Asheville is a beer town first. It won or tied the Beer City USA poll four years running from 2009. It still has among the most breweries per resident in the country. At many bars here you get a beer flight before you see a menu. The cocktail bars opened among all those taprooms, and the good ones are worth walking past a brewery for.
Downtown is small enough to do on foot, and most of the bars are there. Head south past Hilliard and you're in the South Slope, where the breweries came first and the distilleries followed. West Asheville's bars run along Haywood Road. North up Broadway is Five Points, a neighborhood of houses and porches with bars the locals use.
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In the South Slope, Tiki Easy is a rum bar behind Hi-Wire Brewing. On Haywood Road, Character Study is a book-lined bar that sells the paperbacks on its shelves.
Sovereign Remedies has grown produce for its own bar since 2014 and buys from Patchwork Urban Farms.
The Montford is up on the eighth floor, with downtown below and the Blue Ridge behind it. The Crow & Quill has been behind an unmarked door on North Lexington since 2014.
Start with these six
Little Jumbo
Five Points · Cocktail bar
Until 11pm nightly
Tattletale$20Creature Negroni$19
Menu checked Oct 22
The bar Asheville bartenders name when you ask where they drink, in an old grocery on Broadway.
Little Jumbo's building was a grocery. The tile in the entry still spells Jenkins, and the tin ceiling is original. The bar opened there in 2017, on Broadway where downtown meets Montford and Five Points. USA Today named it one of 29 Bars of the Year in 2025, and Garden & Gun lists it among the South's best. Free live music Mondays and Tuesdays, no cover. Try The Happy Moment, Paloma Brillante or Spicy Dead Lady. In winter the bar becomes a tiki pop-up called the Tropilachia Club.
Character Study is the book-lined bar at 797 Haywood Road in West Asheville. The team behind Little Jumbo opened it. Many of the drinks are named after books. The shelves hold eight-dollar paperbacks picked by Bagatelle Books, and you can buy them. The list includes the Seersucker Martini, Blood Meridian and Blow-Up & Other Stories, plus a full set of drinks without alcohol. Take a book to the bar and read while you drink.
Tiki Easy sits at the back of Hi-Wire Brewing in the South Slope. The drinks run on rare and historic rum, fresh juice and house syrups. The list mixes classics with originals, frozen drinks and bowls to share. Try the Voyager, Goombay Smash or Bourbon Tiki Spritz. Every so often the lights drop and a fake thunderstorm rolls through. It's playful, but the rum is the reason to go.
What to order
Piña Colada$12Rum · Coconut Cream · Pineapple
Strawberry Letter 23$12Rum · Campari · Triple Sec · Passion fruit · Lemon · Pineapple · Strawberry Syrup
There is no sign on The Crow & Quill, just a lantern on each side of the door and a 106 above it. Casey Campfield opened it in 2014 and furnished it like an old Victorian parlor, with antique chairs, low lamps and books. The bar lists more than 800 whiskeys and over 1,200 spirits, and plenty are long out of production. The seasonal cocktails are worth ordering too, and there's live music. Try the Hot Buttered Rum, The Centerfold or Mothman's Bane. Go early if you want a chair.
What to order
Hot Buttered Rum$14Spiced Apple Cider · Dark Jamaican Rum · Pad o' Butter · Cookies
Mothman's Bane$15Red Cedar Infused Blanco Tequila · Meletti Amaro · Dolin Genepy · Lemon · Smoked Cedar Salt
The Centerfold$14Basil Infused Vodka · Amaro Sirene Rosa · Strawberry Jam · Lime · Strawberry Sugar
The Montford sits above downtown on the eighth floor of the DoubleTree. A private elevator takes you up. It's a rooftop bar first, with wide windows, open air when the weather allows, the city below and the mountains beyond. The seasonal cocktails use house-made infusions and tinctures, and the food comes from nearby farms. Try the Montford Mule, Paper Lantern or White Pepper Lady. Come before dark if you want the full ridgeline. Stay after dark to see downtown lit up.
Charlie Hodge and Sunil Patel opened Sovereign Remedies in October 2014, at the corner of North Market and Walnut. Hodge ran the bar at Bull & Beggar and helped open Clyde Common in Portland. Patel farms, and much of what goes into the drinks is grown for the bar. Patchwork Urban Farms supplies it, the Herbiary is next door, and the syrups, tinctures and shrubs are made in house. The bar is warm and spread over several levels, and the kitchen serves modern American plates made with local produce. The list changes with the season. Try the Charred & Charmed, No. 27 or a seasonal G&T. Ask what's new on the list.
What to order
Pirate Sunday$10Chemist Vodka · Fresh Orange Juice · Dry Curacao
No. 27$15George Dickel Sour Mash Whiskey · Cardamaro · House Ginger Syrup · Lemon Juice · Angostura Bitters
Seasonal G&T$13Gin · Honeysuckle · Blue Cornflower · Lemon · Hyssop · Calamus Root · Chamomile · Elderflower · Soda
Dims the bars that are closed right now, and any bar with no posted hours.
Interactive map of Asheville cocktail bars. Arrow keys pan, plus and minus
zoom, Tab moves between venues, Enter or Space opens a venue, Escape closes it.
Every bar on this map is listed by district, below.
Speakeasies in Asheville
Asheville's speakeasies don't need a password. The hard part is finding the door. The Crow & Quill has no sign, only two lanterns by the door. Red Ribbon Society is down in the old boiler room under The Flat Iron Hotel. Hotel Eve is through a gate on North Lexington, then across a brick courtyard. The speakeasies guide has directions to every door.
Most of Asheville's rooftop bars sit on hotels, and the view is what you're there for. The Montford's terrace faces west from the eighth floor, with nothing in front of it. Capella on 9 is nine floors above Broadway. The Roof at the Radical is the one rooftop on the river, with the French Broad below. Open-air seating depends on the weather, so look at the sky before you plan a night around one. The rooftop guide tells you which way each one faces.
Crucible, the small red bar on Roberts Street in the River Arts District, stays open late. Esquire called its drinks outstanding in 2025. Downtown, Farmese is a basement bar on Biltmore Avenue with a list sorted by technique. Imperial is upstairs on College Street and leans on mezcal and tequila. Its "Pechuga" Old-Fashioned costs $26. Rankin Vault has an old bank vault at the back and a burger with a WNC Battle of the Burger trophy. Day Trip, rebuilt on Broadway after the 2024 flood from Hurricane Helene, is another late one.
The dives and music bars stay open too. The Double Crown on Haywood Road uses an upright piano as its back bar. Asheville Yacht Club caps the Zombie at two a person. Each bar below shows its closing time. Check it before you walk over.
For a drink with a band, start at Hotel Eve. It's a jazz listening room in a basement on North Lexington, with an early set and a late set. Book a table or buy a ticket at the door. The early set on Fridays has sold out more than once. Local players keep the ticket money.
Pulp is one level under The Orange Peel, and the show upstairs plays through its speakers. At Off the Wagon, the pianists take requests, and the cover is ten dollars on weekends. Sly Grog has an open mic on Mondays and a jam on Wednesdays. After/Glow at The Radical has live music on Fridays and local DJs on Saturdays, no cover. Lineups change, so check the bar's calendar before you go.
Most of the bars on the map are downtown. North Lexington has the unmarked doors. Biltmore Avenue has the stairs down to basement bars. Battery Park and Wall have the older buildings. Start at Sovereign Remedies on North Market. It opened in 2014. You can walk to four bars in an evening.
The bars in downtown Asheville
The Crow & Quill
Downtown · Cocktail bar
Until midnight nightly
Hot Buttered Rum$14Mothman's Bane$15
Menu checked Oct 22
A dim parlor bar on North Lexington with one of the state's biggest whiskey collections and live music.
The South Slope was warehouses until the breweries moved in. The distilleries came next. There are far fewer cocktail bars than taprooms here. At Antidote, Chemist Spirits pours what it distills next door, on Coxe Avenue. Everything in the neighborhood is a few minutes' walk from everything else.
The bars in the South Slope
Tiki Easy Bar
South Slope · Tiki bar
Until 1am Fri & Sat
Piña Colada$12Strawberry Letter 23$12
Menu checked Sep 10
A tiki bar behind Hi-Wire's South Slope taproom, with a long rum list and drinks served in bowls.
Hurricane Helene flooded the river side of town in September 2024, and the district is still rebuilding. Some bars reopened in 2025, and some never will. The ones that are open are spread out, so plan to drive between them. Crucible is on Roberts Street, Golden Hour is at The Radical, and Anoche pours agave spirits on Clingman. Pick one and stay.
Haywood Road is one long street of dives, pubs and small bars. The cocktail bars are mixed in with them. Character Study, at 797, has books on the shelves that you can buy. The Low Down, at 723, is down a flight of stairs behind a door you have to look for. Jargon is a restaurant with a strong cocktail list. Most of the people around you live nearby.
The bars in West Asheville
Character Study
West Asheville · Cocktail bar
Until 11pm nightly
Midnight Margarita$13Breakfast of Zuul$14
Menu checked Oct 22
A West Asheville bar from the Little Jumbo team, with books for sale and drinks named after books.
North Asheville is mostly houses and a main road with a grocery store, so there isn't much to drink up here. The reason to come is the Great Hall at the Grove Park Inn, which has a fireplace at each end big enough for twelve-foot logs. The drinks are pricey, and you're paying for the room. For anything else, people drive south.
The bars in North Asheville
The Great Hall Bar
North Asheville · Hotel bar
Until midnight Fri & Sat
Brandy Alexander$15Coffee Old Fashioned$15
Menu checked Oct 22
The Grove Park Inn's lobby bar, inside the granite resort that opened in 1913.
Five Points is where Broadway, Chestnut and Mount Clare meet, just north of downtown. It's a neighborhood of 1920s and '30s houses. The cocktail bar to visit is Little Jumbo, in the old Jenkins grocery. Day Trip is on the walk up Broadway if you want a second stop.
The bars in Five Points
Little Jumbo
Five Points · Cocktail bar
Until 11pm nightly
Tattletale$20Creature Negroni$19
Menu checked Oct 22
A fifty-four-seat neighborhood bar on Broadway, known for fast service and a whole section of Old Fashioneds.
Biltmore Village is mostly shops, and the bars are in hotels. Red Stag Grill at the Grand Bohemian is the one to sit at. The Library Lounge is a good bar too, but it's inside the Inn on Biltmore Estate. Getting in takes an estate ticket or a room key.
The bars in Biltmore Village
Red Stag Grill
Biltmore Village · Steakhouse
Until midnight nightly
No menu listed yet.
The Grand Bohemian's lodge restaurant in Biltmore Village, with a bar that suits a nightcap.
