Bars last call is 2 a.m.

Anvil opened on lower Westheimer in 2009, back when a proper Old Fashioned was hard to find in this city, and it has been setting the standard ever since. Bobby Heugel and his crew built the place around The 100, a house list of the classic cocktails every bartender here learns cold, and that list still anchors the menu next to a short run of seasonal originals. The room is small, dark and loud in the good way, with brick walls and a massive vintage Campari sign. A generation of Houston bartenders trained here before opening places of their own, so a drink at Anvil is a little like visiting the family home. Sit at the bar if you can and let the person shaking your drink steer you.

La Carafe sits inside the Kennedy Bakery, a narrow two-story brick building that Irish baker John Kennedy put up around 1860, after a fire took his earlier bakery on the site. Over the next century it was a bakery, a drugstore and a shop, and for decades it has been a bar. Walking in feels like stepping out of the modern city: low light, big candles under years of dripped wax, a jukebox that leans classic, and a steep, narrow staircase to the upstairs room. Nobody comes here for a cocktail program. You come for the building, the company and a drink that tastes better because of where you are standing. It is the rare downtown bar that locals and first-time visitors love equally.

Alba Huerta opened Julep in late 2014 with a simple idea: tell the story of the American South through what people drink there, with the Gulf Coast and her own Mexican American roots woven in. The room is pale, airy and quietly glamorous, the kind of place where a weeknight drink feels like an occasion. In 2022 Julep won the James Beard Award for Outstanding Bar Program, the first for Houston, and landed on the North America's 50 Best Bars list the same year. The juleps are the obvious start, but the menu runs deep, and the staff is happy to talk you through it. Book a table on a weekend, or aim for a quieter early evening.

Two Rice graduates, Brock Wagner and Kevin Bartol, started Saint Arnold in 1994, and the brewery calls itself Texas' oldest craft brewery. Since 2010 it has lived in a big brick building on Lyons Avenue just north of downtown, and in 2018 it added a beer garden, taproom and restaurant that turned a brewery visit into a proper afternoon out. Grab a table in the garden with the downtown skyline over your shoulder, order a flight, and look for the murals by Houston artists in the beer hall. Lawnmower, a crisp Kolsch-style beer, is the local everyday pint; Art Car IPA and Elissa IPA are the hoppy standbys. It is family friendly by day and lively on weekend evenings.

You find Captain Foxheart's by looking for the unassuming door on the 300 block of Main Street and climbing the stairs. Justin Burrow, Brad Moore and Ryan Rouse opened it in April 2013. Inside it is a dark, classy saloon; outside there is a balcony that hangs over Main Street and the METRORail line, with the old downtown buildings lit up around you. The drinks are serious without being fussy. Come for one and you will probably stay for the second on the balcony.

Russell and Elizabeth Thoede opened Lei Low in February 2014 in a small strip on North Main. Step inside and the parking lot disappears: bamboo furniture, vintage Witco and Tretchikoff art, and green booths that nod to Houston's old Trader Vic's. The Thoedes are genuine tiki obsessives, so the drinks are built with care, with house-made syrups and plenty of rum, some of them set on fire. It is a small room that fills up, which only adds to the feeling that you have found a secret. Come with friends and let the bartenders guide you through the rums if you want to go deeper.

Johnny's Gold Brick opened on Yale Street in March 2015, in the space that had been the Boom Boom Room. Owner Benjy Mason, who worked his way up from dishwasher to head chef, wanted a true neighborhood bar that happened to make great cocktails, and that is exactly what it feels like: warm oak, deep booths, a friendly crowd and a patio out front. The menu changes every month and plays well with both cocktail people and folks who just want a cold beer and a shot. It is an easy stop after a stroll through the Heights, and a good place to watch the neighborhood roll through on a weekend afternoon.

Axelrad takes its name from the red brick building at Alabama and Almeda, which went up as a grocery run by the Axelrad family roughly a century ago. The beer garden opened in December 2015 and has become one of Houston's great outdoor hangs: a big yard with a stage for live music and a whole grove of hammocks where people settle in for hours. It draws everyone from Midtown neighbors with dogs to groups celebrating birthdays. The drinks are easy, and there is usually something happening, from jazz nights to DJs. It is exactly where you want to be on one of those rare cool Houston evenings.

Warren's Inn has been pouring since 1953, and at this address since 1978, named for Warren Trousdale, and it feels like a place that stopped worrying about trends a long time ago. The room is long and dim, the bartenders are quick, the drinks are strong and the prices are kind for downtown. The jukebox is the soul of the place, loaded with oldies and standards, and on any given night you will find office workers, old regulars, musicians and a few curious visitors all sharing the same bar. It sits right off Market Square, a few steps from La Carafe, which makes the pair the easiest history lesson in Houston drinking. Order simply, tip well and put a few songs on.

Double Trouble opened on December 1, 2011, founded by two bartenders who met working at Poison Girl, and the pitch was simple: good coffee and good drinks under one roof. More than a decade later it is a Midtown fixture on the Main Street strip, a few steps from the Continental Club and the METRORail line. The space is relaxed, with bamboo and rattan accents, the crowd mixes devoted regulars with visitors who found it along the rail line, and the menu happily blurs the line between the two halves of the name. It is the perfect warm-up before live music down the block, or a nightcap afterward when you still want to talk.