Cocktail Bars in Los Angeles
Los Angeles cocktail bars lean on agave and on walk-ins. Every cocktail, distillate, wine and beer at Mírate comes from Mexico, and its bar and lounge are first come, first served. Daisy Margarita Bar splits its list into Cantina classics, Mercado fruit and Salsa Bar technique. At Thunderbolt, most drinks take at least two days to make. Four of these bars are on North America's 50 Best Bars 2026, two in the top 50. The Spare Room, on the mezzanine of the Hollywood Roosevelt, has two vintage bowling lanes. In Beverly Hills, Dante runs a $10 Martini Hour from 3 to 5pm. These are the twenty we would start with.
★ TOP 10NORTH AMERICA'S 50 BESTCocktail BarMírate
Mírate is No. 28 on North America's 50 Best Bars 2026. A year earlier, Bar Director Max Reis and Chef Alan Sanz earned the Nikka Highest Climber Award after jumping thirty-four places to No. 12 on North America's 50 Best Bars 2025, plus No. 93 on The World's 50 Best Bars 51-100 list in 2025, with a program built on ancestral Mexican spirits: mezcals made with pre-Hispanic methods, sotol, raicilla, and bebidas ancestrales that most bars outside Oaxaca cannot source. The force-carbonated Tu Compa paloma and the El Pulquero cocktail channel agave culture through a multi-level open-air Los Feliz space with a dedicated cocktail test kitchen. Mírate translates from Spanish as "look at yourself." The industry is looking. It was a Top 4 finalist for World's Best Spirits Selection at the 2026 Tales of the Cocktail Spirited Awards.
1712 N Vermont Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90027Mon-Wed 5pm-11pm, Thu-Fri 5pm-12am, Sat 11am-12am, Sun 11am-11pmFull profile
★ TOP 1050 BESTCocktail BarThunderbolt
Mike Capoferri built a laboratory-adjacent cocktail bar where most drinks require at least forty-eight hours of preparation, centrifuges, high-pressure nitrous, multi-day infusions, and the 2025 Ketel One Sustainable Bar Award confirmed that zero-waste ambition and world-class results coexist in a bar that ranked No. 24 on North America's 50 Best Bars 2025. The program leans Southern-inspired with an all-gluten-free food menu, and an extensive Madeira collection on the back bar adds an unexpected depth. Bright, light-pink highlights and dark-green walls frame a breezy SoCal atmosphere that disguises the intensity behind every glass. The latest lists place it at No. 92 on the North America's 50 Best Bars 51-100 list in 2026.
1263 W Temple Street, Los Angeles, CA 90026Mon 5pm-12am, Wed-Thu 5pm-12am, Fri-Sat 5pm-1am, Tue closedFull profile
★ TOP 10NORTH AMERICA'S 50 BESTCocktail BarDaisy Margarita Bar
Max Reis and Chef Alan Sanz, the Mírate team, opened this modern cantina on Ventura Boulevard in May 2025, and PUNCH named it among the five best new cocktail bars in America. Named after the Daisy cocktail family that predates the margarita, the program applies Mírate's ancestral-spirit sourcing and test-kitchen technique to a format built for accessibility: ceviches, tacos, and cocktails that deploy techniques unlike anything on the Valley's Ventura corridor. Daisy Margarita Bar brings Los Feliz-caliber ambition to Sherman Oaks without the queue. Los Angeles rewards the curious driver: Historic Filipinotown to Silver Lake to Koreatown to the Valley, each neighborhood pouring with a conviction shaped by the community around it. The city's bar culture mirrors its geography, vast, diverse, and impossible to reduce to a single identity. That is the point. Fill the tank and start drinking. The latest lists place it at No. 44 on North America's 50 Best Bars 2026.
14633 Ventura Boulevard, Sherman Oaks, CA 91403Mon-Tue 5pm-11pm, Wed-Thu 5pm-12am, Fri 5pm-1am, Sat 11am-1am, Sun 11am-11pmFull profile
★ TOP 10SPIRITEDTiki BarTiki-Ti
Ray Buhen, one of the original "Four Boys" at Don the Beachcomber, opened this twelve-seat bar on Sunset Boulevard in April 1961, and his son Mike Sr. and grandson Mike Jr. still pour ninety-plus drinks from the same cramped counter. The 2023 Spirited Awards granted the Timeless U.S. Award to a venue that needs no validation from the present because it never stopped belonging to it. Ray's Mistake, accidentally created in 1968, remains on the menu. Tiki-Ti operates as living proof that a great bar needs nothing more than great drinks, a family that cares, and twelve seats.
4427 Sunset Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90027, United StatesWed-Sat 6pm-12amFull profile
★ TOP 10NORTH AMERICA'S 50 BESTCocktail BarDeath & Co Los Angeles
Death & Co Los Angeles opened in December 2019 at 818 East 3rd Street in the Arts District, the first West Coast outpost of the bar that began in New York's East Village on New Year's Eve 2006/07, and the brand's third location after New York and Denver. David Kaplan, Alex Day, Devon Tarby and Ravi DeRossi built it as a sleek subterranean space whose main room has a 15-seat counter, booths and tables. The menu is sorted by style, from Light & Playful to Boozy & Honest, with a zero-proof section. It placed No. 34 on North America's 50 Best Bars in 2022 and No. 30 in 2023. Reservations are taken online.
818 E 3rd St, Los Angeles, CA 90013, United StatesSun–Tue 6pm–12am, Wed–Thu 6pm–1am, Fri–Sat 6pm–2amFull profile
★ TOP 10NORTH AMERICA'S 50 BESTCocktail BarVandell
Shawn Lickliter and Vay Su opened on Hillhurst Avenue in December 2025 with thirty cocktails organized into signatures, classics with vintage spirits, zero-proof options, and forgotten recipes, gimlets, Saratogas, built from a backbar stocking vintage 1970s Campari and rare bottles. Lines form nightly down the block. The retro, low-lit room with dimly lit alcoves and a Red Room alcove channels mid-century Los Feliz without the irony. Vandell arrived without rankings but with the kind of instant neighborhood loyalty that rankings eventually follow. The walk-in queue is the price of admission. It was a Top 4 finalist for Best New U.S. Cocktail Bar at the 2026 Tales of the Cocktail Spirited Awards.
1966 Hillhurst Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90027Tue-Sun 5pm-1am, Mon closedFull profile- Baby Gee★ TOP 10Cocktail Bar
Baby Gee
Baby Gee is a neighborhood cocktail bar on East 4th Street in Long Beach that describes itself as serving fancy pants cocktails, natural wine and beer in an eclectic but casual room. It opens seven days a week, from two in the afternoon on weekends, and the Spirited Awards have named it a U.S. West honoree for Best U.S. Cocktail Bar in both 2025 and 2026.
1227 E 4th St, Long Beach, CA 90802Mon-Wed 5pm-12am; Thu-Fri 5pm-2am; Sat 2pm-2am; Sun 2pm-12amFull profile - Spare Room★ TOP 10SPIRITEDCocktail Bar
Spare Room
Best American Hotel Bar at the 2020 Spirited Awards, this Hollywood Roosevelt venue combines a wood-panelled gaming lounge with two vintage bowling alleys from the early 1800s, Art Deco arched windows overlooking Hollywood Boulevard, and a cocktail program anchored by the Salt & Vinegar Martini, potato vodka, Noilly Prat, Colony Bitters, and pickle brine. Punch bowls serve six to twenty. The photo booth is secret. The atmosphere channels a 1940s bowling parlour that never existed but should have. Spare Room treats entertainment and mixology as the same discipline.
7000 Hollywood Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90028Mon, Wed-Sat 8pm-2am, Tue & Sun closedFull profile 
★ TOP 10Cocktail BarSeven Grand
Seven Grand opened in April 2007 on the second floor of a converted 1920s jewelry store at 515 West 7th Street, and it takes its name from its corner, Seventh and Grand. Cedd Moses opened it as a whiskey bar with taxidermy, a stag's-head chandelier and billiards, and it is widely seen as the spark for Downtown Los Angeles's cocktail scene. What began as a tribute to classic whiskey bars now covers all the classic spirits, across several rooms and a cigar patio. Part of the Pouring With Heart group, it has since added branches in San Diego, Austin and Denver. It opens daily from 4pm to 2am, with happy hour until 8pm.
515 W 7th St, 2nd Floor, Los Angeles, CA 90014Daily 4pm–2amFull profile
★ TOP 10Cocktail BarDante Beverly Hills
The first West Coast outpost of New York's beloved Dante occupies the ninth floor of the Maybourne Beverly Hills with indoor and outdoor seating, a wood-fired pizza oven, and a rolling Negroni cart for tableside customization. Ten martini variations, including the Upside Down Dirty Gibson and the Tequila Martini with Lo-Fi sweet vermouth and crème de cacao, anchor a program managed by bartender Pride, widely considered among the best in the world. A ten-dollar happy hour martini from 3 to 5 p.m. daily confirms that Beverly Hills pricing is negotiable. Dante translates effortlessly across coasts.
225 N Canon Drive, Beverly Hills, CA 90210Mon-Fri 12pm-12am, Sat 10am-12am, Sun 10am-11pmFull profile- Capri ClubCocktail Bar
Capri Club
Capri Club is an aperitivo bar in Eagle Rock in the space of The Capri, a red-sauce Italian restaurant that opened in 1963 and ran under two families until 2019. Robert Fleming reopened it as a bar built on amari, aperitivo cocktails and frozen negronis, with a wine list and Italian bar food, and it runs walk-in only with a lasagna night on Mondays and a pasta night on Tuesdays.
4604 Eagle Rock Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90041Mon-Wed 4pm-11pm; Thu-Fri 4pm-12am; Sat 2pm-12am; Sun 2pm-11pmFull profile - Damn, I Miss ParisCocktail Bar
Damn, I Miss Paris
Damn, I Miss Paris is a cocktail bar in historic West Adams that serves small bites rather than a full menu and seats first come, first served, with booths for parties of four to six. The room is available for private buyouts, and the bar posts closures for those events on Instagram.
5162 W Adams Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90016Tue-Wed, Sun 5pm-12am; Thu 5pm-1am; Fri-Sat 5pm-2am; Mon closedFull profile - KatoCocktail Bar
Kato
Kato is a tasting-menu restaurant at ROW DTLA in the Arts District, and its bar runs as its own track, with bar seats bookable for snacks and drinks, an abbreviated bar tasting menu, and an alcohol-free flight built by the bar team. The bar is 21 and over, and the Spirited Awards have named it a U.S. West honoree for Best U.S. Restaurant Bar in both 2025 and 2026.
777 S Alameda St, Building 1, Suite 114, Los Angeles, CA 90021Wed-Sun, bar seats 5pm-8:30pm for reservations; Mon-Tue closedFull profile - LuciaCocktail Bar
Lucia
Lucia is a modern Afro-Caribbean restaurant and cocktail lounge on Fairfax Avenue, opened in 2025, where dinner runs into DJ sets and the bar stays open to midnight. The cocktails are Caribbean readings of classics, an Okra Martini with pickled okra and escovitch, a Soursop Paloma on bacanora, a Tamarind Collins with Red Stripe, and the room carries an upscale dress code and a 21-and-over door.
351 N Fairfax Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90036Wed-Sun 6pm-12am; Mon-Tue private events onlyFull profile - Not No BarCocktail Bar
Not No Bar
Not No Bar is a neighborhood cocktail bar on Main Street in Santa Monica with wood-fired pizza and a disco soundtrack, which it sums up on its own site as cocktails, pizza, disco. Kent Thompson runs the bar and Houston Stock the kitchen, walk-ins are always welcome, and the room is family friendly until ten before turning 21 and over.
2424 Main St, Santa Monica, CA 90405Mon, Thu-Sun 5pm-1am; Tue-Wed closedFull profile - Real CharmerCocktail Bar
Real Charmer
Real Charmer is a cocktail bar in Virgil Village that the Spirited Awards named a Regional Top 10 Honoree for Best New U.S. Cocktail Bar in 2025 and for Best U.S. Bar Team in 2026.
864 N Virgil Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90029Full profile 
NORTH AMERICA'S 50 BESTCocktail BarBar Next Door
Located in the old office of Marilyn Monroe's talent agent on Sunset Boulevard, this dime-sized West Hollywood bar debuted at No. 100 on the North America's 50 Best Bars 51-100 list in 2025 with a program that names drinks after nearby LA icons, a clarified paloma rosé spritz inspired by the Beverly Hills Hotel, a pisco-and-passion-fruit ode to the Viper Room. The intimate space fills with coworkers and solo drinkers at the bar on weeknights and packs to the walls on weekends. Bar Next Door proves that a Sunset Strip address and craft cocktail ambition are no longer contradictions.
9159 Sunset Boulevard, West Hollywood, CA 90069Mon-Thu 6pm-2am, Fri-Sat 5pm-2am, Sun closedFull profile
Cocktail BarApothéke
Apothéke Los Angeles opened in early 2018 at 1746 North Spring Street, the West Coast sibling of the bar that opened in New York's Chinatown in 2008. Founder Christopher Tierney spent more than two years looking for the site, an unmarked white-brick building beside the Los Angeles River in Chinatown's warehouse district. Inside, sconces made from laboratory boiling flasks hold glowing herbal tinctures, and a patio with its own marble horseshoe bar looks out on the river and the passing Metro trains. The menu has long been laid out like an apothecary's, with sections such as Pain Killers and Stress Relievers, and the summer 2026 menus include one devoted to absinthe. It opens Thursday to Sunday, with paid parking on Naud Street behind the bar.
1746 N Spring St, Los Angeles, CA 90012Thu & Sun 7:00pm-12:00pm Fri–Sat 6:00pm-1:00amFull profile- Friendship BarCocktail Bar
Friendship Bar
Friendship Bar occupies a ship-shaped building on Channel Road in Santa Monica Canyon that has held a bar since the 1930s, including a long run as a gay bar and, most recently, Shore Bar. The team behind Golden Bull, on the same street, reopened it in 2026 under a version of its original name, with booths lit by ship lanterns, a back deck and an upstairs room for events. The drinks are classic cocktails, wine and beer, with live soul on Thursdays, DJs on weekends and an industry night on Mondays.
112 W Channel Rd, Santa Monica, CA 90402, United StatesMon 5pm-late, Thu 5pm-late, Fri 5pm-2am, Sat-Sun 2pm-2am, closed Tue-WedFull profile - The Chestnut ClubCocktail Bar
The Chestnut Club
The Chestnut Club is a cocktail bar on 14th Street in Santa Monica, run by Mario Guddemi and Sal Aurora, the hospitality team behind Black Market Liquor Bar, Scopa Italian Roots and Dama. The room has brick walls, leather booths, a back bar of more than 400 bottles and no televisions. The list keeps to spirit-led classics such as the Old Fashioned, Paper Plane, Black Manhattan and Sidecar, with spirit flights and a dealer's choice option. Tuesday is trivia, Wednesday live jazz, and DJs play on Friday and Saturday.
1348 14th St, Santa Monica, CA 90404, United StatesTue-Sat 5pm-2am, closed Sun-MonFull profile
More of Los Angeles
These are the cocktail bars specifically. The full Los Angeles guide ranks the best bars of every style, and the directory lists all 51 with a map and filters.
