359 Best Bars in California, USA

The cocktails are well crafted and affordable (by pricey San Francisco standards) at the city's second-oldest saloon location—various watering holes have operated on this site since 1858. It's San Francisco's best example of a vintage neighborhood favorite with the finest elements of a modern ingredient-focused cocktail bar. Cocktail geeks and sports fans mingle in the same room. Don't miss the holiday cocktails in December.

Ramshackle Ernie's shares a corrugated tin building with a frozen-in-time roadside garage, with part of the bar actually in the garage. Mounted stag heads and a toothy wild boar watch over this rural neighborhood hangout with a long narrow bar, a patio outside, and Pliny the Elder and another 20 or so brews on tap. There’s often live music on weekends. Signs everywhere ban cell phone use, though patrons and staffers occasionally flout them.

A walk-in refrigerator harbors the secret entrance to this tiki-themed speakeasy, which is attached to the full-service restaurant Craft & Commerce. Beneath fishing nets full of puffer-fish lights and elaborate tiki-head wall carvings, the knowledgeable staff serves creative takes on tropical classics with the best selection of rums in town.  The bar fills up quickly, especially on weekends. Make a reservation online a week or more in advance.

Reimagined classics crafted with precision are this nautical-themed cocktail bar's stock-in-trade. Lit with restraint, it nimbly walks the line between kitsch and hip, with a long bar, elevated booths, high-tops, and a low-slung rear lounge area to suit your mood. The entertainment includes trivia nights and live music, including the occasional ukulele plucked with verve by the bar's puckish owner.

A bar, vinyl shop, and indie-music public radio station inside a century-old warehouse, Folklore draws Napans, visitors, and wine-industry and creative types. Before heading elsewhere for dinner, many early-evening patrons quaff expertly crafted cocktails while nibbling on bar snacks, tinned-fish boards, salads, or "in-between" fare like merguez hot dogs with kimchi and saffron aioli, but a goodly number stay put for slightly more substantial fare.

Since 1968, the Freight has been a venue for some of the world's finest practitioners of folk, rock, jazz, gospel, blues, country, bluegrass, and spoken word. The nonprofit grew from an 87-seat coffeehouse to a thriving, nearly 500-seat venue in the heart of Berkeley's Arts District. Many tickets cost less than $40.

Two doors down from Diavola Pizzeria (same ownership), this long skinny bar in Geyserville's Odd Fellows Building wows locals and tourists with classic cocktails and a bar menu of international comfort food. Hardwood floors, exposed brick, taxidermied animals, and contemporary lighting set the mood at this cool spot.

Craft cocktails, beers on tap, an outdoor smoking patio, and retro video games—this bar in the heart of Downtown is not to be missed. With one of the oldest liquor licenses in Los Angeles (issued in 1905), the Golden Gopher is the only bar in Los Angeles with an on-site liquor store for to-go orders—just in case you want to buy another bottle before you head home.

It's a fridge; it's a door; it's the entrance to Davey Wayne's, a bar and lounge that pulls out all the stops to transport you back in time to the '70s. The interior is your living room; the outside is an ongoing backyard barbecue with all your friends. Come early to beat the crowds or be prepared to get up close and personal with your neighbors.

Though the Grant Grill—located on the ground floor of the historic US Grant Hotel—is a full-service restaurant, it's built up a reputation in recent years for stepping up San Diego's craft cocktail game. The cocktail menu is updated seasonally with fresh ingredients and themes (one recently featured a mini "Voodoo" doll frozen inside of a large ice cube), all of which are both innovative and palate pleasing. The atmosphere is comfortable and elegant, even on its busiest nights.

Arguably California's longest continuously active saloon since it opened in 1884, this watering hole, built from the hull of a flat-bottomed stern-wheeler, is where young Jack London got his start as a writer. Historic photos and artifacts hang from the crooked walls and ceilings, which have been atilt since the 1906 earthquake. Get a peek at the slanted bar, where beers on tap and bottomless stories of Oakland history abound. And if it's a sunny day, make sure to spend at least one round on the front patio.

Once an ambitious restoration project, Highland Park Bowl now serves as a massive throwback to its Prohibition-era roots, formerly an alcohol-prescribing doctor’s office and drugstore with its own bowling alley. Although the hooch-pushing doctor and druggist are long gone, the bowling alley remains, complete with the original pin machine. Revel in the nostalgia, but expect a wait for a lane on weekend evenings.

This super-kitschy nautical-theme bar in the heart of Koreatown offers drink specials and food at prices that will make you swoon. Come for the wings, all-day breakfast specials, cheap drinks, and very eclectic crowds.

Saturated colors out of the Day-Glo school of lighting illuminate a decor heavy on bamboo, rattan, and intricate wood carvings at this Tiki establishment. The rum-led lineup includes updated takes on Trader Vic's mai tai and Don the Beachcomber's Zombie, along with newer cocktails with equal verve. All play well with the Asian-influenced bar fare. 

Hemingway would have loved this exquisitely designed brick-and-copper bar that serves up equally exquisite craft cocktails that are definitely made for sipping. Drinks may be the centerpiece here, but as one of the few late-night dining spots in the area, the menu also features numerous "exotic game" items, such as bone-in elk chops and venison sliders. (Vegetarians may wish to seek sustenance elsewhere.) The vibe runs on the sophisticated side, and is highly recommended for those looking to impress a special someone. Happy hour runs from 4 to 6 pm, and the kitchen doesn't close until 1 am.

Two bartending all-stars and a chef fascinated by international comfort food opened this bar where patrons wash down tacos, kimchi noodles, crispy pork spare ribs, and chicken tenders with craft cocktails. There are good beer and wine selections, too. Everything's best enjoyed on the back patio.

Sommeliers own and run this wine, beer, and sake bar whose selections roam the globe but favor coastal California, Burgundy, and Champagne. A good place to learn about new regions or grape types, it hosts winery nights and restaurant pop-ups.

Halfway between Joshua Tree and Twentynine Palms sits a gleaming white Spanish bungalow so striking and solitary and surrounded by sand that you're bound to do a double-take. But it's no mirage. In fact, it's an adorable, chill oasis where you can quench two types of thirst: the morning or afternoon-pick-me-up need for coffee (and pastries) and the anytime (post-work, post-hike, celebration) alcoholic fix. There's a great patio, where patrons sometimes do yoga but usually just sip selections from the Mexican-leaning cocktail menu of margaritas, Mezcal negronis, micheladas, Bloody Marias.

Flavorful, colorful, fruity cocktails are the specialty of this bar and restaurant whose equally rich-hued decor and corrugated-metal ceiling intentionally evoke spots throughout Mexico. While sipping sangria, a cerveza, or the house margarita in several flavors, you can nibble on street tacos, posole, elote (corn on a stick), and other small plates.

Launched by the team behind Kindred, Mothership is a cocktail experience right out of the most fantastical science fiction. Its interior has to be seen to be believed, half of it resembling a cinematic spaceship and the other half looking like the alien worlds it landed on, while the drinks they serve—with names referencing the likes of Alien and Star Trek—are dazzling and delicious tiki concoctions. Reservations open up 21 days in advance but fill up fast, but bar seating is first-come, first-served.

There are a handful of speakeasy-style bars in San Diego, though none deliver so far above and beyond the novelty quite like this cozy-yet-swank cocktail lounge hidden in the back of a burger restaurant. Seek out the hidden door (hint: look for the stack of kegs), tuck into a plush leather booth next to the wall of golden skulls, and sip on some of the best craft cocktails in the city. For even more exclusivity, check out the speakeasy-within-a-speakeasy Youngblood, which is an all-inclusive cocktail experience in an adjacent space for the up-front fee of $67. Reservations are almost always a must, so be sure to call ahead.

Named one of 2024's top 50 bars in North America by the beverage industry, PCH is a relaxed, suave favorite for some of San Francisco's most unique and sophisticated cocktails (plus one of the city's best cocktail bar courtyards). As the name suggests, Asian Pacific flavors—shiso, ume, li hing mui, pandan—abound on the lengthy cocktail menu, and the talented bartenders make reliable recommendations. Fun theme nights and unique mugs and glassware are common; the holiday season is a special delight.

Smack in the middle of a Wild West main street movie set built in the 1940s, this haute–honky tonk saloon serves stiff drinks and hosts live music on two stages: one inside and intimate, the other out under the stars. Given that it's on the small side and in the middle of nowhere, you might be surprised at the caliber of talent it books—Paul McCartney, Robert Plant, Orville Peck, Lizzo, and Patti Smith have all made the pilgrimage—and the number of patrons it packs in on any given night. It also hosts surprise, drop-in performers, especially during the Coachella music festival. Bring your dancing shoes and come hungry, as the restaurant here dishes up open-fire, Santa Maria–style barbecue that's worth the inevitable wait for a table (reservations aren't accepted).

The Palace Hotel's clubby, wood-paneled watering hole takes its name from the 1909 Maxfield Parrish mural The Pied Piper of Hamelin, which covers most of the wall behind the bar. The Pied Piper lures an upscale clientele for stiff two-olive martinis, Manhattans, and other trad libations.

Catch a lineup of indie tastemakers inside this converted industrial space, or hang outdoors in the beer garden while trying bites from on-site food truck KTCHN (on cooler evenings you can congregate around the firepits). A wide variety of draft beers and a specially curated cocktail program are available inside at the bar or at the trailer bar outside.

San Diego isn't known for offering a lot of late-night libation options, but that changed in 2024 when acclaimed bar directors Beau du Bois and Derek Cram opened this Mexico City-inspired cocktail bar. The menu features dozens of different drinks and a few light bites to accompany them, but make no mistake---cocktails are the star here. Classics like Cosmopolitans and French 75s impress just as much as the painstakingly detailed "Technique Driven" fig leaf Old Fashioned and crystal clear rum and coke. The expertly trained staff can drop knowledge on a dime, so don't be shy about asking questions or getting recommendations.

The elevator at the back of The Matheson restaurant whisks patrons up to Roof 106, Healdsburg's hot spot for craft cocktails enjoyed with or without pizzas, small plates, and desserts. The vibe here is jolly and hip, with luxury patio furniture for lounging, and firepits and overhead heaters that keep the open-air space toasty when there's a chill.

The hunting lodge vibe makes you feel like you need a whiskey in hand—luckily, this Downtown establishment stocks more than 700 of them. Attracting whiskey novices and connoisseurs, the bartenders here are more than willing to help you make a selection. Live jazz, blues, folk, and other bands play almost every night, so even if you're not a big drinker, there's still some appeal (although you're definitely missing out). For a more intimate setting, try the on-site Bar Jackalope, a bar within a bar, which has a "whiskey tasting library" specializing in Japanese varieties and seats only 18.

With the decor of a pirate ship and a slew of rum-based cocktails, you half expect Captain Jack Sparrow to sidle up next to you at this offbeat Disney-esque hangout. But the folks at Smuggler's Cove take rum so seriously they've even had it made for them from distillers around the world, which you can sample along with more than 550 other offerings. The small space fills up quickly, so arrive early—though with two bars on three intimate levels, there's a lot to see.

Chat up the locals at this neighborhood hangout with a welcoming vibe and bartenders slinging the classics along with craft cocktails like the pickled martini made with Sonoma’s own Hanson's organic vodka. The bacon bourbon sour soothes on a cold night. Music and comedy acts perform many nights.