Drinking in Los Angeles is always a pleasure. If you fall into conversation with a local at a bar, you’ll inevitably hear a good story or two about an encounter with a celebrity, assuming you can steer the conversation away from whatever project that person is pitching at the moment.

In the past year, Los Angeles has seen a wave of interesting new bars open up, ranging from immense beer halls to candlelit speakeasy-style cocktail lounges. Several of the most exciting bars are downtown, but I also discovered appealing new options closer to our recommended hotels.

In addition to the bars below, I also suggest visiting Covell, a romantic wine bar in Los Feliz associated with the Hotel Covell, and Mon-Li in Malibu, assuming it reopens. The latter was a 12-seat cocktail bar that served a “12-course liquid tasting menu” before it was heavily damaged in the Woolsey Fire. Mon-Li was still closed when we stayed at the Malibu Beach Inn, but I hope to be able to visit the next time I’m in the area.