Bryant’s Cocktail Lounge, 1579 S. Ninth St., was named one of America's 27 best bars of 2024 by USA Today. To in-the-know Milwaukeeans, this comes as no surprise. Some of us have been lounging in Bryant’s retro luxury booths for years, sipping on a Brain Buster or Black Magic while listening to Sinatra.

But for much of America, Bryant's is new news. And that's great news for Milwaukee.

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The building dates back to the late 1800s, but became Bryant's in 1936 when Bryant Sharp took over the bar. Sharp was passionate about cocktail crafting and didn’t want to limit his customers’ imaginations with a cocktail list, so to this day, the lounge offers 450+ drinks (and counting), but does not have a physical menu. Want something made with vodka and raspberries? The bartender might suggest The Candle Light. Feeling ice creamy? How about a Grasshopper or a Pink Squirrel? (Sharp is credited with inventing the Pink Squirrel cocktail.) 

In 1968, a fire tore through the building, but it was rebuilt into a state-of-the-art 1970s cocktail lounge. John Dye, who bought the bar and the building in 2008, has been committed to improving it without changing it. Bryant’s now serves drinks honoring every decade of its existence from Depression-era sidecars to 1990s Cosmopolitans. 

Bryant’s is in good company on the USA Today list, ranking along with The Lipstick Lounge in Nashville, Tenn.; The Crow & Quill in Asheville N.C.; Paramita Sound in Detroit and The Apothecary at Brent's Drugs in Jackson, Miss.

I'll end this with a pro-tip: don't drink more than one of Bryant's Mai Tais or you might have to lie down in the backseat of your partner's car while he drives home. Ope.

To read the entire USA Today list, go here. To read more about Bryant's history, go here.