Minneapolis drinking starts with Meteor, Best U.S. Bar Team (Regional Honoree) at the Tales of the Cocktail Spirited Awards 2026, and the bench behind it runs deep: we list 13 active bars across the city. The 5 below are our pick of them. 2 of them hold verified international recognition, from the 50 Best lists to the Spirited Awards. Every listing below is verified by BarMagazine, with addresses, opening hours and the signature drinks worth ordering.
Bar Mara is the cocktail lounge beside Gavin Kaysen's Mara at Four Seasons Hotel Minneapolis, open from two in the afternoon with no reservations needed. The list pairs spirited and zero-proof drinks with equal care, a Grand Tour of bourbon, brandy, Amaro Nonino and sherry alongside a functional section built on Three Spirit and Copenhagen Sparkling Tea.
Meteor describes itself on its own site as an old ass bar with good ass drinks, a small room on North 2nd Street that sells hot dog party tickets and prints its cocktail menu as a movie poster starring the bartenders. The back bar runs deep on mezcal, sotol, raicilla and bacanora, and the James Beard Foundation named it an Outstanding Bar semifinalist in 2024.
Char Bar is a small room tucked inside the Butcher and the Boar space at 901 North 3rd Street in the North Loop of Minneapolis. The focus is whiskey, and the cocktail list is organized by flavor profile rather than by spirit category, grouping drinks under headings such as fruit, spice, smoke and umami so you can order by what you want to taste. Classics like the Manhattan sit alongside house builds including the Pink Lady Sour and the Eat Street. Elevated handhelds come out of the kitchen next door. Doors open at four every day, closing at ten Sunday through Thursday and midnight on Friday and Saturday.
Company Bar opened in January 2026 in the Kingfield neighborhood of Minneapolis, on the corner of Nicollet Avenue and 38th Street. The pitch is a neighborhood room with no frill cocktails and bites, every drink priced the same so ordering stays simple, and a bar team that treats hospitality as the product. There are drinks on tap alongside the shaken and stirred list, and Tuesday brings a set price deal pairing a tap drink with a burger and fries. Doors open at five Tuesday through Thursday and at four from Friday through Sunday, closing at midnight throughout. The room is casual enough to walk into without a plan.
Flora Room is a North Loop cocktail bar at 200 North 1st Street, set below street level in a space with a long counter, green bar stools and a lush floral backdrop that gives the room its name. It opens at five every evening and runs to midnight, working first come, first served for guests twenty one and over, so there is no reservation book to plan around. A food menu runs alongside the drinks, finishing at ten early in the week and at eleven from Thursday through Saturday. The combination of a compact bar, low light and dense greenery makes it a room built around sitting at the counter.
These 5 are the starting point. The full BarMagazine directory covers every listed bar in Minneapolis, with a map, filters by bar type, and new openings as we verify them.
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