French Quarter
This spot is all wood and patrician accents, but the staff is friendly and down to earth. They'll mix high-quality drinks that will make you feel (a) like…
Must-see nightlife in Southern USA
Battery Park Book Exchange & Champagne Bar
Asheville
A charming champagne bar, sprawling through several opulent vintage-furnished rooms of a glorious old downtown shopping arcade, with every nook and cranny…
Louisville
One of Louisville's best bars is housed in an old church, with a menu of funked-up pub grub (gourmet Belgian frites, green curry mussels, short rib…
Downtown & the Gulch
Nashville's best artisan coffeehouse (coffee $3-7) has enlisted an old stereo shop in the Gulch for its downtown location, and its retro aesthetic is a…
The Triangle
Trophy Brewing have two other locations in Raleigh, a brewery taproom and a classier downtown pub, but their original space, with six taps and a small but…
Louisiana
This cocktail bar is one of the best things to happen to the Baton Rouge bar scene since the invention of Abita. There's a sepia-toned, dark-wood vibe at…
French Quarter
One of the classier venues in this part of the Quarter, the Cane & Table – with its romantically faded interior and Mediterranean-style outdoor courtyard …
Atlanta
Beer hounds geek out on Atlanta's best craft-beer selection at this pub in Decatur, with some 30 meticulously chosen drafts (including those in the more…
Hunter-Gatherer Brewery at Curtiss-Wright Hangar
South Carolina
The raddest new thing in Columbia is this old airplane hangar that's been converted into a 13,000-sq-ft brewery, taproom and observation deck overlooking…
Atlanta
With an enviable location (and enormous patio) overlooking the BeltLine, Ladybird offers its patrons one of the best drinking views in Atlanta. Complement…
Birmingham
Marty's plays to hipsters, cool kids and an unapologetically geeky crowd, who are all attracted to a friendly bar packed with comic book art, Star Wars…
Birmingham
This is the sort of bar Birmingham boasts would be the envy of New York or Los Angeles. Atomic Lounge is just funky and fun – a cross between a 1950s rec…
North Georgia
With cornhole courts, outdoor picnic seating and a DIY ethos, this excellent hop headquarters is a quintessential Southern-brewing good time. There are 18…
Ruston
Railway is a local Ruston coffeehouse that knocks it out of the park with house-roasted coffee and the usual slew of espresso drinks – except the ones…
Alabama
The Wildwood has a dedicated mission of keeping Florence funky, and it's doing a fine job. With arcade games, inked up clientele, tropical-inspired…
East Nashville
New York City's famed Attaboy is one of the bars credited with the entire modern craft-cocktail movement – its cocktails are accorded near mythological…
French Quarter
At this smart-looking spot inside the historic Hotel Monteleone, you'll find a revolving circular bar, canopied by the top hat of the 1904 World’s Fair…
Savannah
Talented mixologists craft novel, quality cocktails in this opulent space where elements of 19th-century eclecticism and romanticism meld with modern…
Savannah
Buzzing cafe and art-print gallery full of students and creatives set in an old Victorian house. The courtyard out back is the loveliest in this area. It…
East Nashville
An unrepentantly hipster coffee joint (coffee $3.50-6.50) housed inside a huge former transmission shop. Some of America's best beans are put through…
East Nashville
Set behind Nashville's hottest B&B (also bearing the Urban Cowboy name), this bar is hotter than the 16ft-tall double-sided outdoor fireplace and adjacent…
Nashville
This urban coffeehouse (coffee from $4) welcomes visitors with the warm aroma of roasting beans. Beverage favorites include the vanilla-bean latte, a…
Nashville
With large retractable doors and a lofty industrial ceiling, this former auto-repair shop is now a smart java bar, perhaps the hippest member of the…
Tennessee
The produce, all of it organic, is sourced from Tennessee farms at this small and spare juicery in the Factory. The fruit and vegetables are cold-pressed,…
Downtown & the Gulch
One of Nashville's first breweries to feature live music, Tennessee Brew Works continues the ages-old tradition of dancing with a beer in your hand (or at…
Asheville
Henry VIII called hops ‘a wicked and pernicious weed’ that ruined the taste of beer. His subjects kept quaffing it anyway – just like the lively crowd in…
Greenville
The Dark Corner is the nickname given to the secretive upland corner of Greenville County, which was famed for its bootlegging and hardscrabble Scots…
French Quarter
First, you have to have the password, which you can only get (if you're among the 'chosen') by visiting Boutique du Vampyre, a few blocks away. Use that…
Northern Kentucky
Braxton’s cool garage-like space invites lingering. It’s a coffee shop by day, with remote workers typing away on laptops and sipping Braxton’s house java…
New Orleans
Sexy lighting, Mad Men decor, inventive cocktails and an extensive wine list – it all comes together in a lively, flattering tableau. A fashionable…
French Quarter
Yes, it's a campy tourist trap, but Pat O’Brien’s has genuine atmosphere and history, and where else can you see copper-clad steampunk-esque dueling…
Corsair Distillery & Headquarters
Nashville
The post-tour samples at Corsair Distillery are generous – and sometimes 90 proof. This small-batch distiller of gin, rum, whiskey and even absinthe takes…
Nashville
Without a doubt one of Nashville's best spots for artisanal cocktails – so much so that there is often a wait (yes, for a drink at a bar!). There is also…
Nashville
Nashville's beer and home-brewing bulwark, this taproom has 32 rotating taps of the region’s best brews, as well as the equipment to make a few yourself…
Coastal North Carolina
This one-barrel, hyperlocal brewery is as small as a commercial brewery can get. Just 31 gallons per batch of their 23 beers, which are brewed with solar…
French Quarter
This gutted brick cottage claims to be the country's oldest operating bar – it certainly is the oldest in the South, and one of the most atmospheric in…
Charleston
Edmund's Oast in NoMo has this new baby brewing cousin just down the street, set in a 20,000-sq-ft facility with 26 boozy beverages on tap and two…
East Tennessee
The TasteMakers at this cavernous distillery are akin to carnival barkers as they pour 13 flavors of moonshine for sampling, singing their praises while…
Atlanta
An elevated patio overlooking an outcrop of Piedmont Park is where the visual experience at Orpheus Brewing ends – a visit here is about the brews, not…
Faubourg Marigny & Bywater
One of the oldest bars in Bywater (and Bywater has a lot of old bars), Bud Rip's clientele is at the junction of the old Bywater working class crowd and…
