Great Cocktail Bars in Buffalo Niagara

September 8, 2021

Night out hit a snag? Go get a cocktail and enjoy yourself instead. Use our list and find a great cocktail bar near you in Buffalo Niagara.

by Max Fisher

From the out-n-out luxurious to the more Buffalonian down-home, there’s a range of great cocktail bars to choose from in Buffalo Niagara that can suit your taste (or mood)

No More The Office and Some Tall Boys

It’s another late night, you’re out with friends, but the night hasn’t added up to much. You’ve just been walking around chit-chatting, and you can’t do rage because you all have work in the morning. So that crosses out any spontaneous bar crawls because the last thing you want is to crawl into work tomorrow with a head-splitting hangover that makes everyone give you the look of “really? It’s a Wednesday. Who goes hard on a Tuesday night?” No, you don’t want that, but you also don’t wanna go back to your friend’s apartment and watch The Office reruns either. You want to have fun but with a sense of restraint, a dash of suaveness, and a feeling of cool.

You want to go to a cocktail bar!

And lucky for you, there are a number of great Cocktail Bars in Buffalo Niagara that offer exactly what you’re looking for!

Less Pretention and More Delicious, Fancy-ish Drinks

Do you feel as though most of the cocktail bars you’ve frequented can be a bit stuffy as if you’re constantly disappointed that your reality never matches your imagination ever since you saw Cocktail? Instead, you always feel like there’s a big focus on particular orders and exact measurements from the clientele and servers? (“I want 1/3 vermouth, one and a half drops of lemon and shaken at exactly 1.4 shakes per second. Don’t shake too hard, because trust me I will know”. And the server will politely nod their heads and try to fulfill the ridiculous order to the best of their ability).

If you’re tired of the pretention found in some of these places that seem to have more in common with a Harvard social club than a cool place to drink, go to Savoy. Opened in 2012 by brother and sister team Danny and Nina, Savoy is dedicated to making the cocktail scene local and fun. Savoy focuses on craft cocktails, whiskey, and wine. Ranging from interesting cocktails utilizing local ingredients like the Death & Vegetables, which contains tequila, Bauchant, agave, fresh lime juice, muddled cucumber & jalapeno. Your drinking needs will be more than taken care of, but let’s not forget about the atmosphere of the place, which has more in common with a cool house party than a place you just fumble into on a Friday night for a cocktail. Savoy uses some of the cities best local DJs that play just the right tunes to get you in the mood to step out of the bar and onto the dance floor. If you’re looking for a bit of a shakeup in your cocktail experience, then checkout Savoy.

Interesting things happening at Savoy

Sometimes the best places to get a cocktail aren’t at a cocktail bar but a restaurant with a lot of good alcohol to whip up something extraordinary. In this case, the extraordinary restaurant in question is Marble + Rye. It is best known for its food (it’s a restaurant after all, so if it weren’t best known for anything other than its food, that’d be a major red flag). But Marble + Rye also has an extensive cocktail selection. From Marla Hooch – Spicy Pickled Strawberry, Agave, Tart, Briney to the Lil Dynamite – Mango, Tingly Peppercorn, Herbal, and Fresh. I promise when you get your meal and have a great unique cocktail to go with it, a dinner that may have been good will turn great!

The Full 9 at Canal Club 62

Sometimes you want to be fancy and go the whole nine yards. Put on a nice suit and bow tie (bow ties are eternally fresh, period). Grab some friends and family, maybe a special gal or fella, and have a good time being part of the upper crust of society (even if it’s just for a few hours, perhaps it’s for the best. Crust tends to get stale after a few hours anyway). So, when you’re looking to be fancy for an afternoon head on over to the Canal Club 62. First off, with a name like The Canal Club, you’re entering something exclusive, and with that, you wouldn’t be wrong to expect some exclusive cocktail options. The Canal Club has an entire menu full of options. Expert bartenders stand ready and are willing to make whatever you desire. I can’t promise they’ll do cool tricks and maintain an insane level of intensity while making them like Tom Cruise, but I can say with certainty that whatever you have will be good.

It’s also worth mentioning that Canal Club 62 uses local ingredients, and that’s always good to see, whether on your food or drinks (and in this case, it’s both). It’s always great to have the piece of mind that whatever your consuming is local and fresh. So make a day of it. Be a big shot for a few hours. Do that weird swirl, sniff drink thing all the fancy people do, and enjoy yourself.

You deserve it.

Cocktails at Canal Club 62

Find the Cocktail Spot that’s Right for You

Everyone’s night out can hit a snag. Just because it’s Friday or Saturday night doesn’t mean that something awesome is bound to happen at any moment. But that doesn’t mean you have to give up and watch The Office reruns in your friend’s apartment with a case of beer (plus your friend likes The Office a lot more than you do, so it’s more his idea of a fun night than it is yours). You can go get a cocktail and enjoy yourself instead.

And if nothing else, this piece has shown that finding a great cocktail bar in Buffalo Niagara is more than just one thing. Getting a fancy cocktail can be a cool way to act sophisticated, or an excuse to go to a fancy restaurant or even just a reason to go to a restaurant because you’ve heard they serve unusual good cocktails. Whatever your reasons turn out to be, go to the place that you feel will best suit you because you can believe a great cocktail will be waiting at the bar!

Great Cocktail Bars in Buffalo Niagara

choose any location to see bar information, menus, get directions, & more.

Ballyhoo

Buffalo

Battle Flag Tavern

Lewiston

Billy Club

Buffalo

Black Iron Bystro

Buffalo

Canal Club 62

North Tonawanda

D-Tour Martini Bar

Buffalo

Gallo Coalfire Kitchen

Lewiston

Grange Community Kitchen

Hamburg

Graylynn

Buffalo

Hooked

Williamsville

Hydraulic Hearth

Buffalo

Il Mulino Cocktail Bar

Buffalo

Lobby Bar

Buffalo

Lucky Day Whiskey Bar

Buffalo

Marble + Rye

Buffalo

Mes Que

Buffalo

Mile 303

Medina

Mister Sizzle’s

Buffalo

Neat

Buffalo

Patina 250

Buffalo

Providence Social

Buffalo

Savoy

Buffalo

Share Kitchen & Bar Room

Williamsville

Shirt Factory

Medina

SZND

Buffalo

Toutant

Buffalo

Waxlight Bar A Vin

Buffalo

Winfield’s Pub

Buffalo

What do you think of our guide to cocktail bars in Buffalo Niagara? Have a favorite? What’s the best cocktail you’ve had at any bar on the list? Let us know.

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