Don’t sleep on the food menu, which features all sorts of snacks and street foods.
• Little Jumbo hosts some of Asheville’s best live jazz every Monday and Tuesday night, with no cover charge. The website lists each week’s lineup.
• Specialized menus, including a list of G&T options and specialty absinthe and pastis offerings, are available upon request.
• For date night (or any night), the bar offers special drinks service for two. Choose between Manhattans, Martinis, Japanese highballs, absinthe or hot cocoa and rum, and your selection will be delivered on ornate trays with various fun accoutrements.
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Just steps away, around the corner on Rankin Avenue, the Rankin Vault cocktail lounge is a bustling hangout spot known to have one of the best burgers in the city. Two blocks south, across from Pritchard Park, is Top of the Monk, a rooftop bar that opened just a year after Imperial and helped launch Asheville’s cocktail scene. Across the street, cozy Jack of the Wood pub is a staple for live bluegrass, old-time and Irish music with a full menu of sandwiches and other pub fare to boot.
NOTABLE AND NEARBY
Imperial is widely regarded as the doyen of Asheville’s comparatively young craft cocktail scene. It started its tenure in a small, understated upstairs space in the regal 1920s-era Imperial Life Insurance building. Back then, in 2012, it was the bar for chef Jacob Sessoms’ venerated restaurant, Table, which has since moved around the corner. Over the years, Imperial has evolved to include a more casual downstairs component, but the moody upstairs lounge, with its knowledgeable bartenders and sophisticated yet unfussy setting, has maintained its reputation for high-caliber, expertly crafted cocktails. In recent years, Imperial has also rolled out an expansive menu of mezcals, sotols and raicillas, as well as natural wines, available by the glass and by the bottle. Though there are plenty of flashier bars downtown, Imperial has built a loyal following with its steady commitment to excellence.
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Around the corner on Grand Street, Fresh Kills (from Richie Boccato) has been quietly serving some of the best cocktails in Brooklyn for nearly a decade.
NOTABLE AND NEARBY
• When outdoor seating is available, the wisteria-draped garden (book ahead on Resy) might fool you into thinking you’re somewhere between Louisiana and Provence.
• While Maison excels at the A-list classics, look closely and you’ll find lovingly executed takes on B-side hits, like the Yellow Parrot and the Obituary, that make the case for revival.
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Staff Favorite Dive Bars
Pete's Candy Store
I moved around the corner from Pete’s in 2008, and have found myself wedged into the bar’s tiny back music venue on countless nights since. The crowds may have changed, but Pete’s still maintains a bygone Williamsburg combo of grit, disaffection and surprise and delight. —Talia Baiocchi, editor-in-chief
Happyfun Hideaway
If you’re looking to make out on a dance floor, this no-frills, tropical-themed queer bar is the spot for you. —Irina Groushevaia, senior social media manager
7B Horseshoe Bar
7B stands out from the hoards of East Village icons not only because it opens at noon (ideal for killing time before, well, anything) but because it has one of the friendliest staffs of any bar, let alone dive, in the city. —Chloe Frechette, deputy editor
Sunny’s
This outer fringe of Brooklyn’s Red Hook neighborhood is not easily accessible, but it’s worth a trip to experience a bar that’s been resurrected from the brink of closure several times. Live music starts most nights at 8 p.m., and there’s plenty of outdoor space for loitering. Don’t forget to bring cash. —Allison Hamlin, director of network development
An essential guide to the bars and retailers that have turned Oakland into an epicenter of progressive wine culture.
New York’s Essential Martinis
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An essential guide to the bars and retailers that have turned Oakland into an epicenter of progressive wine culture.
At Imperial, head downstairs for snacks and a more casual vibe, or upstairs for the moody cocktail lounge.
The signature cocktail of the original Rogue Cocktails, the Gunshop Fizz uses a full 2 ounces of Peychaud’s bitters.
The Howitzer, the first original cocktail to be featured on a Cure menu, is a bourbon-based riff on the French 75.
• Led by chef Ryan Kline, Imperial’s new downstairs, counter-service restaurant, Imperial Street Food, is open late daily (until 12 a.m. on weekdays), serving global bites like octopus fried rice, Jamaican chicken wings and French poutine in a tiny dining space and from an outdoor walk-up window.
• DJ dance parties, from Latin and Caribbean to trap and hip-hop, happen nightly starting at 9 p.m.
• The laid-back downstairs bar has draft cocktails—think Palomas, Espresso Martinis and nitro Margaritas—flowing from seven taps, plus beer and wine.
Don’t miss the perfectly balanced Serpent’s Mouth, a mix of fernet, pastis, orgeat, Angostura bitters and lemon.
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