Skaalvenn Distillery quietly debuted a lounge in late 2020, putting Brooklyn Park on the map of exceptional cocktail spots. Owners Mary and Tyson Schnitker put their life savings on the line to open their distillery, and have fostered a remarkable team of alumni from Travail, Fig + Farrow, and other Twin Cities hot spots. (Bonus: They offer health care benefits and PTO to their staff.) The cocktail lounge melds Japanese influences with Skaalvenn’s Nordic bend. The cocktails are nuanced and imaginative, like the Kornstock ‘99, which blends butter bourbon with nixtamalized corn orgeat, orange liqueur, and queso fresco.

Francis didn’t just add a compelling menu of vegan bar food to the scene when it opened in January — it added the Twin Cities’ first totally vegan cocktail program. You’ll find no animal byproducts in these drinks: No wine filtered with bone marrow, no syrups made with animal-sourced dyes. Francis consulted with local distillery and cocktail room Earl Giles to craft this menu, which includes a beet and Aquavit infusion and a vegan take on a Negroni Sbagliato, among other drinks.

Before Earl Giles was ever a distillery, it was an apothecary of sorts — owners Jesse Held and Jeff Erkkila crafted elixirs, syrups, and cordials, playing with sugar’s vital role in the cocktail glass. They finally debuted Earl Giles as a distillery, cocktail room, and restaurant this summer, infusing the entire space — a former stagecoach factory on Northeast Minneapolis’s Quincy Street — with a sense of invention and whimsy. Most everything there is house-made, like the gin in the Rabbit Kick, which tastes like a carrot Dreamsicle, and the black spruce and douglas fir elixir in the Evergreen Collins, which captures the pine-drunk essence of a day spent in northern Minnesota. Twelve sweet nonalcoholic draft drinks (like the tropical ginger beer and makrut phosphate) gush from a row of silver faucets behind the bar.

Butcher and the Boar, a smoked-meats-and-bourbon icon of the Twin Cities dining scene, is reopening under new ownership on February 7. The new restaurant has two separate cocktail menus: One that accompanies the dinner menu, offering bourbon classics like Old Fashioneds, Manhattans, and highballs, a separate whiskey room with a bit of a daring edge. (Think: a Scotch, banana, and coconut cocktail; a Rye Tai with orgeat and curacao.) The Char Bar is currently under construction, to be completed in the coming weeks, and Butcher and the Boar officially opens February 7.

Sanjusan doesn’t take itself too seriously, which can feel like a rarity in today’s bar scene. Cocktails come with a welcome dose of whimsy, like a cotton candy cloud garnish. Don’t be fooled into thinking that this means the drinks here are sickly sweet — rather, they show the team’s prowess and restraint. Sanjusan is a mix of Italian and Japanese cuisines: A balance of bitter and crisp flavors appear in many of the drinks. Try the Kita highball with boreal genepi, or the juicy yuzu Hana Hachi.

Miaou Miaou is the cocktail component to Blondette, chef Danny del Prado’s new French and Pacific Northwest-influenced restaurant at the Rand Tower Hotel. The bar keeps the French theme but infuses it with juicy tropical notes of guava, mango, and passionfruit. It’s a sleek spot for a nightcap.

Late-night neighborhood bar Little Tijuana reopened in the Whittier neighborhood this summer. A long-time Eat Street favorite, Little T’s has kept the name and changed the menu. At the bar, expect a heavy-hitting cocktail menu with plenty of mezcal, pineapple, and craft bitters. There are slushie machines, too, one of them housing a heady pina colada blend. Old cassette tapes and vinyl records are on rotation behind the bar.

Arts + Rec, an art-themed spot in Seven Points shopping center, is Uptown’s latest bar. The menu is fun and snacky (think Dorito-crusted cheese curds and ham-and-pickle croquettes), but the cocktail list is a little more reserved. The August Bar, an homage to homegrown theater legend August Wilson, takes on a Jean-Michelle Basquiat decor style. Try the Heavy Hitter, made with ancho-infused Dampfwerks gin and lemongrass syrup, or a cranberry Collins.

Talented beverage director Trish Gavin crafted the cocktail menu at Khâluna, chef Ann Ahmed’s latest venture on Lyndale Avenue. The restaurant is designed to emulate a tropical beach resort in Asia, and the bar menu deftly follows suit. The Balinese fruited tonic, made with jujube, calamansi, jackfruit, and frangipani is a highlight.

Mr. Paul’s Supper Club carries its French and Cajun theme over to the cocktail menu. The Bourbon Street Grenade is a heavy-hitting potion of Everclear, rum, melon liqueur, and citrus grove sour mix; the Matchet’s gin fizz pairs tart citrus with cream and lemon meringue. Don’t over look the frosty dessert drinks, either.

In March, chef Kevin Manley and Anna Morgan transformed the former Stewart’s space on Cleveland Avenue into Gus Gus, an intimate, subterranean spot that’s by turns quirky, elegant, and exceptionally fun. From the drinks menu, Gus Gus’s trademark is Jell-O shots made with Aperol and Tattersall bitter orange, served as shimmery cubes on a plate. If you’re more in the mood for a sip than a bite, any cocktail here is a great bet, from the brown butter bourbon served neat to the effervescent Spritz Salato, made with Fino sherry.