sun still streams through amber-stained windows, and the Philippine mahogany-paneled walls and hand-painted checkerboard floor glow golden. Sip an Estate Martini—a rum-based riff on the ’90s pineapple martini, bearing the faintest kiss of Madagascar vanilla—and you’ll swear you can feel a warm, salty breeze at your back. A few hours later the tiny space goes thrillingly dark. Order something a bit more ponderous, like the aged rhum-based Carabao, and by the time it arrives, you’ll have given up on squinting, letting a single table votive circumscribe your world for a few intimate hours. Whether you’re here at happy hour or last call, you’re in the capable hands of Charm City’s preeminent vibesmiths, simultaneously far, far away and very much at home. —Amiel Stanek
Birds of Paradise
525 Western Ave #12, Brighton, MA
Stepping into Birds of Paradise feels like entering the first-class lounge of some mythological airline. Fitting for a bar inspired by the heyday of mid-20th-century travel. Owner Ran Duan, who also opened Boston’s Blossom Bar, created the cocktails with managers Will Isaza and James Sutter. The menu is divided into two parts, the first inspired by a single location—currently Guadalajara, where Duan and Sutter recently traveled. Think cocktails like the Pare de Sufrir, a vegetal martini with notes of tomatillo and soursop, or the Pennies del Cielo, a drink inspired by the Mexican street food elote and featuring nixtamalized corn. The other half of the menu offers drinks meant to whisk you away to iconic cities around the globe. Each cocktail fuses influences and flavors from two destinations; cachaça and wasabi in Rio to Tokyo; rum, vermouth, and olive whey in the Kingston to Milan. A pressing question always hangs over an evening at Birds of Paradise: Where to next? —Sam Stone
Nine Bar
216 W Cermak Rd, Chicago
To enter Nine Bar, step through the kitchen door at the takeout-only Chinese restaurant Moon Palace Express. Except there’s no kitchen: Instead, you’ll find Lily Wang and Joe Briglio’s neon-lit, self-described Asian-ish bar. Before a remodel in 2022, this was the dining room of the original Moon Palace, a Chinatown mainstay Wang’s parents purchased in 1995 and passed down to her and her partner during COVID. Though the restaurant’s menu is relatively unchanged from the ’90s, Nine Bar is decidedly modern, a window into how a new generation is keeping the spirit of Chinatown alive but making it their own. A DJ streams hip-hop in the back corner under floating white umbrellas, and bartenders mix drinks like a mai tai fortified with an orgeat syrup. That sweet syrup, made with cookies baked at a local Chinese bakery, injects nostalgia into the classic drink. It’s one of many charming ways Nine Bar creates something new without boxing out the past. —Kate Kassin
Stay Zero Proof
425 Gin Ling Wy, Los Angeles
Stay Zero Proof has all the markers of a nightlife magnet. You’ll find dim, vibe-y lighting, impossibly pretty regulars, and enough espresso martinis to render blinking entirely optional. But something is very different: There’s not a drop of liquor behind the bar. Those martinis are a combination of espresso syrup, foamy aquafaba, and brûléed brown sugar worked up by alcohol-free mixology wizard Derek Brown. Though the zero-proof movement has thoroughly gripped the country, this is LA’s first entirely no-booze destination, and founders Summer Phoenix and Stacey Mann don’t take that lightly. The drinks—which average around $20—are mixed with all the seriousness found at a craft cocktail bar, tapping an apothecary’s worth of herbs, shrubs, and aperitifs to achieve their complex, surprising flavors. Stay Zero Proof has a lot to say about divorcing “going out” from getting sloshed—and we should all listen. But don’t let anything distract from the main event: a legitimately great bar with cocktails you’ll want to drink all night. —Elazar Sontag
Bar Kaiju
8300 NE 2nd Ave 2nd floor, Miami
Tucked away on the mezzanine of a Little River food hall is a monster’s den: Bar Kaiju. Inspired by owner Derek Stilmann’s singular obsession with the world’s many strange beasts—“kaiju” in Japanese—the bar leans into the fantastical, from anime posters and projected monster movies on the walls to the 15 monster-inspired drinks printed on the trading card menu. Mechagodzilla—the nemesis of one similarly named iconic monster—takes shape here as a highball of Japanese whisky and cherry-blossom-infused vermouth. Meanwhile, Rodan, a giant fire demon, is embodied by a peppery margarita with a spicy lollipop finisher. Apart from the occasional whiff of pizza or jerk chicken from the food hall below, this watering hole will claw you into a mystical new world. —Kate Kassin
Superbueno
13 1st Ave., New York
At Superbueno, a rowdy party is always around the corner. The Mexican American bar glows with moody pink light and is decorated with cactuses, the Mexican flag, a beach umbrella, and a winking piñata. Bartenders and rowdy regulars swing the hanging globe lights that hang like pendulums above the bar. If there’s a birthday, a staff member’s last day, or really anything worth drinking about, shouts break out over the din of salsa and reggaeton. Co-owner Ignacio “Nacho” Jimenez himself is probably passing out shots. Don’t let all this playfulness give you the wrong idea: Superbueno takes its drinks seriously. The Vodka y Soda is deceptively simple in name but a thing of beauty: a highball of clarified guava purée, pasilla chile-infused vodka, and a splash of Velvet Falernum with a guava salt rim. It transforms the unassuming well drink into something complex and nostalgic—nodding back to Nacho’s favorite childhood refresher of guava nectar. If you make it until closing at Superbueno, you and a new friend might just end up raising a shot of mezcal. —Kate Kassin
The Houston Blacklight
2100 SE Clinton St, Portland, OR
I still remember ordering my first martini, overcome by the anxiety of trying to figure out whether vodka or gin was “right” and if I’d get weird looks for requesting an olive and a twist. Sometimes that sort of prescriptive, solemn bar environment is exactly what I’m after. Mostly, though, I yearn for a place like The Houston Blacklight, where wrong choices don’t exist and it’s never that serious. The bar’s walls are painted with wonderfully odd murals of beasts in boxing matches and sexy luxuriating horses (you sort of have to see it). The drinks are every bit as quirky and upbeat: Jell-O shots come in rotating flavors like guava-Midori or peach-amaretto, and coconut-pandan slushies taste like something straight out of a beach vacation. The Houston Blacklight’s psychedelic more-is-more vibe isn’t without precedent in Portland. Owners Thomas and Mariah Pisha-Duffly are also the brain trust behind maximalist Southeast Asian restaurants Gado Gado and Oma’s Hideaway. Now they’ve dreamed up exactly the sort of dangerously pleasant neighborhood bar we all pray will open on our corner. —Elazar Sontag
Mother
3079 16th St, San Francisco
The moment I sidled up to the bar at Mother, the bartender offered a gentle but firm introduction to the space: “This is a lesbian bar, please be respectful of that.” There are fewer than 50 lesbian bars left across the US, and though this one welcomes queer people and their friends of all stripes, it is a space for women and femmes. That’s a distinction worth protecting. In the middle of San Francisco’s Mission District, the bar is relatively bare. With its worn wood floors, tasty but unfancy $13 cocktails, and a custom-built photo booth, the bar isn’t concerned with reimagining the old-school queer dive as a stuffy cocktail lounge or trying to update the concept for a new generation. Mother does something even more exciting: revive a precious piece of community that came too close to being snuffed out. —Elazar Sontag
Paper Fan Cocktail Bar
601 E Pike St Unit 100, Seattle
Paper Fan Cocktail Bar evokes a 1960s speakeasy in Hong Kong, right down to the obscure location. Draped in red velvet curtains and tucked above a bustling noodle shop in Capitol Hill, the 18-seat space is a tribute to co-owner Alison Deng’s grandmother—Ms. Zhang, as she was known—who fell in love with an American soldier in the 1950s while selling paper fans in Hong Kong. When duty called, the soldier gave Ms. Zhang all of his money. She never learned what happened to her American love, but their tale is immortalized in this dimly lit space, adorned with ornate glass lamps and colorful fans. As you snack on Shin Ramen doctored up with mapo tofu or tongue-tingling mala beef, you’ll be transported out of the bustling Seattle neighborhood. Unique cocktails pair tea and baijiu; do not miss the Game of Ming, bursting with tangy passion fruit, jasmine green tea, lemon, fruity baijiu, and frothy egg whites. Weekend reservations are essential; space is as fleeting as the far-off encounter that inspired this intimate hideaway. —Ali Francis
Wild Child
11022 Johnson Dr, Shawnee, KS
Everything at this suburban Kansas bar is just a little bit extra. A cotton candy cloud hovers over the Little Storm, a riff on the rum-based Hurricane. Banana-themed cocktails—when on offer—come in glasses resembling the fruit’s peels, brown spots and all. On the rare occasion the garnish or glassware is restrained, at least one element of the drink is likely to be clarified, toasted, or otherwise tinkered with. Owner Jay Sanders’s dedication to doing the most extends to a substantial zero-proof menu where classics like the Negroni and espresso martini feature spirits he strips of alcohol via atmospheric distillation. Consistently kind staff, warm wood paneling, and more than 50 pretty plants will make anyone feel welcome in this world of pure imagination. —Emily Farris