The Best Bars in Des Moines, by the Night You Want

"Let's just grab one drink" is the biggest lie in travel, somewhere up there with "the directions say it's five minutes away." Somebody says it in the rental living room, everyone nods like it's a binding contract, and three hours later you're in your fourth spot arguing about whether to get food. The group is split between the people who want a quiet cocktail and the people who want an arcade and a round of shots. Good news for both camps: the best bars in Des Moines cover every version of a night out, so you don't have to pick one vibe and make everybody live with it.

Short version: Des Moines punches above its weight on bars, from serious cocktail lounges to one of the biggest beer lists in the Midwest to a basement arcade bar. Match the spot to the kind of night your crew actually wants.

Still reading? Good. A bar crawl runs better with a plan than with a group text, so here's how a local sorts a Des Moines night out by the mood you're chasing.

Cocktail bars for a proper night out

If your idea of a good night involves a drink someone actually thought about, Des Moines has grown a real cocktail scene. Hello, Marjorie is the one locals treat as the anchor, a downtown lounge with a well-earned reputation and a neon sign that's become a bit of a photo landmark. Tucked behind it is Good News, Darling, a speakeasy you get into by checking in at Marjorie's host stand, which is exactly the kind of small theater that makes a night feel like an occasion.

Over on the Ingersoll side, the mood gets more neighborhood-y, with intimate bars that do a tight cocktail list and a patio when the weather cooperates. This is the move for a date or a small group that wants to actually hear each other talk. A spot like The Bartender's Handshake, with its patio and firepits, is the kind of place you settle into for a couple of rounds rather than treating as one stop on a crawl.

What's notable is that this is a relatively new thing for Des Moines. The serious-cocktail scene has grown up fast over the last several years, and it's genuinely good now, not just good-for-Iowa. If you've written off a Midwest city's drink list before, this is the one that changes your mind.

A good cocktail bar is the one place where waiting twelve minutes for a drink feels like a feature, not a bug. If you're in a hurry, you're in the wrong room. Slow down, that's the point.

Beer bars and breweries

For the beer crowd, the headline act is El Bait Shop, a downtown institution with one of the largest craft beer selections you'll find anywhere in the region, well into the hundreds between taps and bottles. The exact count depends on who's telling it, but the point stands: if you can't find a beer you like here, the problem is you.

Next door in spirit is Hessen Haus, a German-style bier hall set in a former train station, where the move is a boot of beer and a long communal table. It's loud, it's fun, and it's built for a group that wants to settle in. Between the two, the beer-focused part of your crew is fully handled.

• Best for: groups, beer nerds, and anyone who'd rather browse a tap list than read a cocktail menu.
• Pro move: start at El Bait Shop early before it packs out, then roll into the rest of the Court Avenue strip.

Fun, themed, and up on a roof

Not every night is about the drink itself. Sometimes you want a bar with something to do. Up-Down is the retro arcade bar in a downtown basement where you buy tokens and settle old scores over Mario Kart and skee-ball. It's the great equalizer for a group that can't agree on a vibe, because nobody argues about where to go when there's a claw machine involved.

When the weather's right, Wellman's Pub and Rooftop opens up a big rooftop patio with weekend DJs, which is the easy answer for a group that wants to be outside and a little loud. These are your "the night is the plan" spots, the ones you build an evening around rather than squeeze in before dinner.

The reason a spot with an activity works so well for a group is that it quietly takes the pressure off. Nobody has to perform being fun. The arcade or the rooftop does the heavy lifting, the conversation happens around it, and the one person who gets quiet in a loud cocktail bar suddenly has something to do. It's the most reliable way to make a mismatched group of travelers actually enjoy a night out together.

Planning a nicer evening for two instead of a full crew? Our date night ideas in Des Moines guide pairs a cocktail bar with the rest of the night.

Where the night clusters: Court Avenue and Valley Junction

Here's the local shortcut. Most of downtown's nightlife lives on and around Court Avenue, the bar-and-brewpub corridor near the river and the event venues. That density is a gift, because you can park once and walk between spots instead of relocating the whole group by car every hour. Start with dinner nearby, then let the crawl happen on foot.

Out in West Des Moines, Historic Valley Junction offers a mellower alternative, with spots like The Winchester Public House bringing a prohibition-era feel and a solid craft beer list. It's the lower-key side of a Des Moines night, worth the short drive if your group's more wind-down than wind-up. For the full picture of the area, see our guide to the best restaurants in Des Moines and build dinner into the plan.

Once you know the geography, matching a spot to the night gets easy. Here's the quick cheat sheet a local runs on:

• A classy night out or a date: Hello, Marjorie and the Good News, Darling speakeasy, or an Ingersoll cocktail bar.
• A big group that can't agree: Up-Down, because an arcade settles the vibe debate for you.
• Beer people: El Bait Shop for the tap list, Hessen Haus for the bier-hall energy.
• Outside and loud: a rooftop like Wellman's when the weather plays along.
• Low-key: Valley Junction in West Des Moines for a quieter, slower evening.

The real pro move is stacking them. Dinner near Court Avenue, a beer at El Bait Shop while the night's still young, a cocktail at Marjorie's once the room warms up, and a late round of skee-ball at Up-Down to close it out. That's a full night that never once requires getting back in a car, which is the whole case for staying downtown.

Where you stay decides how the night ends

Here's the part the bar lists skip. Where you're staying quietly sets the whole night, right down to how it ends. Stay central and walkable to Court Avenue and the crawl runs on foot, nobody's the designated driver by default, and the walk back to the room is part of the fun instead of a logistics problem.

It's a big reason a whole-home rental beats a hotel for a group that likes a night out. Everyone lands back in the same place, there's a real kitchen for the inevitable late-night snack raid, and coffee waiting in the morning for a group that definitely did not just grab "one drink." You run the itinerary, the city runs the night.

The bottom line

The best bars in Des Moines aren't one scene, they're several, so pick your night and go. Hello, Marjorie and Good News, Darling for cocktails, El Bait Shop and Hessen Haus for beer, Up-Down and the rooftops for fun, and Court Avenue as the walkable heart of it all. Check today's hours, build in dinner, and let the crawl happen.

Want to land somewhere you can walk home from? Book a Stay-A-While home in the Des Moines area and let the night be the only thing you have to plan.