11 bars, chosen on the record: two on North America's 50 Best, two Spirited Awards winners.
Century Grand is Barter & Shake's immersive cocktail destination in Arcadia, three rooms under one roof. Platform 18 stages a ninety-minute cocktail journey aboard a replica 1927 Presidential Pullman train car, UnderTow pours tiki in the cargo hold of a nineteenth-century ship, and the Grey Hen Rx serves Southern-inspired drinks through rotating residencies. Platform 18 has twice earned a place on North America's 50 Best Bars list.
Little Rituals calls itself your third place, a fourth-floor downtown bar built around exceptional hospitality and the small ceremonies worth celebrating. It is the winner of the Spirited Award for Best U.S. Hotel Bar and one of the most decorated rooms in Arizona.
Bitter & Twisted pours award-winning cocktails inside downtown's historic Luhrs Building, once home to the Arizona Prohibition Headquarters, a fittingly ironic setting the bar wears proudly. It has been a fixture of the Phoenix cocktail scene for a decade.
Pretty Penny is a neighborhood restaurant and cocktail bar on Roosevelt Street serving internationally inspired small plates from regularly changing menus, with seasonal sourcing and hospitality at the center.
Highball is downtown Phoenix's cozy, elevated neighborhood cocktail bar and lounge, celebrated for its deep spirits collection, invigorating cocktails, and standout hospitality.
Carry On is a 90-minute cocktail experience set inside a 1970s-inspired first-class jumbo jet lounge, as it puts it, on Central Avenue in downtown Phoenix. Seats are sold as tickets in weekly releases, with the flight schedule and drop links posted on the site and Instagram, and the room is 21 and over. The 2025 Spirited Awards placed it in the U.S. top ten for Best New U.S. Cocktail Bar.
AZ88 has faced the Scottsdale Civic Center lawn since 1988, a bar and kitchen known for its martinis and for large art installations that change through the year. Co-owner and general manager Paul Martinez has worked the room for more than two decades. The drinks list is built around martinis and classics, served from late morning to midnight with burgers, salads and sandwiches.
Some bars pour drinks, Filthy says; Filthy pours atmosphere: gold light, live piano and martinis that mean business, in a velvet-draped room beside the Cleaverman steakhouse at the Arizona Center. Tini Time runs five to seven on Sunday to Thursday and five to six on Friday, with ten-dollar signature martinis and small plates, and a last-chance-for-romance deal closes the night. Open from five every evening.
Jade Bar is the cocktail lounge of Sanctuary Camelback Mountain, the resort on the north slope of Camelback in Paradise Valley. Floor-to-ceiling windows and a shaded patio look out across the valley to the mountains, and the bar is known locally as one of the first in the Phoenix area to build its list on fresh ingredients and hand-selected spirits. Happy hour runs daily from 3pm to 6pm, sushi is served from 3pm, and seating is walk-in only.
Jamie's Bottle Shop is a wine shop and bar in Old Town Scottsdale, opened in March 2025 by Jamie Hormel, owner of the Wrigley Mansion in Phoenix. More than 700 labels fill the wooden shelves, priced from about $15 to $15,000, and the curved bar pours a seasonal by-the-glass list and flights with cheese, charcuterie and small plates. A separate Champagne Room hosts tastings and wine classes led by the in-house sommelier.
Tell Your Friends is a speakeasy and live music lounge beneath The Americano in north Scottsdale, reached by a hidden staircase and a red mirrored hallway. It comes from Creation Hospitality, the group of chef Beau MacMillan, and beverage director Ashley Cibor runs a list of classics alongside savory and sweet house drinks. The Art Deco room has velvet drapes, a gold ceiling and a long black stone bar facing a small stage, with musicians Thursday to Sunday.
These 11 are the starting point. The full BarMagazine directory covers every listed bar in Phoenix, with a map, filters by bar type, and new openings as we verify them.
