They’re shaking up the industry with their world-class cocktails.

Meet the new class of cocktail pros who are shaking up the industry.

San Francisco is one of the greatest places in the world to drink cocktails, but you didn’t need us to tell you that. You knew it years ago, when you first wandered up and down Jones Street searching for the entrance to Bourbon & Branch. When you found yourself trekking way down Geary for a Tommy’s margarita. When you first realized you wanted a cocktail, rather than a glass of wine, with your dinner at Absinthe.

So evolved is our cocktail culture that its practitioners have become a sort of cliche: the bow tie-donning, orange peel-torching, juicing-to-order cocktail craftsman, dispensing vegetable-infused foam from an iSi canister. But that’s a caricature. The truth is that smart, thoughtful cocktails hide in every corner of our city — from new-wave bars like Benjamin Cooper to campy tiki outposts like Smuggler’s Cove to grandpa-friendly haunts like Vesuvio.

The 2017 class of Bar Stars reflects the fact that great cocktails are today being made in every genre of establishment. These five bartenders work in Italian restaurants (Beretta; 54 Mint), in 100-year-old sailor hangouts (the Sea Star), in hotels (Dirty Habit). Even a bar (Pagan Idol) where a faux volcano periodically erupts and scorpion bowls are served aflame — yes, a bar that’s that kitschy — can churn out world-class cocktails.

But it’s not just that this year’s stars are making some of our favorite drinks in town. It’s also that they’ve made their venues some of the most inviting places in San Francisco. Whether that’s playing a low-key game of pool at the Sea Star, or going out on a Friday night with a big group of friends to Pagan Idol, or taking a date to 54 Mint, these folks believe that good bartending is as much about service and atmosphere as it is about stirring, shaking and straining. That it’s about creating places of escape, of acceptance, of shelter. And that that’s why we go out for a drink in the first place.