With a feeling not unlike the restaurant Absinthe in San Francisco, Flora has one of the best cocktail menus in Oakland.
Opened in 2008, Beretta has become one of San Francisco's most celebrated bars. They serve food, like pizzas and italian tapas-like stuff, all of which is excellent, but the cocktails are the main event here.
The Glaz Bar at the Plaza Athenee -- a Le Meridian Hotel in Bangkok, Thailand -- is a classy venue for conversation and people watching. During my short visit in the bar, I met an American contractor vacationing from his workplace in Afghanistan (when I asked what he did, he replied, "I won't say, but it makes you safer").
...but typically Austin. This is the outdoor bar at the infamous San Jose Hotel in Austin, Texas.
walking in temple bar is an explosion of colors...and not only cause of the beer you probably drunk in the pub...
Rye is consistently mentioned in the relatively short list of great bars that are pushing the art of the cocktail in the bay area right now. They use freshly picked ingredients and some of the more unusual liquors and locally made spirits to create some pretty original drinks.
While often times tiki bars are not known for their quality of drinks, Forbidden island is the exception. The drinks here are some of the finest in the bay area, and that is saying a lot because the bay area is in the middle of a renaissance right now for true mixology.
In the 1920s when Prohibition in America took hold many American expats took solace at the opulent bar at the Savoy Hotel in London. This also happened to be around the time that one of the patron saints of cocktail time, Harry Craddock was running the bar there.
The Hotel Hannong is a 3 star historic hotel in the heart of the capital of Europe, Strasbourg, France. I spent one night there and we quickly found out that the main attraction of the hotel is its wine bar with an extensive selection of Alsatian wines.