Perfect Lounges for a Week-end Cocktail Tasting or a Night Out
Bath is incredibly rich of quirky places where expert barmen prepare handcrafted cocktails tasting heavenly and perfectly decorated. Whoever you are: gin lover, whisky fan, vodka drinker, prosecco or rum addicted these are my top places for a lovely night out in Bath and I am sure you won’t be disappointed!
1. Circo Bar and Lounge
This elegant and cosy vaulted lounge is the perfect location for birthday parties or an intimate date. Voted best cocktail lounge in Bath in2019, this lounge features an extensive wine, champagne based cocktails and 2 for 1 deals before and after dinner time. At Christmas time they serve a special menu of hot drinks and cocktails based on Christmas stories and spices like cinnamon, chocolate, pumpkin and much more.
The service is nice and kind and staff organise cocktails classes during the week with the best mixologists and very Friday and Saturday the best awarded DJ animate the evening with all types of music!
2. Opium
Opium is my favourite lounge in town not only for the high quality ingredients used to make their cocktails but also for the unusual and quirky atmosphere and decoration of this partially underground vaulted bar. The smell of opium and laudanum permeates the air and takes you back to a bohemian and quirky setting at Victorian times where old-style typewriters, paintings and lamps create a private and vintage atmosphere.
This bar is always packed because the awarded mixologists take the time to advise you and prepare your high quality cocktail with the best decorations and foamy patterns. The price is around 7/8 Pounds a cocktail, which is one of the most competitive in town! They also price their cocktails at 5 Pounds each at happy hour time Tues-Thurs, Friday until 8 pm. A secret room for parties is also bookable in this truly hidden gem!
3. The Dark Horse
This dark and subterranean lounge ahs been awarded several times thanks to the fresh and local ingredients used to elaborate their cocktails. The bar is decorated with handmade wooden furniture and it has an alternative and secretive vibe.
The price range their handpicked cocktails is around 9 Pounds each and their short menu changes frequently according to the season.
4. Sub 13
This city styled lounge features an extensive open-air terrace in the court which is heated in winter giving more space capacity to this elegant and famous venue. Joint the 2 for 1 cocktail promotion at happy hour times to indulge in some refreshing and perfectly mixed cocktail.
This lounge is renowned for hen and birthday parties so book in advance if you want to celebrate in style in this elegant yet friendly location. Don’t forget to join a fun cocktail masterclass where the expert mixologists will show you how to create you next favourite cocktail!
5.The Canary Gin and Wine Bar
Knowledgeable and enthusiast staff, extensive gin cocktails lists, flowery and fruity decorations make of this Gin Bar one of the favourite location for locals and visitors. As the name suggests, this is the place to be for gin lovers but also for those who are not so they can change their mind about it!
The gin tea pot in Jane Austen’s style is one of the most ordered items and one of the reasons this bar is always jam-packed on both floors during the weekend. The price range is around 12 Pounds for each drink, but sip your cocktail and you will soon understand why!
6. The Ivy Brasserie
This elegant and bright place located on Milsom Street, the main shopping historic road, is a good birthday treat for lunch, dinner, afternoon teas and for a nice cocktails sipped on the tranquil roof top terrace.
This posh restaurant and lounge opened in 2018 and received already an Excellence Certificate the following year proving that it has soon become one of the favourite places for special occasions for locals and non! The handmade cocktails price range varies from 9 to 10 Pounds but there is also a nice choice among beers, ciders an non-alcoholic mocktails.
7. The Botanist
One of the most recent opened cocktail bar and restaurant is “The Botanist”, part of a chain and located in a very elegant and scenic octagon shaped Regency building in Milsom Street. This place originally used to be an orchard and garden and then became a private chapel very fashionable and famous during Georgian times.
The bar’s range of drinks is botanic oriented, hence the name, but other options such as champagne, wine, cider are also available. Don’t forget to go in the basement, once a wine cellar, to try the cocktails of their sister vaulted lounge called “Benath” a mysterious and charming apothecary-style bar.
Expect ingredients such as rhubarb and ginger liqueur, rhubarb syrup, red amaranth, mint, elderflower liqueur and jasmine syrup be the protagonist of the cocktails mixed in this gem of a location. The Botanist can become quickly overcrowded so try to arrive early or avoid the weekends.
Don’t forget to read my articles about the most yummy restaurants, or the most scenic gardens of the city, and the top interesting museums and activities for Jane Austen’s fans and the Essential Bath Guide and much more!
