The best bars in Charlotte for all the right vibes

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This isn’t a spot to order any old drink and escape to a booth with your buds. Here, everything from ordering to that first sip is an adventure, starting with the fact that there’s no menu. Instead, the bartenders at this NoDa spot dream up something new based on your preferences, those improvs often leading to something you wish was on the menu at those other bars. Reservations are recommended, but for those who didn’t plan ahead, send a text between 6pm and 2am to 704-572-8678 to find out about wait times. And if you just can’t get in tonight, check next door at Idlewild’s sister bar, the equally cool Fairweather.

Hidden out back of a hardware store, the speakeasy-themed Dot Dot Dot is far from a secret these days. The dimly lit bar has become a favorite for its plays on the classics like the old-fashioned with an 11-year-old Elijah Craig bourbon and a paloma spiked with a Thai pepper syrup.

Having arrived in 2009, the Meck kick-started what's now officially a thing in Charlotte, a craft beer movement powered by the little guys. While Mecklenburg is at this point a pretty big deal, it's still only distributed within a 60-mile radius. Much loved for its shady German-beer-hall-style tables on the outside patio, the brewery’s vibe is coming soon to your neighborhood: an $18 million investment will open three new spots around Charlotte.

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Bartender Amanda Britton worked at pretty much all the best bars in the city before landing at this South End favorite, where she serves up a cocktail list full of her original creations. There's a happy hour from 5pm to 6:30pm with $5 starters, but the money move is coming on Wednesdays for $8 classic cocktails.

Argon describes itself as "Charlotte's only video dance bar," but it's so much more than that. Yep, there are music videos playing to time with the DJs, but there are also all those disco balls, the so-often-packed dance floor and the special nights, which are just about every night. Consider: mimosa Madness on Sundays, the 80s dance parties, the Flirt Stop Light Party and, your new fave if you're into flannel, Lumber Jack'd (slogan: “cum dance your axe off”). If there’s a big game or holiday or maybe just a random Tuesday, you can bet there’s a thing happening at Argon.

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Free Range opened in Villa Heights on the edge of DoDa in 2015 with a mission to brew beers with ingredients sourced locally. Five years later the family-owned business expanded into a second location that soon became an anchor of the Camp North End redevelopment. Inside the taproom, there's a 100-year-old oak wood bar with a modern-meets-historic vibe of exposed brick, while outside the patio has views of the skyline and twinkly lights overhead, serving as a fine spot to whittle away a nice summer night.

Don’t call it a dive, and don’t call it a gay bar, but what you can say about Hattie’s is that everybody’s welcome. There's a mismatched assortment of tables and pictures and murals on the inside, and out back there are picnic tables and, for some reason, a bathtub. Fans of the quirky, or the quirky themselves, will undoubtedly fit right in, as will everyone else.

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You've heard of pop-up restaurants and bars, but a pop-up hotel? That's essentially what's happening at The Refuge, a "pilot program" in a space temporarily until it's developed into a new hotel in 2023. The entire thing is meant as a tribute to the Indian Americans who run so many hotels across the States. And at night, the lobby turns into a cocktail bar that’s as experimental and quirky and charming as you’d expect from a pop-up, with drinks including the backwater, with dirty vodka, brine, a marinated olive and dots of olive oil floating on top like little green islands of uniqueness.

With its exposed pipes running overhead through metal rafters and the big reclaimed-wood-esque bar, you might think Divine Barrell is a fancy brewery of serious beer makers. But here it’s all about challenging what you thought could go into a brew, like the peachy Carolina Cobbler Berliner, a breakfast porter called Defensive Pancake that tastes not-vaguely like maple syrup and collab with Reigning Doughnuts that used over 60 pounds of glazed numbers to create a beer that’ll make you ponder your place in the world: The Universe is a Donut.

The Cotton Room is a cocktail respite in a section of Uptown where the bars are mostly more about what game’s on the TV. The space was once used to house cotton brought in by Charlotte farmers, and it’s still got a historic vibe. That’s reflected too on the menu, full of the classics, like the Bee’s Knees and Mint Julep, but also just a hint of modern, like the Smoke and Mirrors tequila number that's smoked with cinnamon.

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It can be a real bummer when a favorite NoDa bottleshop and bar gets on the semi-finalist for the James Beard Award—because now everybody knows the secret. Downstairs, Salud still feels pretty divey, every inch covered in flags or posters or whatever else. Upstairs, there’s more of a chill living room vibe. Whichever space you’re feeling, there’s a deep well of beers, excellent pizzas (named, weirdly, after Outkast songs), and, if you’re around when the sun comes up, breakfast burritos to help start the whole thing over again.

This reservation-only speakeasy is down in the basement below the City Center standout restaurant Supperland. Drinks can be paired with small bites, and it'll never be too crowded, with just 10 seats set out for a unique “spirit experience.”

Lenny Boy's big, cavernous, high-ceilinged space fills to the rafters and then sometimes spills outside onto the steps and communal tables, feeling very much like a beer-fueled block party. Beyond the very drinkable juicy IPA Citraphilia, there are also sours and pilsners and even house-brewed kombuchas for the non-beer drinkers.