Cool cocktail bars have burst on the scene

An amazing array opened during the pandemic. Here are the ones to visit

Bars are back.

It hasn’t been an easy go for bars in the Bay Area, especially small, independently owned ones, over the last 15 months. In California, bars have been subject to stricter reopening standards than restaurants, which meant that many had to either wait until relatively recently to reopen or radically shift their business model to allow for food service, takeout or other temporary measures.

Yet despite those obstacles, an amazing array of new bars opened in the Bay Area during the pandemic, and several that squeaked in just before the pandemic managed to survive. (A few highly anticipated new spots are still working on getting open, such as San Francisco’s Buddy and Oakland’s Snail Bar.) Some — Bar Quiote in Livermore and Bar Zola in Palo Alto — have emerged in places that haven’t always been mixology hot spots. Oakland in particular has seen a boom in new drink destinations, many of them owned by people of color, who have traditionally been underrepresented in highend cocktail culture.

If there’s a unifying theme to the Bay Area’s new bars, it’s a sense of celebration. Drinks are vibrant and colorful. Flavors are intense: spicy, fruity, bitter. Nostalgic touches abound, whether it’s an icy drink whose topping is meant to invoke the Dole Whip you ate as a kid at Disneyland or a dessertlike tipple that incorporates the beloved Chinese White Rabbit candy.

Before you resume your barhopping, a few caveats. At many of these new spots, reservations are necessary, and can in fact be quite competitive. If you’re hoping to visit Friends & Family or Sobre Mesa, for example, it’s worth planning a week (or several) ahead. Others, such as Viridian and Stillwater, are walkin only, but depending on when you arrive, you may have to wait for a table. And although bars used to be the domain of large groups, many places are still limiting parties to fewer than five or six — so for now, the park may still be the best bet for your big friend reunion.

Here are the best new bars to visit this summer.