Best Cocktail Bars in Philadelphia

Bargoers who can find this hidden gem — there’s no sign outside — give it rave reviews for its drinks and its comfortable, living room-style seating areas that create the perfect mix of casual and upscale. Rotating seasonal cocktails add to the menu of classics like a Moscow Mule and Bee’s Knees.

A sleek, understated room delicately anchors one of the most desirable corners of Center City — with libations that live up to the location. The all-day Rittenhouse Square spot offers a refined collection of drinks that spotlight hard-to-find spirits, house-made ingredients and ambitious flavor combinations. Standouts include the Tiptoe Through the Tulips, with St-Germain, pear eau de vie and Bluecoat elderflower gin.

Opened in 2014 in the iconic PSFS building  — now home to the Loews Hotel — Bank & Bourbon offers a barrel-aging program of American bourbon and whiskey, as well as a series of creative cocktails that include the Secret Knock, made with house-aged whiskey, clarified milk, lemon and green tea.

Along the hopping 13th Street corridor, this cozy-yet-glam vegan lounge belongs to the same local team that’s behind vegan fast-casual brand HipCityVeg. Accompanying a food menu of seasonal plant-based plates are cocktails crafted with similar care, featuring fascinating house-made elements (farro-infused bourbon; tea-infused vermouth) and cheeky picks that split the difference between virtue and vice (wheatgrass shots layered with the alpine liqueur Genepy des Alpes).

This buzzed-about, multi-personality eatery, bar and cafe does everything right. The venue boasts a cafe for morning coffee,  Asian-inspired banh mi, rice and noodle bowls for lunch and, perhaps most importantly, an absolutely stunning underground izakaya for dinner and creative drinks. The fantastic cocktails have seaworthy names like The Savoy Anchor, made with bourbon and lemon shrub.

There’s no sign or website for this beloved dive bar — and that’s exactly how patrons and employees like it. Regulars know to climb the stairs inside the first-floor Ethiopian restaurant Abyssinia to this hidden second-floor spot to pony up for a truly indulgent whiskey drink and listen to the live bands as they shake the minuscule space.

Borrowing its workaday name from a cover business operated by the infamous South Philly mobster Boo Boo Hoff, The Franklin Bar cranks out high-end tipples across two floors. The original, dimly lit subterranean bar specializes in complex, flavorful, ever-changing drinks. The Franklin’s upper bar, Encima, features mezcal and tequila cocktails alongside Mexican street food.

This neighborhood spot serves new American dishes and craft cocktails that look almost too good to enjoy — almost. This sophisticated, bi-level restaurant pleases people who want to indulge in a proper three-course meal, as well as those who prefer drinks and small plates for dinner.

This convivial neighborhood restaurant serves French tavern fare inspired by the Provençal roots of the owners, the Grigri family. A curated list of finely tuned classic cocktails and progressive libations evolves seasonally, but a Sazerac is always a good order at this bar no matter the time of year. Also on the menu: duck of the day, socca, mussels and a cheese board, along with “good, better, best” wines by the glass or pitcher.

Pouring since 2012 behind an unmarked gate situated along a nondescript stretch of Race Street, Philly’s most distinctive speakeasy comes courtesy of the Chinatown bar’s unforgettable mononym’d proprietor, Lê, whose idiosyncratic reputation precedes him. The spacious, high-ceilinged, mood-lit room has decor that really must be experienced to be fully grasped (truly—there’s a no-photos policy once inside); the bar squeezes fresh fruit juices to order and offers high-end spirits at supremely fair prices at certain junctures of the evening.

The restaurant and bar on the eighth floor of the high-school-turned-mixed-use Bok building serves dishes from Turkey, the Mediterranean coastline and the Middle East, with wines to match. The cocktail menu includes bourbon-based drinks like the namesake Irwin’s, featuring honey, Angostura bitters and walnut.

Chef Nick Elmi’s more casual sibling of — and next-door neighbor to — his acclaimed French-American restaurant Laurel brings a well-rounded selection of craft cocktails (and French and Austrian wines) to the Avenue, all ready to be paired with a streamlined menu of dishes.

Walk in to the Four Seasons Hotel and ask a friendly concierge how to get to this bar and lounge on the 60th floor of the Comcast Technology Center. The stunning new bar has views and drinks that won’t disappoint. The bar serves up fun twists of classic cocktails, like the lychee raspberry bellini and the cucumber martini, but also switches it up with cocktails like the Summer Corn (Basil Hayden bourbon, corn, lemon, salt and pepper)  and the Comme Si (egg whites, Roku gin, Pernod Absinthe, honey, raspberry and lemon).

Just off of the lobby of The Rittenhouse hotel, Library Bar serves small bites and sophisticated cocktails. As patrons relax on comfortable bar stools, armchairs and couches, they can peruse a carefully curated collection of books and fine art.

This Pottstown-based distillery serves specialty cocktails made with its own rum, vodka and white whiskey at its Spirits Shop & Tasting Room in South Philadelphia, where a gleaming copper-topped bar lined with salvaged barn wood awaits thirsty customers. Shoppers swing by for tasting flights before purchasing bottles to go, or stay for tequila-barrel-rested rum cocktails.

In Kensington, Martha takes the idea of a friendly, neighborhood bar and ramps up the hipness. Bar taps dispense beer, wine, kombucha and cocktails, including the Martha Mule and the Iced Coffee Negroni. Adding to the vibe: a fireplace and patio.

The former beloved seafoodery Bookbinder’s has been resurrected as a handsome saloon serving Fish House punch and classics like the Mai Tai, Sazerac and Ramos gin fizz, as well as raw and fried oysters, snapper soup and strawberry shortcake for two.

Established in 2005, Philadelphia Distilling was the first craft distillery to debut in the state of Pennsylvania since Prohibition. The new headquarters opened in 2017 in a handsome Fishtown production facility and features an elegant bar and tasting room pouring a versatile portfolio of premises-made spirits. The brand’s flagship Bluecoat Gin works its way into a number of drinks, like the Sparks Shot Tower, which comes with beet, ginger, lemon, honey and cardamom Bitters. Vieux Carré, their award-winning absinthe, comes in the traditional French manner with an ornate drip fountain and sugar cube.

Cocktails are the name of the game at this dark, 1950s-inspired bar.  The stellar drinks have fun names (We Can’t Elope, Let’s Go, Calypso Joe) to make things interesting, and the bar’s great happy hour menu features $8 cocktails, $6 wines and a spirit of the day for $10.

This surreptitious Center City cocktail bar hides in an alley behind Stephen Starr’s popular Mexican restaurant El Rey, with an unmarked door that opens to a moody lounge, replete with red leather booths, kitschy décor and edgy artwork. The menu leads with timeless classics, like the Old Fashioned and Eastside, before moving into seasonal mixes.

A literary theme informs the proceedings at this Gayborhood hang, which mashes up the relaxing reverence of an academic library with the fun-loving atmosphere of a well-loved bar. The three-floor space is bedecked in writerly details like word-jumble wallpaper in which famous author names hide. The always-changing signature drinks have included the Bitter Queen (Fernet Branca, Campari, lemon, green tea) and Spanish Romance (gin, mint, cucumber, fennel).