Top Cocktail Bars in Los Angeles for a Properly Made Drink

Los Angeles has never been short on bars, but only in the last decade or so has the city built a mixology scene that genuinely rivals New York and San Francisco. The top cocktail bars in Los Angeles right now are places where bartenders who spent years behind neglected wells in dicey nightlife spots have finally earned rooms of their own, rooms with proper ice programs and seasonal menus and house-made tinctures. What surprised me most, spending the last eighteen months drinking my way across the city, is how little the scene follows a single formula. Downtown is all speakeasy energy and Art Deco bones. Hollywood leans toward velvet booths and old-industry glamour. Eastside bars feel like favorite neighbors who happen to shake a mean Boulevardier. Best cocktails Los Angeles loyalists will know this already. Everyone else is about to catch up.

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The Varnish — Spring Street, Downtown

I went to The Varnish on a Tuesday in February, the kind of soft Los Angeles winter night that makes patios magical. Tucked behind the back of Coles Pacific Electric Buffet on Spring Street, you walk through the restaurant's rear door, past a few chalkboard signs, and find yourself standing at a tiny mahogany bar that seats maybe twenty people. There is no cocktail list. You sit down, tell the bartender what you're in the mood for or let them decide, and then you shut up and pay attention. The room is basement-level, candlelit, and dead quiet for a bar. A couple next to me was splitting a French 75 and holding hands without saying a word. I ordered an old fashioned that came out with a single large ice cube and an orange twist so thin it practically dissolved in the bourbon.

Craft cocktail bars Los Angeles visitors sometimes skip The Varnish because it lacks the bottle walls and theatrical lighting of newer spots. That is exactly why it is worth going. Eric Alperin and Celia Schoenbaum opened this room in 2009, and it helped launch the entire downtown renaissance drink-by-drink. The music is a curated vinyl jukebox, and the bartenders here double as historians who can tell you how Coles was once the city's go-to for French dip sandwiches and bootleg whiskey during Prohibition. The Varnish does not need a gimmick. The gimmick is that it has survived every trend for fifteen years by just making perfect drinks. Go early on a weekday if you want a seat without a wait, and never bring a group larger than four. The patio behind Coles is technically available, but it fills fast on weekends and the noise level climbs past my tolerance around nine p.m.

Local Insider Tip: "Order the house pickleback, basically a shot of whiskey with a shot of brine on the side. Nobody lists it, and the brine cuts through the booze in a way that makes you want six more."

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Death and Company — East 7th Street, Arts District

Death and Company came from New York and planted a flag on East 7th Street, and the moment you step inside you understand why the best cocktails Los Angeles list had to expand. The space is enormous by craft cocktail standards, a long bar running the length of a repurposed industrial room with banquettes along the walls. Their cocktail menu is structured by flavor profile, by spirit category, and runs to about forty drinks, each one dry-iced, shaken, or stirred to a standard that would make most bars in this city weep. I visited on a Thursday and drank a Paper Plane made with Amaro Nonino, the bitterness landing just slightly behind the bourbon so it felt like a conversation between two strong personalities. The room smelled like fresh citrus and bitters.

Death and Company is significant to Los Angeles because it signaled that a major East Coast operation genuinely believed the city deserved its investment. They hired local talent, brought in bartenders from the neighborhood, and leaned into the Arts District's identity as a place where artists and makers collide. The service staff moves fast, and the crowd skews younger after ten p.m., which changes the room's energy from considered to social. Parking in the Arts District remains genuinely terrible on weekend nights, and the bar's own lot fills before eight if you're not careful. That is my single complaint. Plan to rideshare or park several blocks away.

Local Insider Tip: "Sit at the far end of the bar closest to the kitchen pass. The bartenders relax there between rushes and you get recommendations from the off-menu test batches they're working on."

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Dante — Franklin Avenue, Hollywood

Dante sits on Franklin Avenue at the foot of the Hollywood Hills, and the first time I walked in, I thought I had accidentally wandered into a Florentine café. Black-and-white marble floors, rattan chairs, and a bar covered in bottles of amaro and Italian liqueurs. The cocktails are built around Italian spirits: Camparis, Avernas, Stregas, all shaken and garnished with precision. I had a Garibaldi there, a drink made from fresh-squeezed orange juice and Campari that was so simple and so perfectly balanced that it made me reconsider everything I thought I knew about citrus and bitter.

What makes Dante worth its place among craft cocktail bars Los Angeles obsessives respect is its consistency. The bar has been open for several years and has never wavered from its Italian identity. The manager, Linden Gille, knows every regular's name and most of their orders. Hollywood has a reputation for venues that burn bright and die by the end of awards season. Dante is not that. It connects to the city's deeper history of glamorous European-inspired restaurant culture, the old Romanoff's and Chasen's lineage, but with none of the pretension. The crowd on weekends includes film people, musicians, and food writers who all seem to know each other. Come before seven if you want a quiet corner table with a view of the sunset over the Strip. After nine, the wait can stretch past forty minutes.

Local Insider Tip: "Ask for the seasonal spritz menu. It rotates every six weeks and sometimes features ingredients you will not see elsewhere in the city, like bergamot marmalade or blood orange reduction."

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Here's Looking at You — S. Spring Street, South Park

Here's Looking at You in South Park opened with serious buzz, and I honestly walked in skeptical. The Southeast Asian inspired cocktail menu, the intricate tile work, the pan-Asian small plates, a little too cool for a city already overflowing with concept. But two hours and three drinks in, I was converted. I ordered a drink called the Sumo Wrestler that combined clarified milk-punch technique with pandan and coconut and tasted like something a Thai grandmother would make if she'd gone to bartending school in Brooklyn. Every single drink on the menu arrives looking like it designed itself.

The top cocktail bars in Los Angeles in 2024 have to prove they are doing something original, and Here's Looking at You clears that bar. The space connects to South Park's transformation from a forgotten stretch of downtown into one of the city's most interesting food-and-drink corridors. The neighborhood still feels under construction, which is part of its appeal. The bar's cocktail director treats each drink as a narrative, referencing Filipino adobo, Vietnamese coffee, and Malaysian flavor profiles without ever feeling like a theme park of Asia. The food menu deserves equal attention. Spend a full evening ordering sequentially, small plates then cocktails, and you will see what I mean. One honest critique: the cocktail portions run small for the price point. You will likely need two drinks to match what a competitor pours as a single serving, which adds up quickly.

Local Insider Tip: "Go on a weeknight and request a seat right at the bar's center column. You can watch the team prep clarified punches and smoke infusions through the pass-through window, and the bartender there on weeknights tends to be the most senior one on shift."

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The Wolves — W. 1st Street, Downtown

The Wolves is a speakeasy behind an unmarked door downstairs from a Japanese restaurant, and the entrance alone makes it worth the trip. You descend a narrow staircase into a dim, wood-paneled room that feels like a Prohibition era saloon magically teleported from another century. The cocktail menu rotates monthly, and the drinks lean toward pre-Prohibition classics: Rob Roys, Sazeracs, milk punches, all executed with extraordinary precision. I had a Harvard there, a cognac-and-vermouth cocktail that I had never heard of before and have thought about every week since.

The Wolves connects directly to Los Angeles's speakeasy mythology, the city's love of hidden rooms and velvet-roped exclusivity. It is one of the few speakeasies in the city where the gimmick of being hidden actually improves the experience rather than compensating for mediocrity. The bartenders are trained to ask about your preferences before committing to a drink, and they take that consultation seriously. The room is small, maybe thirty seats, so the energy is intimate without feeling cramped. Weekends are packed and the wait downstairs in the stairwell can be uncomfortable, so I strongly recommend visiting between Wednesday and Friday when you can usually walk straight in. The Japanese restaurant upstairs, Yakumi, serves an omakase menu that pairs quietly well with the bar's aesthetic if you want to make a full evening of it.

Local Insider Tip: "Tell the bartender you want the most obscure drink on the current monthly menu rather than a classic. They light up and will almost always add a story about why they developed that specific recipe."

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Accomplice Bar — Santa Monica Boulevard, East Hollywood

Accomplice Bar is where the Eastside mixology crowd goes when they don't want to spend a lot of money for a very good drink. Located on Santa Monica Boulevard in East Hollywood, just east of Silver Lake, the room is narrow and loud and decorated with knick-knacks that probably tell the life story of someone's aunt. The cocktail menu is short, six or seven drinks at any given time, and priced around twelve to fourteen dollars, a rarity among Los Angeles mixology bars that routinely charge twenty for a stirred drink. I drank a vodka martini there that was so cold and so clean it made me rethink my lukewarm relationship with vodka entirely.

Accomplice matters because it is proof that craft cocktails do not have to be expensive or intimidating. The bartenders, many of whom came up through other high-end bars in the city, clearly care about technique but refuse to wrap it in pretension. The bar is a neighborhood joint that happens to make drinks at a level most cities would put in a specialty room with a twenty-five-dollar average ticket. It connects to East Hollywood's identity as an immigrant neighborhood that is slowly being discovered by food people without losing its essential character. The crowd is eclectic, bartenders and line cooks and freelancers and musicians who all coexist without performing their coolness for anybody. Service slows down significantly during Friday and Saturday dinner hours, small staff, high demand, but if you go midweek between six and eight p.m., the bartenders have time to talk you through every drink.

Local Insider Tip: "Order whatever the house hot toddy is during the winter months. They rotate it seasonally and it is made with a tea base that the bar sources from an East Hollywood chai vendor down the block."

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Employees Only — Hudson Avenue, Downtown

Employees Only transplanted from New York's West Village to a room on Hudson Avenue in downtown Los Angeles, and the move has been surprisingly successful. The room is dark, dramatic, and unmistakably downtown: a fortune teller sits near the door every night, and the bar stretches long with a mirrored back wall that gives the room an even bigger feel than its footprint suggests. The cocktail menu leans toward New York classics, Gimlets and Daiquiris and Martinis, all served in heavy coupettes or Rocks glasses with frozen precision. I had a Daiquiri on my last visit that was achingly balanced, tart and spirit-forward with none of the sugar-leaden laziness that plagues the drink at lesser bars.

Employees Only brought credibility. A legendary New York bar deciding that Los Angeles was worth planting a flag here tells every bartender and every visitor that the city's drink culture has legitimately arrived. The crowd leans industry-heavy, restaurant people and hotel workers and bartenders from other spots who come here to staff-drink. The connection to Los Angeles is also generational. The founders specifically cited the city's film and service culture as inspiration for the room's drama. Intense cocktail nerds will notice that the ice program here is slightly less refined than at locally rooted competitors like The Varnish or Employees Only's own standards back in New York, a small but noticeable gap if you are drinking stirred spirits that depend on dilution rate. The fortune teller, however, is not available during daytime brunch service, which seems like a real loss.

Local Insider Tip: "Sit at a corner seat near the front window after nine on a Saturday. You will catch the full spectacle of the room in full swing, and that window seat is the one seat that never backs up during the service rush."

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Bar Flores — Sunset Boulevard, Echo Park

Bar Flores on Sunset Boulevard in Echo Park took over the old Cafe Birdie space and has become an instant neighborhood anchor. The bar is small, maybe fifteen seats across the bar counter, and the cocktail menu is built around agave spirits with supplementary nods to the Filipino-American heritage of the owners. I drank a Coconut Pandan Margarita there that was so aromatic and so restrained in sweetness that I asked the bartender to explain every ingredient. She walked me through the house-made pandan syrup, the cream of coconut, the specific tequila blend, and I felt like I had taken a thirty-second masterclass in Filipino-American flavor.

Bar Flores represents the best cocktails Los Angeles can produce when cultural identity drives the menu rather than trends. Echo Park has been gentrifying steadily for over a decade, but this bar feels rooted in the existing community rather than imposed on it. The owners have relationships with local farmers' market vendors and Filipino food pop-ups that supply ingredients and occasional pop-in food service. The guava crumble dessert cocktail, when available, is worth visiting for alone. One genuine concern: the room is physically small and there is no patio, so warm summer nights in the window seats near the front can get uncomfortable by the second round. I visited on a July evening last year and the cross-breeze barely cut through the heat from the equipment behind the bar.

Local Insider Tip: "Check their Instagram Stories on Thursday evenings before you go. They frequently tease a single off-menu pour for Friday based on whatever fresh produce showed up at the Echo Park Farmers Market."

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Rey — Melrose Avenue, Fairfax

Rey on Melrose Avenue in the Fairfax district is the kind of bar where you sit down, examine the menu, and realize nothing is ordinary. The cocktail program leans on Latin American spirits, mezcal, sotol, pisco, and builds each drink around fresh citrus, house-made shrubs, and inventive bitters. I ordered a drink called the Melrose Paloma that reimagined the classic with grapefruit oleo, chamomile-infused tequila, and a rim made from smoked salt and dehydrated lime. It was transcendent. The room itself is modern, clean-lined, with warm lighting and a patio that catches every golden-hour minute Los Angeles throws at the Westside.

Rey connects to the Fairfax district's legacy as a cultural crossroads: Jewish delis, Korean barbecue, vintage clothing stores, record shops, all within a three-block radius. The bar is a deliberate addition to that cross-pollination, borrowing from Latin American drink traditions while sitting in a neighborhood far from East L.A. or the traditional corridors of Mexican and South American life. The bartenders here are also notably generous with tastes before you commit to a drink, which helped me find a cocktail I loved that I never would have ordered on my own. The one complaint I have is that the patio is technically first-come-first-served, and filling those seats by 7:15 on a weekend feels like a land rush. If you care about sitting outside, arrive no later than six-thirty.

Local Insider Tip: "Ask the bartender for the current mezcal pour if they have one available. They rotate a single-barrel selection that never appears on the printed menu and it is almost always from a small-batch producer in Oaxaca."

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When to Go / What to Know

Los Angeles cocktail bars operate on a rhythm that rewards patience and punishes spontaneity. Weeknights, Wednesday through Friday, are your best bet for getting a seat at any of the bars listed above without a reservation or a wait. Saturday nights are the hardest, with waits stretching past an hour at popular spots like Dante and Death and Company. Most bars open between five and six p.m. and close between midnight and two a.m., though some downtown spots stay open later on weekends. Prices across the city range from twelve to twenty-two dollars per drink, with most craft cocktail bars averaging around sixteen. Tipping twenty percent is standard, and many bartenders in this city are working professionals who depend on that income. Rideshare is strongly recommended for downtown and Arts District visits, where parking is scarce and expensive. Hollywood and East Hollywood have slightly better street parking but still require patience after eight p.m.

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Frequently Asked Questions

What is the one must-try local specialty food or drink that Los Angeles is famous for?

The Michelada is arguably Los Angeles's most iconic local drink, a beer-based cocktail mixed with lime juice, hot sauce, Worcestershire, and various spices, served in a salt-rimmed glass. It is available at virtually every Mexican restaurant and taco stand in the city, and the variations are endless. For a cocktail bar experience, the clarified milk punch style has become a signature technique at several Los Angeles craft cocktail bars, with Death and Company and Here's Looking at You both featuring versions on their menus.

Is the tap water in Los Angeles safe to drink, or should travelers strictly rely on filtered water options?

Tap water in Los Angeles meets all federal and state safety standards and is safe to drink. The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power sources water from the Los Angeles Aqueduct, the Colorado River, and local groundwater, treating it to comply with EPA regulations. Some visitors notice a slight chlorine taste, which is common in municipal water systems. Most restaurants and bars in the city serve filtered or sparkling water by default, so asking for tap is usually unnecessary unless you specifically prefer it.

Is Los Angeles expensive to visit? Give a realistic daily budget breakdown for mid-tier travelers.

A mid-tier daily budget for Los Angeles runs approximately 180 to 260 dollars per person. This includes a hotel or Airbnb at 100 to 160 dollars per night, meals at 40 to 60 dollars across two casual dining stops, two to three cocktails at 14 to 18 dollars each, and transportation via rideshare at 15 to 25 dollars per day. Parking at hotels can add 30 to 55 dollars per night if you are driving. Museum admissions, if included, add another 15 to 25 dollars per attraction.

Are there any specific dress codes or cultural etiquettes to keep in mind when visiting local spots in Los Angeles?

Most cocktail bars in Los Angeles have no formal dress code, though upscale spots like Employees Only and Rey lean toward smart casual, meaning clean shoes and avoiding athletic wear. Hollywood bars occasionally enforce a no-sneakers or no-shorts policy on weekend nights, so checking ahead is wise. Tipping twenty percent at bars is standard and expected. Smoking is prohibited indoors at all bars and restaurants in California, and vaping is generally frowned upon. Reservations are recommended for groups of four or more at popular spots, especially on weekends.

How easy is it to find pure vegetarian, vegan, or plant-based dining options in Los Angeles?

Los Angeles is one of the easiest cities in the United States for vegetarian and vegan dining. The city has over forty fully vegan restaurants, and the majority of cocktail bars, including every venue listed in this guide, offer at least two to three plant-based small plates or snacks. Neighborhoods like Silver Lake, Echo Park, and Culver City have the highest concentration of vegan-friendly options. Many bars also stock non-dairy alternatives like oat milk and coconut cream for cocktails upon request, and several, including Bar Flores and Here's Looking at You, build their menus around produce-forward ingredients that naturally accommodate plant-based diets.