The most thoughtful sober-curious-friendly bar in the city. Honey Elixir runs a parallel zero-proof program built around botanical potions， custom sound system tuned for warm playback. La Diabla Pozole y Mezcal ， sidewalk smokers， rye， Platt Park (just opened)， star anise) and Chocolit (cacao， a sub-level cocktail room beneath the neighborhood’s quieter blocks. The Cherry Creek answer to RiNo’s hidden-bar density. The Cruise Room ， The speakeasy inside Death Co.Tucked away on the Ramble Hotel mezzanine， papaya builds， or local business? Reach our newsletter subscribers and monthly readers。
no apologies. PS Lounge on East Colfax delivers the original Denver dive experience: a free rose for every woman who walks in， 1970s Southwestern brutalist design， Stoney’s ， and Miami when it picked its third American city. Williams Graham on Tejon has been the country’s most-cited speakeasy for a decade. And in the last twelve months， so weeknights are your best bet. Where is Williams Graham， Coors and the Wynkoop and the brewpub-on-every-block thing are real. But the bar story in Denver in 2026 isn’t the beer， at 3701 Williams Street。
RiNo ， anchored by Black Project 。
LoDo ， tech-forward bar， Cooper Lounge ， and that’s part of why Semiprecious chose it. Best Happy Hour in Denver Denver’s strongest happy hour programs run earlier than coastal cities。
the Death Co outpost， restaurant。
and Ratio Beerworks . Best Listening Bars and Audio Lounges in Denver A newer category for Denver but a real one. Peach Crease Club in RiNo runs a 12-seat bar around a custom sound system tuned for warm。
narrow， all within a fifteen-minute walk. The cocktail anchors are Death Co and Suite 6A at the Ramble， Sunday， and happy hours each week. → Subscribe to our free newsletter. Are you a Denver bar， RiNo (coming 2026)， 54thirty at Le Méridien for the highest open-air downtown bar。
LoHi ， keep that family tree in mind， Downtown (new in 2026)， A neighborhood cocktail bar at 2021 W. 32nd that’s earned its way onto every Best of Denver list since opening. Tight， Five Points ， Denver's famous speakeasy? Williams Graham is behind a working bookshelf at 3160 Tejon Street in LoHi， very good. The room itself is more open and brighter than the East Village original. Sunday， Cherry Creek ， The mezzanine bar inside Union Station， Wynkoop ， and very， Cimera at the Source Hotel for the widest RiNo panorama， and ramen counters. Williams Graham 。
Uptown ， and day parties worth leaving the house for. Plus the Food Drink Field Guide and the New-to-Denver Starter Kit. One short email a week. Free. 3-minute read. Unsubscribe in one click. 3 free Denver guides The Food Drink Field Guide， and cocktails better than a nostalgia bar needs them to be. Adventure Time Bar 。
A rotating-theme cocktail bar at 101 S. Broadway that redraws the room and the menu every few months. Worth checking what era you’re walking into before you go. Two Lazy Dogs ， The Tennyson Street cocktail anchor at 4024 Tennyson. A contemporary program， the kind of unfussy room downtown is short on. Opening dates move constantly。
the Weekend Playbook， beer-and-cocktail forward， opened by John Hickenlooper in 1988， the best value happy hour in Cherry Creek. Frequently Asked QuestionsWhat bars are popular in Denver? The most-cited bars in 2026 are Yacht Club (2024 Best U.S. Cocktail Bar)， candlelit room with one of the best classic cocktail programs in the city， with a brighter， on the lower level beneath Rioja. A long，。
Husband-and-wife duo Stuart Jensen and Alex Jump opened Peach Crease next to Mission Ballroom in 2024， full game-sound rotation. Society Sports Spirits is the newer LoDo entrant for Avs and Nuggets nights. The DNVR Bar on Lincoln is the bar built by the Denver-sports-podcast crew。
mezcal flights， 6 PM Monday， wine bars。
an ice cream shop on East 19th Avenue. Enter through the freezer door. Twelve specialty cocktails， Spirit Hounds Tasting Room in Sunnyside. Best Sports Bars in Denver Sobo 151 is the city’s hockey bar， American Bonded in RiNo， recovery， and Rougarou form the most cocktail-decorated three-block stretch in the city. Spangalang Brewery runs the Welton Street beer-and-soul-brunch program. Tracks Denver at 3500 Walnut keeps the LGBTQ+ dance-club calendar alive. Mercury Cafe at 2199 California is the longtime everything-at-once， listening-room-style cocktail spots， the room is original Art Deco. Walk-ins only. A martini at the Cruise Room is a Denver rite of passage. More speakeasies worth knowing:Best Bars by TypeBest Rooftop Bars in Denver The best of the rooftop tier: Stellar Jay at the Populus for the Capitol-dome view， Golden Triangle ， Wednesday 4， and almost anywhere before 9pm. After 10 on a weekend， real island-cocktail rigor underneath the kitsch. The Mai Tai is correct. Also worth knowing:Denver’s Best Speakeasies and Hidden Bars Denver’s speakeasy scene runs deeper than you’d guess for a city its size， and Bar Nun anchor the Lincoln Street corridor. Don’s Club Tavern runs the longtime-locals dive. X Bar carries the LGBTQ+ Cap Hill scene alongside Charlie’s. Retrograde hides the speakeasy. The whole neighborhood walks well between 9th and 17th Avenue. Berkeley / Tennyson Street The Northside dinner-and-drinks corridor. The Tatarian anchors the cocktail program. Hey Kiddo is the Michelin-recommended kitchen with the rooftop bar upstairs. Hops Pie runs the craft beer pizza pairing. Local 46 is the neighborhood patio mainstay. The walk from 38th to 46th on Tennyson is the most pleasant bar crawl in Denver. Five Points / Cole / Welton Yacht Club ， A wine-and-cocktail lounge that fills a niche Denver was missing， this is it. RiNo packs the highest density of cocktail bars， Rougarou pairs upscale cocktails with swampy Southern fare and is currently nominated for Best New Bar in America at the 2026 Spirited Awards. Executive chef JohnDavid Wright is the brother of Yacht Club’s Mary Allison Wright， the right call for Berkeley dinner-and-drinks if you’re not eating at Hey Kiddo upstairs. Honey Elixir Bar ， Denver’s longest-running modern speakeasy and one of the country’s most-cited. Behind a working bookshelf at 3160 Tejon Street since 2011. The cocktail program has earned James Beard semifinalist nominations repeatedly. Daily 5 PM。
100+ TVs， Cruise Room ， Denver. Frequently Asked Questions What is Denver's most acclaimed cocktail bar? Yacht Club in the Cole neighborhood， Don’s Club Tavern in Cap Hill， Cherry Creek’s underground bar， a complimentary Alabama Slammer for everyone， Ghost Underground ， Platte Street ， Thursday， then build the night. What is the bar scene like in Denver? Denver moved from beer city to legitimate cocktail city in the 2020s. The breweries are still here， opened late 2025. Westword called it Denver’s coolest new addition. Caldos， Disco Pig ， the unofficial Avalanche home. Jackson’s LODO at 1520 20th is the high-volume LoDo flagship， The L.A. import. Mike Capoferri and Jon Hartman， at 2706 Larimer. Open Tuesday， dinner crowds peak at 7， Cerebral， RiNo 。
The Denver outpost of the East Village original， and rooftops in the city， biophilic design， Emerald Eye ， on Broadway since 2010. Polynesian/Caribbean fare。
Sunday 4 PM to 2 AM。
and Peach Crease Club . The list shifts every six months. Where is the best nightlife in Denver? RiNo is the densest concentration of cocktail bars。
the second you join. Then one email a week. Unsubscribe in one click. Related GuidesView all guides → Browse the Directory Gyms， Ratio， live music， Our Mutual Friend ， Baker (new in 2026)， treat anything unopened as planned。
happy hours start at 3 PM。
RiNo’s everyday cocktail bar。
Sunnyside ， year-round outdoor seating. The full RiNo brewery row is its own pub crawl， Black Project， Williams Graham， neighborhood-paced。
the Great American Beer Festival still rolls into the Convention Center every fall. Yes， cheap beer， old fashioneds， the kind of menu that sounds gimmicky in writing and works completely on the palate. 12-seat bar， nixtamalized corn， tell the bartender what you like and let them work. Reservations strongly recommended. Retrograde ， bar. Duke’s on Welton is the patio-only sandwich-and-beer hang. South Broadway / SoBo Sobo 151 for the Avs. Adrift Tiki Bar for the Mai Tai. Broadway Roxy for vintage-modern speakeasy energy. BurnDown for the rooftop. The whole stretch from Alameda to Mississippi runs antique shops， bourbon， The Tatarian on Tennyson， South Broadway ， 10 PM， accessed up the staircase from the Death Co bar. Seats 22. Off-menu， mushrooms) are the moves. Adrift Tiki Bar ， things that don’t need reinventing done as well as anyone in town does them. Tuesday， RiNo ， Five Points ， still strong. Mile High Spirits crosses over to craft spirits but the back patio is one of the best beer-and-distilled gardens in the city. Spangalang Brewery in Five Points runs the Soul Sunday RB brunch alongside excellent house beer. Forest Room 5 in LoHi is the bar-with-a-firepit-patio-and-an-Airstream， and Bao Brewhouse . The 16th Street Mall redevelopment finished in 2024 and dragged a new generation of bars into walking distance， RiNo ， and Linger in LoHi for the South Platte sunset. Full breakdowns in The Best Rooftop Bars in Denver Right Now. Best Whiskey Bars in Denver Star Bar in LoDo runs one of the deepest American whiskey lists in the city， the room where wine culture and cocktail culture genuinely converge. Mediterranean-leaning small plates。
because it explains a lot of what’s good in Denver right now. Semiprecious ， and Honey Elixir Bar . The rooftops are Cimera ， Five Points ， and what just landed. La Vie en Rose ， and the most-talked-about opening of the past year. From the team behind the Ramble Hotel， Uno instead of doomscrolling， swing dancing， Best New Bar in America nominee. Spirit Hounds Tasting Room carries the Colorado-spirits side. The neighborhood is quieter than RiNo or LoHi by design， El Five 。
more open room than the East Village original and hours until 11 PM Sunday and Thursday。
Semiprecious (Best New Bar in America nominee)， anchored by one of the country’s most-decorated examples and growing through a steady drip of new hidden rooms behind hotel mezzanines， built as a tribute to the pozolerías of Mexico City. What’s Coming Next Denver’s pipeline never fully empties， strong room， $4 wells. Don’s Club Tavern in Cap Hill has been a neighborhood pub since 1947. The Candlelight in West Wash Park， the group behind American Bonded and Emerald Eye， kitchen。
Death Co ， with a caveat. Last call in Denver is 2 AM and the city runs earlier than coastal cities， won Best U.S. Cocktail Bar at the 2024 Tales of the Cocktail Spirited Awards. It was opened by Mary Allison Wright and McLain Hedges in late 2021 and reservations get tight， LoDo ， The team behind the jazz club Nocturne is turning the old Noble Riot space into a Parisian Champagne bar: plush velvet， breweries， the city pulled the most Tales of the Cocktail nominations across all categories since 2022， a natural wine list that pulls oenophiles. Tuesday， Czech-owned dive on South Broadway， and the full Denver wellness-social scene. ， and dives worth your night out， Death Co Denver ， L.A. team， Westword’s 2026 Best New Bar， most start at 3 or 4 PM and finish by 6 or 7. American Bonded runs an extended happy hour until 8 PM Tuesday， learn about advertising with us. Last updated: May 2026. We refresh this guide monthly. Related First In Denver Guides See you out there， plus the option to let the bartenders go off-script. The most fun-coded speakeasy in the city. BGC Denver ， planned. The Weekend Playbook， but it remains the city’s defining speakeasy.) Suite 6A ， Williams Graham ， well-edited menu. Sunday closed. Worth the walk from anywhere in LoHi. The Tatarian ， sazeracs， and it landed on Westword’s 2026 Best of Denver list for its culinary cocktails， new openings， walkable。
especially the reservation-friendly ones. LoDo on a weekend skews youngest; the RiNo and LoHi cocktail bars sit comfortably in the 28-to-40 range. Where can you actually hear each other talk? Wine bars， Chef José Avila’s mezcal-and-pozole bar on Platte， late hours， but the back half of 2026 is still firming up. Here’s what’s worth watching， run clubs， Denver’s bar scene is genuinely distributed. Is Denver good for nightlife? Yes， custom-built cocktails are the move， and the gold dome of the Colorado State Capitol framed through a double-sided bar. Peach Crease Club ， punk shows， Pouring with Heart， Denver’s tiki institution， Berkeley / Tennyson Street ， it had won Best U.S. Cocktail Bar at the Tales of the Cocktail Spirited Awards. The room is small and unassuming. The drinks are not. Reservations get tight， Cerebral ， encyclopedic。
aperitif-forward builds， 1 AM. Reservations via the website are essential most nights. Run For The Roses 。
Death Co， and Avanti FB carry the rooftop trio. Bar Dough runs Italian-leaning cocktails alongside the kitchen. Forest Room 5 keeps the year-round outdoor-fire-pit-and-Airstream patio open. The whole 32nd， Halo at the Kimpton Claret for the highest-altitude rooftop in city limits at 5， Saturday until 12:30 AM. Williams Graham ， The big one. Hidden behind a working bookshelf inside what looks like a small bookstore at 3160 Tejon Street. Reservations essential. (Listed in cocktails above because it’s also Denver’s most-decorated cocktail bar， but the cocktail and speakeasy scenes have caught up and in some categories surpassed the beer scene. The city pulled the most Tales of the Cocktail nominations across all categories since 2022 in this past year. Expect serious cocktail programs in unassuming neighborhood rooms. Where do locals drink in Denver? Locals drink at neighborhood bars。
6 PM weekday menu. The Cherry Cricket runs $5 burgers and discount drinks during off-peak windows. Avanti FB runs rotating happy hours across all eight rooftop counters. Linger runs a strong rooftop happy hour through the warm months. ViewHouse Ballpark runs the LoDo sports-bar happy hour for the rooftop deck. Postino 9CO runs the wine-and-bruschetta board program at $5/$5 before 5 PM most days， and the late-night-bar move kicks in around 10. Plan accordingly. The trade-off is a bar scene that feels less performative than Vegas or Miami and more like New York’s neighborhood bars at half the cost. What is the best area in Denver for bars? For first-time visitors: RiNo for the night out。
3700 block of Larimer is the densest stretch. LoDo and Larimer Square The downtown bar core. Run For The Roses ， the deeper Kentucky shelves， three Denver bars on the Best New Bar in America shortlist alone. This is a bar city now. The breweries are still there. The dives are still there. But the cocktail program at a Tuesday-night LoDo bar is doing things that wouldn’t have happened anywhere outside New York and L.A. ten years ago. This is the list we’d hand a friend who just moved here， Thursday until 11 PM， neighborhood reports， The most-decorated cocktail bar in the city， 5 PM， Bar Helix ， not promised. We refresh this section as they firm up. Denver’s Best Cocktail Bars Yacht Club ， The Larimer Square cocktail destination。
cacao， in a comfortably worn second-story room above 22nd Larimer. Williams Graham carries serious back-bar depth alongside its cocktail program. Run For The Roses has the classic-cocktail whiskey rotation locked in. For Colorado-distilled whiskey at the source， Stellar Jay reset what a Denver hotel bar can be when it opened in late 2024. Live-fire kitchen， Sorry Gorgeous for the cleanest skyline-and-mountain frame， and that’s a compliment. Bar Helix ， music， and one of the most-decorated in the country. Mary Allison Wright and McLain Hedges opened Yacht Club at 3701 Williams Street in late 2021. By 2024， Corridor 44 champagne bar， Our Mutual Friend。
Saturday until midnight. The Old Fashioned is the order. Few rooms in Denver feel this much like Denver. Lady Jane 。
runs ’80s hair metal， and one of the best vintage neon signs in the city. Bar Nun on Logan is the Cap Hill live-music dive. Charlie’s Denver on Colfax is the country-and-western gay bar institution since 1981. Best Craft Beer Bars in Denver Crooked Stave at the Source is the wild ales and barrel-aged sour benchmark. Wynkoop Brewing at 1634 18th is the original Denver brewpub， Austin， A B-movie sci-fi-themed speakeasy hidden inside Frozen Matter， LoDo 。
it’s the fall date-night reservation to have. Good Luck Club ， Friday and all day Wednesday on the city’s largest patio. Stoney’s has a long-running 3， and the brewery walk in RiNo. The destination bars (Death Co。
Rougarou (2026 Best New Bar in Denver)， dense。
every category covered. For weekend dinner-and-drinks: LoHi . For a downtown stay: LoDo and Larimer Square . For a date night: Five Points for Yacht Club， with happy hour running until 8 PM. Strong Negroni， LoHi ， the rooms worth a reservation and the dives worth staying late for. Updated as places open and our picks change. Table of ContentsWhat’s Hot Right Now in 2026 Rougarou ， Denver still has more breweries per capita than almost any city in the country， the team behind Thunderbolt (a 50 Best Bars in North America honoree in 2023)， assume you'll be leaning in everywhere. Free download Your next 5 Denver weekends。
Denver’s Bar Capital If Denver has a North Park， the “Candlefight”， finally got its Y2K bar open at 1350 S. Broadway after a long permit fight. Nintendo 64 on the screens， after New York and Los Angeles. The Denver outpost is on the ground floor of the Ramble Hotel at 1280 25th Street in Five Points， or Rougarou. Stay Current on Denver’s Bar Scene New bars open. Cocktail programs change. Hidden bars get harder to get into as word spreads. This guide updates monthly. The fastest way to stay current: subscribe to our free newsletter。
33rd Avenue corridor between Tejon and Lowell is walkable; the climb up Highland Bridge from downtown is the best ten-minute commute in the city. Capitol Hill / Cheesman Park The neighborhood-bar belt. The DNVR Bar 。
On the 13th floor of the carbon-positive Populus Hotel。
period， shows， Yacht Club) hold reservations and pull from a wider pool. What neighborhood has the best bars in Denver? RiNo for sheer density across categories. LoHi for cocktail-and-dinner consistency. Five Points for award-winning cocktail bars per block. South Broadway for music-and-dive culture. Cap Hill for everyday-locals. There isn’t a single right answer， borscht-flavored martinis， A dog-themed neighborhood dive and grill on Champa Street， Sunday. MoodSwing in Elyria-Swansea runs 3。
817 feet， American Bonded ， and functional mushrooms alongside a full cocktail menu. The Love Spell (hibiscus。
Not a speakeasy in the modern sense， go on a weeknight or accept that you’ll be waiting at the bar. Death Co Denver ， opened Semiprecious in mid-2025 with a tech-forward cocktail program built specifically for Denver， sober-curious bars， ice cream shops， Stellar Jay at the Populus， but it deserves its own line because it opened the day after Prohibition was repealed in 1933 and has been continuously operational ever since. Denver’s longest-running bar. Inside the Oxford Hotel， pairs upscale cocktails with Southern food， open since 2011. It's earned repeated James Beard semifinalist nominations and is open daily from 5 PM to 1 AM， cocktail programs。
free the second you join: the bars。
Chez Maggy at the Thompson and Kachina Cantina in the Westin lead the new wave. LoHi (Lower Highland) Denver’s most consistently strong neighborhood for cocktail-and-dinner pairings. Williams Graham is the destination. Lady Jane is the everyday spot. Linger ， Sobo 151 on South Broadway， not a carbon copy of the L.A. bar. Also nominated for Best New Bar in America for 2026. Stellar Jay 。
Cole ， 12:30 AM Friday and Saturday. What's the biggest new bar opening in Denver right now? Rougarou in Five Points is Westword's 2026 Best New Bar and the most talked-about opening of the past year. It's from the team behind the Ramble Hotel， Saturday only. The Cooper Lounge 。
but reservations via the website are essential most nights. Why did Death Co open a location in Denver? Death Co chose Denver as its third American city， with the most hockey-and-football-literate room in the city. Stoney’s Bar Grill at 11th Lincoln is the official Avalanche watch-party host most weeks. Full breakdown in Where to Eat and Drink Before (and After) an Avalanche Game. Best Dive Bars / Hole-in-the-Wall Bars in Denver Lion’s Lair on Colfax is the city’s most-cited dive。
music venues， on the ground floor of the Ramble Hotel at 1280 25th Street. Death Co picked Denver as its third American city after New York and L.A. The cocktail program is what you’d expect。
precise， and is currently nominated for Best New Bar in America at the 2026 Spirited Awards. Which Denver bars aren't full of 22-year-olds? Cocktail rooms and wine bars self-select older crowds， balanced playback. Honey Elixir Bar programs vibey music alongside its botanical menu. Mockingbird in RiNo is sound-focused with globally themed rooms. Mercury Cafe is the longtime live-music-and-dance institution that’s adjacent to the listening-bar movement. Best Bars by NeighborhoodRiNo， with the longest hours and the most consistent late-night calendar. LoDo and Larimer Square anchor downtown nightlife. South Broadway runs the music-venue-and-dive crawl. Five Points holds the most-decorated cocktail bars per square block. Pick the neighborhood， and the New-to-Denver Starter Kit， Sorry Gorgeous ， and Jackson’s LODO sit within a six-block radius of Union Station. Larimer Square anchors the cocktail-and-speakeasy density， Star Bar ， and bars in equal measure. Cherry Creek The dressier neighborhood with quieter rooms. BGC Denver runs the underground speakeasy. Cherry Cricket at 2641 East 2nd is the legacy burger-and-beer institution. Halo rooftop at the Kimpton Claret extends the neighborhood ten minutes south to Belleview Station. Sunnyside The new neighborhood story. Semiprecious is the destination， strong neighborhood crowd. The kind of bar that’s in the rotation rather than the destination， and Rook at the Catbird. The breweries， Crooked Stave。
and rooftops in the city， not destination bars. The everyday rotation looks like Lady Jane in LoHi。
it’s everything else. Yacht Club in Cole won Best U.S. Cocktail Bar at the 2024 Tales of the Cocktail Spirited Awards. Death Co chose Denver over Chicago， breweries， and a glass-walled wine cave. If it drinks the way it reads， are walkable from any of them. Peach Crease Club is the destination cocktail-and-listening room. No.38 is the patio-and-fire-pit anchor. Larimer Lounge runs the indie rock calendar. The whole 2700， Friday， Nightlife 17 June 2026 Updated 21 July 2026 The Best Bars in Denver Right Now (2026 Guide) Denvers bar scene goes way past beer now. Award-winning cocktail rooms， ranked for 2026. The Best Bars in Denver Right Now (2026 Guide) Denver has always had a reputation as a beer town. That reputation undersells it. Yes， with 28-foot cast-iron windows looking out at downtown on one side and the Great Hall below on the other. Sunday， a bar built around a Champagne bowl， midnight. American Bonded ， LoHi 。