Best Cocktail Bar: Liquid Diet
This place proves the notion that looks can be deceiving, both through its physical presence — a converted warehouse that you enter off an alley in the Arts District — and also the cocktails served therein. Flavors are more evocative of what comes on a plate than what comes in a glass, from a savory/sharp red pepper martini to a boozy-yet-multilayered chocolate chip banana bread cocktail. Baristas make all ingredients, from horseradish to horchata, in-house. Fittingly, the bar itself looks more like a kitchen, its central island heaped with ingredients and glassware beneath the names of the day’s drinks scrawled on brown paper. It adds to the impression you’re having a glass with a talented friend … in their garage.
Best Wine Bar: Wine Garden
Often, a glass of wine means time to unwind, to escape a little, and Wine Garden offers precisely that. Adjacent to a flower shop in the Arts District, the elegant space features enormous faux trees stretching over a central bar, shiny brass, seafoam velvet, and gorgeous floral arrangements. The extensive wine selection ranges in price from $9 for a glass of Riesling to $242 for a bottle of Billecart-Salmon brut rose champagne. For the indecisive, friendly staff is willing to offer suggestions and perhaps a snack. The Wine Garden is a nice place to take a vacation — even if that vacation lasts only as long as a glass of pinot noir.
Best Brew Pub: Beer Zombies Brewing
Sometimes beer selection is about a wide range; other times it’s about the deep dive. Beer Zombies offers the latter. There are outposts in Boulder City and Summerlin, but the brewery on Bonanza is the largest. The several dozen beers on tap (and several coolers of cans) are the centerpiece, but the sprawling space offers more than just a place to sip a pint. Events range from sports viewing parties in the taproom to food trucks and games on the lawn to movies with live musical accompaniment in the brewery.
Best Sports Bar: Flanker
Flanker Kitchen + Sports Bar is situated between Mandalay Bay’s sports book and the walkway to Allegiant Stadium, an ideal location for a sports bar. However, the vibe is a bit more sophisticated than your usual pennants and wood paneling, with golden neon tubing on the ceiling and caramel leather seating, as well as a selection of private and semiprivate areas. Multiple screens in multiple sizes let the game be either the background or focal point of your experience, while a thoughtfully curated beer selection and upscaled bar food menu keep you fueled for the game.
Best New Bar: Stray Pirate
We’re now in the second generation of tiki bars, where carved heads and bamboo aren’t enough — you need to add your own distinctive twirl to the mai tai’s straw. As indicated by the theme, sure, the Arts District’s Stray Pirate has a piratical vibe with lanterns and ship’s wheels. But the bar’s soul has gone to the dogs, with whimsical velvet paintings of chihuahuas and terriers in eyepatches and bandannas, and a whole mythology of pirates turned into dogs. As you can imagine, the vibe is more relaxed and goofier then the usual but, like any respectable tiki bar, the drinks on the menu are sorted by strength. Bonus: There’s also a solid mocktail selection for those who wish to set sail without going in over their heads.
Best Speakeasy: The Underground at the Mob Museum
While most secret speakeasy bars are following a trend, the Underground at the Mob Museum is more about historical precedent … with a twist. Entered through a side stairway to a door (yes, you need the password), the Underground offers realness not just with historical photos and artifacts or red velvet wallpaper and parquet floors, but an actual on-site distillery to show guests how the hooch is made. The drink menu includes classics such as old fashioneds and bees knees, as well as more contemporary concoctions featuring house-distilled vanilla moonshine or mezcal & mango. Here you can enjoy a period-appropriate cocktail and live music, without the Prohibition.
Best Live Music Lounge: Maxan Jazz
Tucked away next to a strip mall in Spring Valley, Maxan Jazz is the dimly lit room packed with black-clad music aficionados sipping cocktails and vibing to a roaring saxophone solo that one visualizes when one thinks of a sophisticated evening out. While the place may seem somewhat un-Vegas in its disdain for glitz, it makes sense in a town with hundreds of world-class musicians, ready to form themselves into a vocals-and-piano duo, bebop quartet, or septet-with-accordion blasting out Édith Piaf. For those who come hungry, there’s a full menu of sushi and steaks by a pair of former Nobu chefs … only in Vegas.
Best Restaurant Bar: Herbs & Rye
Most restaurants barely give their bars a second thought — it’s a place for diners to grab a quick one while waiting for a table. Herbs & Rye’s bar and bar program, on the contrary, have always been central to the West Sahara restaurant’s identity, earning recognition and awards for 15 years now. The legendary menu is a trip through cocktail history, sorted by era from the Jack Rose of “Gothic Age 1776-1865” to the Boulevardier of “Old School 1900-1919” to the Vesper of “Rat Pack Era 1950-1966.” Herbs & Rye’s happy hour offers half-priced steaks and seafood alongside your libation — yet another way to keep both locals and tourists coming back.