Jacksonville Bars and Breweries: Starter List

Three breweries, two downtown cocktail rooms, a bar on the sand, and the oldest liquor license in Duval County.

The drink list is half of it. The room is the other half, and Jacksonville's best rooms are unusually specific about what they are.

Start with the breweries. Bold City is the mother-and-son brewery most locals name first, and its Rosselle Street taproom in Riverside is the original room. Aardwolf in San Marco pours inside a former ice plant. Intuition has the rooftop deck on Bay Street near the stadium.

Downtown, Dos Gatos has been the cocktail lounge across from the Florida Theatre since 2009 and The Volstead does Prohibition-era whiskey until 2 a.m. At the beach, The Lemon Bar is on the sand, and Pete's Bar in Neptune Beach holds Duval County's first liquor license after Prohibition.

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Venues in this guide

Bold City Brewery

Riverside · $$

Mother-and-son founded, and still the brewery most Jacksonville drinkers name first. The Rosselle Street taproom is the original room, on a Riverside industrial block rather than a retail strip.

Aardwolf Brewing Company

San Marco · $$

A taproom inside a former ice plant on Hendricks. The building does a lot of the work here, and a beer list has no way of saying so.

Intuition Ale Works

Downtown · $$

The Bay Street taproom with the rooftop deck, a short walk from the stadium, and the downtown brewery to plan a game day around.

Dos Gatos

Downtown · $$

A cocktail lounge on Forsyth across from the Florida Theatre, open since 2009, which in downtown Jacksonville bar years is a long time. The pre-show and post-show room for anything at the Theatre.

The Volstead

Downtown · $$

A Prohibition-style whiskey lounge on Adams Street, named for the act that made it illegal. Its own posted hours run to 2 a.m. every night, which is the whole case for it on a list about late rooms.

The Lemon Bar

Neptune Beach · $$

A bar on the sand at the end of Lemon Street. Several listings still carry an old Atlantic Boulevard address; its own site says 2 Lemon St, and the ocean is the rest of the description.

Pete's Bar

Neptune Beach · $

Duval County liquor license number one, issued in 1933 the year Prohibition ended, in a building that was Jensen's Market before that. Cash, pool tables, and no interest whatsoever in being discovered.