Detroit has 16 cocktail bars in the BarMagazine directory, and Bar Chenin leads the pack. The 5 below are the ones we would send you to first. This guide covers the cocktail bars specifically; the full Detroit picture, all 16 bars of it, lives on the city page. Each listing is verified, with the address, opening hours and what to order.
Bar Chenin is a small wine bar inside The Siren Hotel on Broadway in downtown Detroit, pouring biodynamic wines alongside cocktails, ice cream and light fare, with no reservations taken. The Spirited Awards named it a U.S. Central honoree for Best New U.S. Cocktail Bar in 2026.
A Detroit bar serving cocktails, wine and snacks across an indoor room and an outdoor patio. It operates primarily on a walk-in basis, with limited reservations through Resy, and is open daily from the afternoon into the late evening. The bar holds No. 83 on North America's 50 Best Bars 2026.
Grey Ghost takes its name from a Prohibition-era rum-runner and carries the story into a restaurant on Watson Street whose drinks list is organized as stirred, shaken, dessert and mocktails. The cocktails borrow from the kitchen, a Black Pearl of rye, cognac and aged rum with chai demerara, and an Ides of March that puts caesar, parmesan and sesame oil into a gin martini.
Standby is a cocktail bar and restaurant entered from The Belt alley in downtown Detroit, with bar seating first come and a kitchen open until eleven. Its menus run as themed editions, the current one an exploration of culinary icons with each drink credited to a chef, and its own site lists James Beard semifinalist honors for Outstanding Bar Program in 2017 and 2018 and Spirited Awards regional honors in 2020, 2023 and 2024.
The Best Kept Secret is a speakeasy hidden inside The Wine Garden liquor store on Harper Avenue in St. Clair Shores, where a clerk shows you the entrance and the cocktails are built from the bottles on the shelves next door, any of which you can take home. Reservations are recommended, tables run ninety minutes, there is no standing room, and a dress code applies.
These are the cocktail bars specifically. The full Detroit guide ranks the best bars of every style, and the directory lists all 16 with a map and filters.
Best bars in Detroit