Where to Drink in L.A. Right Now
These are the best cocktail bars in Los Angeles at this current moment—with bonus restaurant recommendations near each.
I’m just back from a whirlwind two weeks of travel.
I spent the first week in Los Angeles, eating and drinking my way through the city.
And, look, I’m well aware of how obnoxious it is to parachute into a place from across the continent and declare which spots there are “the best,” when I have to consult a map to even find out which neighborhood some are considered to be in.
But I speak with authority here because of my sources: local industry folks.
Each time I visited a bar, I asked my bartender for their opinion on where to drink in the city right now. Soon, enough people were naming the same spots that a fairly definitive list was forming. By midweek, when people would ask where I’d been so far, I would get wide eyes of approval: “You’re doing well!” By my final evening in the city, I was being told “You’ve succeeded in hitting every bar I love in L.A.”
And now you can, too.
Mirate
Mirate, a Mexican restaurant in Los Feliz, is a scene, a see-and-be-seen place with a lively atmosphere across its multiple floors and many rooms. It’s been known for its drinks since it opened a couple of years ago, and those drinks have only gotten more interesting in the meantime, in a slightly off-the-wall way. I was impressed during my initial visit, about a year and a half ago, and blown away on this one.
Bar director Max Reis is a mad-scientist drinks genius; I’m told he has an entire cocktail test kitchen to play in on the other side of the wall behind the host’s stand, where he engages in all of the cutting-edge drinks science we’ve come to expect from the world’s very top bars. He’s also been given the freedom to let his creativity run absolutely wild.
All of the spirits he employs in his cocktails are Mexican; all of the drinks are riffs on classics, spelled out (phonetically, literally) on the menu—but they might be less recognizable in the glass than you might expect. No classic is too “simple” to escape the Mirate treatment: Its riff on a paloma (ordinarily tequila with grapefruit soda and a squeeze of lime) involves a house-made soda, plus high-proof blanco tequila, sake, pulque, and a Mexican bitter liqueur. I adored the deftly layered take on a spicy marg, employing avocado-washed tequila, aguachile, nopales granita, and coconut.
Pro tip: If you haven’t managed to reserve in advance for dinner, head to the downstairs bar where you can order food (which you should), versus the upstairs bar that’s drinks-only.
An additional note: Two weeks after my L.A. trip, Reis opened a second venue, a margarita-focused bar called Daisy. I didn’t make it there, but you should go. If you do, let me know how it is!
Eat: At Mirate, obvs.
Kato
Like Mirate, Kato is also primarily a restaurant: a fancy Taiwanese tasting-menu spot in the Arts District where dinners go for a cool $325 per person. It’s a somewhat well-kept secret, though, that you can just go and have drinks at the bar without splashing out for a meal.
The restaurant is an oasis of calm, a peaceful respite in a busy city. Its cocktails are similarly elegant and understated, and come courtesy of bar director Austin Hennelly, who has worked at several of NYC’s top spots and is now plying his magic in L.A.
The must-trys on the current menu include the Highball (Hibiki Harmony, pineau des charentes, coconut water, bao zhong) and the dessert-ish Milk Punch (Legent bourbon, Remy Martin 1738 cognac, Diplomatico reserva rum, brown butter, sweet potato, five spice, lime), although you almost certainly can’t go wrong with anything on offer.
Eat: Unless someone else is paying for dinner at Kato, head instead to eat at Bavel, about a mile away. It’s from the folks behind the popular Italian restaurant Bestia, this one offering Middle Eastern food, and it’s possibly the city’s hottest restaurant at this exact second.
You should reserve well in advance for a table, but I found I was easily able to walk in and grab a seat at the bar. The long list of appetizers is where it’s at—get a bunch of these to share and make a meal out of them, mezze-style; don’t skip the hummus with duck ’nduja or the Moroccan carrots.
Thunderbolt
Thunderbolt, in Echo Park, is widely acknowledged to be L.A.’s best cocktail bar, the one that ends up on every “best” list. The bar is a large, industrial-warehouse-feeling space with a small patio outside. Both fill up quickly in the evenings; go early to nab a seat.
The bar’s science-driven cocktail program employs the latest methods, with its current menu emphasizing the technique each drink demonstrates, from forced carbonation to dilution substitution and more, explaining each in a way non-cocktail-nerds can appreciate.
I loved the Tropipop—a canned, clarified, carbonated, crushable pina colada, a mainstay on the menu since Day 1—as well as the Pastelito, a tropical-fruity clarified milk(less) punch. If I had visited on a different day in a different mood, however, the Liquid Picnic, a savory martini with tomato, rosemary, and black pepper, would probably be my top pick.
Eat: You should go for the Southern-inflected bar snacks at Thunderbolt while you’re there. So instead my bonus recommendation here will be for more drinks, at Bar Flores, a bar with Mexican-influenced offerings, about a mile away. Its cocktails are delightful but not necessarily groundbreaking; you’re here more for the atmosphere and the space. (And, yes, for the tacos, which I didn’t try but have heard are delicious.)
Located on its building’s second floor, the airy bar has a high ceiling and huge windows opening to the street, plus a large patio out back, making for outdoor drinking (and dare I suggest day-drinking?) at its finest.
Night on Earth
The team from Thunderbolt just opened a sister bar, Night on Earth, in December. It’s up in Studio City (I guess? I’m still a little hazy on the geographic designation here), in a small strip mall, but it’s worth the journey.
The drinks are made with the same science, rigor, and attention as at Thunderbolt, but the space itself couldn’t be more different. Night on Earth is done up like a dark, nightclubby space-age lounge, with neon colors swirling across the walls and, amusingly, even along the bar itself.
As at Thunderbolt, the menu calls out the techniques each drink employs, without giving away all of the secrets for each. Every cocktail on offer is a riff on a popular classic, but with enough twists to keep things interesting: there’s a clarified and force-carbonated take on a pornstar martini, for instance, and a vaguely-a-negroni with a split base of Campari and shochu, plus sherry and miso, employing centrifuge-clarified mango Perfect Puree as a dilution replacement. My favorite, though, was actually a non-alcoholic cocktail that somehow exactly replicated the flavor of key lime pie.
Eat: Night on Earth might be in the middle of nowhere, but it’s a less-than-10-minute Uber ride from Musso & Frank, which has been open for more than 100 years and is as classic a restaurant as they come, a genuine national treasure. Seemingly every Hollywood celeb has dined there, and many still do.
It’s impossible not to fall in love with the place, whether you’re dining at the counter or manage to snag a booth. Start with the wedge salad and go any direction from there.
Real Charmer
Real Charmer is another brand-new bar, this one in the Silver Lake area. The creator of its opening menu is also the beverage director at Capri Club (see below), and the cocktail list includes creations such as the No.5 (The Botanist gin, St. George terroir gin, Dolin blanc, St-Germain, Cocchi Americano, pear brandy, grapefruit, lemon, rose). The house daiquiri incorporates green Chartreuse and toasted coconut into the usual mix of rum and lime.
The drinks are delicious, but it’s the bar’s vibes that are the real draw. The décor is vintage-leaning and vaguely nautical; candles and mini oil lamps flicker everywhere. Roses and rose petals are likewise everywhere: along the bar, in the two-person booths, even in some drinks and cradling the sidecar of the No.5.
A perfect date spot, this bar exudes romance from every inch and in every corner, without being cheesy about it.
Eat: Just a few blocks south is Budonoki, an izakaya just over a year old that draws from influences far beyond Japan. It’s a dark, spare space where the relative visual austerity belies an underlying playfulness in food and drink.
Don’t skip the cocktails here: There’s more to them than meets the eye. The Awa is a food-friendly vermouth-and-tonic riff; the cocktail in the eye-catchingly kawaii mugs is called Joshikai, whose ingredients are listed as Kamoisumi Umelicious, Cocchi Americano, rice milk, lemon, orange, molasses bitters—which seems straightforward until upon further probing it’s revealed that the lemon is in the form of a shrub and the rice milk is employed in a simple syrup.
Combine these two spots into a single evening and it would be perhaps the best date-night outing in all of L.A.
Capri Club
This spot is in Eagle Rock, out in the middle of nowhere toward Pasadena, but I promise you it’s worth the trip. Capri Club is the only aperitivo bar I know of in L.A. It offers an array of spritzes and plenty of other cocktails, mostly on the lighter, citrusy, shaken side; the amaro that’s the bar’s raison d’etre is generally a supporting player rather than the main character.
It has a retro, slightly divey feel, with a long semicircular bar and huge open windows fronting the street. The cocktails are great (its amari-loving beverage director is the type to nerd out about vermouth), and care is taken to make the drinks accessible to an audience only just becoming accustomed to bitter liqueurs. I especially enjoyed the Danny’s Place (rye, Braulio, Averna, lemon, salted honey, black pepper)—a peppery, complex riff on a gold rush.
Eat: Have some bar snacks here, then head back into town and go straight to Mirate for excellent Mexican food and more drinks.
*I have to give special thanks to a few people for the above recommendations: Jack Schramm, who got me started with some key tips; Jens Cramer, who wrote two long lists of recommendations for me (I’ll hit up the rest on my next visit, I promise!); and Pete St. Pete, who echoed many of their suggestions and added a few of her own. There are so many more people who weighed in; I’m grateful to them all.
And for a couple of lovely but less-cocktail-centric bonus evenings:
Gjelina / Si! Mon
The original Gjelina, in Venice, is a restaurant so beloved it’s almost unfashionable to like it. It’s among the forerunners of the produce-driven menu, offering the optimal examples of the most hyperseasonal ingredients prepared in ways that show them off to best effect; my favorite dishes from this past visit included burrata with pea shoots and watermelon radishes, and a salad of grilled and raw chicories. I’ve been several times now, and its patio is one of my favorite places on earth to dine.
It doesn’t offer cocktails, though. For those you’ll have to go elsewhere.
Drink: In a bizarre twist of fate, I’ve had the same food-loving Uber driver twice now for long rides through Los Angeles. He has great taste and offers excellent recommendations, and as he was driving me to Gjelina from many neighborhoods away, he suggested I visit Panamanian restaurant Si! Mon as well while I was out that way, promising I would love it.
I did. It’s a perfect post-dinner spot, ideal for a dessert (build-your-own shaved ice) and a cocktail or two. The drinks aim high, even if not all quite reach their targets; you’re really there for the scene: a beautiful, sprawling space full of beautiful people, with a roof open to the evening skies. I googled the restaurant afterward and found it had been named best new restaurant in L.A. the previous year by multiple online food-focused publications.
Dante / Funke
The Beverly Hills outpost of Dante, on the top floor of a swanky hotel, feels like the polar opposite of the NYC original. Spacious blue-velvet banquettes take the place of cramped wooden tables; doors that open to the large balcony and infinite views beyond lend an airiness impossible to achieve in NYC.
I went a couple of times soon after it opened a year and a half ago and adored it, but I was warned by several people during my recent trip that the drinks are no longer made with the same degree of care as they were initially; it’s now a go-for-the-vibes place only, it seems. But those vibes are immaculate, and its signature Martini Hour (like the Negroni Hour in NYC, a daily “happy hour” from 3 to 5 during which it offers an array of martinis for $10) can’t be beat.
Eat: There’s nowhere better to spend a sunny evening than on the rooftop of Funke, a Beverly Hills Italian restaurant; bring your most fashionable shades. The bar is rose quartz, as are the tables; everything has a rose-hued glow.
The cocktail menu was created by the Thunderbolt crew, I’m told, although the precision with which the drinks are executed can vary. My favorite is the Sicilia, a margarita with blood orange and prickly pear that’s not only delicious, it also echoes the quartz’s hue for a lovely pink-on-pink phenomenon.
Chef Evan Funke is perhaps America’s premier pasta wizard. Start with the focaccia and the Frisella Pugliese (trust me) and move on to as much pasta as you can possibly fit in your belly.