The Best Bars in Karlsruhe
Getting past the door is not as difficult as you might think given the bar's reputation. The owner duo have made a name for themselves with sustainably designed cocktails (little food waste!). What should you try? Highballs or drink of the week! Please take the Bottled Flamingo home with you!
Restaurateur Marc Leuwer has his nose to the wind and knows exactly what the people of Karlsruhe want at Hirschhof. Classic drinks with a twist, sometimes barrel-aged, which are best sipped at the city's most architecturally successful bar counter. If you want to know more: simply book a ticket for the next cocktail course.
Head bartender Niklas Strohmenger in Durlach is not satisfied with just any old thing. Pisco harmonises with popcorn, spruce needles go well with gin and Bénédictine, but a classic like Side Car also works. The Karlsruhe pop-up bar Hust by The Curtain and the cocktail courses are further attractions.
Salon Ruppel may sound like the kind of sophisticated place you used to go in the old days, but it's actually something completely different. Cult landlord Mo Kaba serves cocktails that you have to search long and hard for elsewhere in the city. Drinks are not only composed, but also celebrated - and half of Karlsruhe flocks here for the opening of the terrace season at the latest.
30 seats sounds like a lot, but it's not much considering the reputation of the bar, which opened in 2023. Reservations are therefore advisable to avoid having to leave without having had a drink. Whether it should be classic or creative can be discussed at your leisure. The cigar regulars' table meets once a month.
There's piano music on Saturdays, a beautiful garden in summer and a three-hour happy hour on Wednesdays. From January to December, there is what makes a good bar: drinks of the established or very personal kind, spiced and often "surprisingly" combined. Cocktails to go are available to order in advance.
Quality awareness above all else. Exciting drinks, fine herbal liqueurs and homemade syrups: you'd never be satisfied with the usual standards here. Guest bartenders and rum tastings are among the attractions of the establishment and "Mixology Monday" attracts the curious to Roman Koffer's living room at the beginning of the week.
Café, bar, music pub: Zitteraal, made famous by Craig Judkins, is a little bit of everything and is also pretty quality-conscious. The drinks are mixed with gin, but sometimes also with beetroot spirit from the Kaiserstuhl. A coarse appetite is satisfied with olives and the like, and an appetite for cool sounds is satisfied with live performances.