Award-winning Silver Lyan sits in a former vault in the depths of the Riggs Hotel. | Silver Lyan Head here to sip the finest beers, wines, and cocktails around town D.C. is a drinking town through and through. A work-hard, play-hard ethic is pervasive across a city full of young professionals that can be found unwinding with craft beer, natural wine, and complicated cocktails just about every night of the week. Whether a drinker’s preference is to splurge on futuristic cocktails at Minibar, sip espresso martinis at party-starting Bar Chinois, or indulge in a frozen, minty hard lemonade at Green Zone, there’s no shortage of standout bars around the District. Essential bars on this list have been open for at least six months. Prefer to bend the elbow at the latest “it” destination? Check out the bar heatmap. For a list of D.C.’s most lovable dive bars, go here, and check out the region’s best tiki bars here.