A sister restaurant and bar to Bar La Grassa and 112 Eatery, Snack Bar is a cozy, intimate spot to grab a cocktail — but it has all the swanky touches that make it a North Loop classic. A “gin parade” headlines the cocktail menu: Mix and match a selection of 18 gins with housemade tonics, juices, or elixirs from local maker 3Leche. The broader cocktail menu includes a spicy paloma and a blood orange cosmo.

Parlour, with its classic dark wood bar, glowing sconces, and candlelit tables, is a destination for ultimate coziness. The Parlour Old-Fashioned, made with piloncillo and and Trinity bitters, is an obvious go-to, but the Capri Son, made with rum, orange curacao, lime, and pineapple makes for a fruitier foil. Pair a drink with the namesake Parlour burger.

This sleek bar at the base of the new Hewing hotel is an ideal spot to linger with a post-dinner Manhattan. The cocktail list is succinct, but beautifully curated: Choose between a classic, new age, botanical, or neutral highball, all blended with choice flavors like honeydew, grapefruit, and cinnamon. The Paper Plane, made with Buffalo trace, Amaro Nonino, and lemon, is a great bet for a sweet/bitter sip.

Spoon and Stable bar manager Jessi Pollak won the United States Bartenders’ Guild’s bartender of the year award in 2022. Her cocktail menu features classics with fruity and aromatic infusions: a gin and tonic with ginger and pear; a London Calling with bergamot and rhubarb. It’s succinct and impressively precise. There’s a great bar menu, too, with duck meatloaf sliders, black truffle arancini, and grilled bone marrow.

Gori Gori Peku is just one-third of downtown Minneapolis’s finest Japanese dining experience: Omakase prix-fixe restaurant Kado no Mise and Kaiseki Furukawa, which offers an immersive 10-course seasonal tasting menu, are located in the same building. Gori Gori Peku is dimly lit and intimate, dressed in all the classic moody tones of a whisky bar. The selection of premium Japanese whisky is unmatched, and the bar also serves sake, wine, and more.

Mara, chef Gavin Kaysen’s newest restaurant, was perhaps the biggest restaurant of 2022 — and the cocktail bar is on equal par. The wraparound bar is framed with a series of glowing, golden alcoves, inspired by the tall silhouettes of Minneapolis’s flour mills. A low, plush booth snakes along the opposing wall. The cocktails lean aromatic, and mirror Kaysen’s Mediterranean-influenced menu: A classic Old Fashioned is prepared with fig and hazelnut; the MADhaus infused with currant and wild bergamot.

Fhima’s is an astounding feat of architecture and design that has been meticulously preserved. The curved bar at the front of the restaurant makes for a lovely vantage point of the art-deco, French Moroccan-influenced restaurant. Off the cocktail menu, the Telephone Call From Istanbul involves flames and a glass full of chai smoke. The Herbs & Nectar is an aromatic blend of vodka, St. Germain, cardamom bitters, thyme, and grapefruit.

Bar Rufus, concepted by local chef and restaurateur Danny del Prado, is the newest tenant of the historic Rand Tower Hotel. The bar and restaurant is cloaked in swanky shades of emerald, midnight blue, and bronze — it’s an homage to Rufus Rand, a World War I pilot and the namesake of the hotel. The cocktail list has a sophisticated French influence, from the effervescent kir royale to the Bonne Nuit, made with Rittenhouse rye and anise.

Constantine has a dark, romantic feel and a vast library of spirits and liqueurs. Visit for adventurous cocktails like the Split Rock, a smoky blend of Scotch, mezcal, and grapefruit bitters, or the Treasure Trail, a fruity gin and prosecco mix. There are excellent bar snacks, too, like a diner burger that makes for great one-handed eating. Find Constantine on the lower level of Hotel Ivy.

Italian restaurant Monello has an airy, sophisticated vibe. It’s located on the ground level of the Ivy Hotel, and serves a full menu — but the best seats in the house are the bar stools. Try the Passion of the Corpse Reviver, made with gin, absinthe, and passionfruit, or a classic Negroni. The cocktail menu is succinct, but quality.

The 510 Building may be on the edge of downtown, but this bar deserves a stop. Step through the gilded entrance and find two bars to choose from: The lounge, which is brighter and more casual, and the more formal bar in the steakhouse space, which has dramatic Victorian styling. Both are a great spot for a savory-edged highball — an ideal accompaniment to a rich steak dinner.