Six bars, chosen on the record: three Spirited Awards nominees.
Kru is Billy Ngo's contemporary Japanese restaurant in East Sacramento, founded in 2005 and in its current Folsom Boulevard home since 2017, and its bar runs a set of house standards on Japanese whisky and a private Four Roses barrel with house red vermouth and citrus bitters. Highballs come off a Toki machine, sake by the carafe and flight, and the menu offers a bespoke surprise-me drink.
The Butterscotch Den is a grill-your-own steakhouse and supper club in Oak Park that files itself under fine diving, with steaks delivered raw for you to season and grill and a Freezer Martini of Fords gin and two vermouths served at ten below with an optional bump of caviar. Happy hour runs twice a day, a jazz trio plays Tuesdays and Thursdays, and the Spirited Awards named it a U.S. West honoree for Best U.S. Restaurant Bar in both 2025 and 2026.
The Snug is a neighborhood cocktail bar in Midtown Sacramento whose bar was built in Ireland and shipped over, and which its operator says was the first custom bar in the United States built to the height of the average woman. It opened to serve affordable, expertly made drinks, and the Spirited Awards named it a U.S. West honoree for Best U.S. Cocktail Bar in 2026.
The Jungle Bird promises a little Aloha in the heart of Sacramento: a Midtown tiki bar with a rum list, island cuisine and a calendar of Time Travel Tuesdays, when it revisits tropical drinks from the thirties, and Sabbath Sundays. Dining runs Tuesday to Sunday from four to ten, after which the bar is first come first served; it is all ages until nine, and warns that lots of rum and pirate language will be flowing.
The Roost is the speakeasy inside Bawk! Chicken and Bar on R Street, entered through the restaurant with no password, run by the Urban Roots group. It keeps a drink menu and provisions list online, hosts Japanese whisky spirit dinners and private parties, and runs a Coop Club for regulars. Open Wednesday to Saturday from five.
The Shady Lady describes its setting and menu as reminiscent of America's 1920s with a modern feel, a glimpse into the past with a contemporary twist, and pours classic and original cocktails built on the freshest ingredients. It is a small bar that books jazz, blues and country bands at a volume, in its words, that complements the room, keeps a kitchen going into the night and a weekday happy hour from three to six. Esquire named it one of the top 25 bars in America in 2014.
These 6 are the starting point. The full BarMagazine directory covers every listed bar in Sacramento, with a map, filters by bar type, and new openings as we verify them.
All bars in Sacramento