Make sure to check out the bar’s rotating food specials, from weekly burger nights to monthly pizza parties.
• 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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Next door, The Whale Beer Collective pours both craft beers and a large selection of unique and hard-to-find brews from around the world. A short walk down Haywood Road, Hail Mary is a quirky, punk-rock diner with fun-loving cocktails and a food menu that includes “sammiches” like a crab rangoon grilled cheese. And, if you follow the glow of neon across Haywood Road, you’ll find Fleetwood’s, Asheville’s only combination cocktail bar, vintage shop and Las Vegas-style wedding chapel.
NOTABLE AND NEARBY
Opened in 2019 by longtime Asheville bar stars Katey Ryder and Donnie Pratt, the Golden Pineapple manages to exist effortlessly in the sweet spot between neighborhood dive and upscale craft lounge. A favorite haunt in the eclectic
West Asheville community, the bar is known for its convivial, unpretentious atmosphere, inventive yet accessible cocktails and $6 shooters. House specialties have recently included the rum-based Rattail Daddy with kaffir lime, sweet corn and spicy Tajin seasoning, and the Summon: Fat Chocobo (a reference to the video game Final Fantasy), which is made with locally distilled Appalachian fernet. Golden Pineapple is also a go-to spot for craveable N/A drinks, often fashioned with housemade ingredients.
The Golden Pineapple
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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.
Local ingredients like Appalachian fernet feature in dishes and drinks at The Golden Pineapple.
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.
• It’s worth showing up hungry to sample a snack, salad or sandwich from The Golden Pineapple’s full food menu. The Monday night burger specials and monthly pizza nights are favorites.
• The bar’s namesake cocktail—
a luxurious mix of bourbon, overproof rum, lime, amaro, tepache and
orgeat—comes in a wonderfully
over-the-top gold pineapple vessel.
• Every holiday season, November through New Year’s, the bar decks its halls—and drinks menu—with kitschy Christmas finery.
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