If you are searching for the best cocktail bar in Salt Lake City, we would rather you decide for yourself. What we can tell you is how we work, and what ends up in the glass because of it.
Lake Effect is a cocktail bar, Latin-inspired kitchen and live music venue at 155 W 200 S in downtown Salt Lake City. The bar program runs on one habit: nothing reaches the menu until it has been made, tasted and adjusted enough times that we stop arguing about it.
Twice a year, the bar team writes a new house menu from scratch. A drink usually starts with one ingredient someone can't stop thinking about. Then come the rounds: a different base spirit, a little more dilution, the sweetness pulled back a quarter ounce at a time. Most ideas don't survive. The ones that do are balanced, repeatable on a busy Saturday and worth what they cost.
Each menu has a theme, which we treat as a set of constraints rather than a costume. Past menus have taken on the jungle, the zodiac and the Seven Wonders of the World. The current one, the Nursery Rhyme Edition, is ten cocktails drawn from nursery rhymes, with the kind of eerie whimsy only a Salt Lake fall and winter could produce: familiar verses, a little darker than you remember them. We will also admit the menu went somewhat bananas. The fruit turns up more often than we can fully explain. Two of them:
Hot Cross Buns. Wheatley Vodka is a quiet base, which is the point: it leaves room for Mountain High Chai, cinnamon and Angostura to warm the drink through. Orgeat and banana oleo soften the spice into something like a bakery case at closing time, and our house gardenia mix adds a buttery richness underneath. Cold foam, chocolate and nutmeg finish it. Dessert, more or less, for anyone who would rather drink it.
Wheels on the Bus. Ardbeg 10yr Islay Scotch rolls in first with peat smoke and a little sea spray. Laird's Apple Brandy adds baked orchard fruit, and Tiki Lovers Banana Rum brings ripe, dark banana along behind it. Strega threads saffron, mint and anise through the finish, and a touch of saline sharpens the edges so the sweetness never settles in. Smoky, autumnal and stranger the longer you sit with it.
We list every spirit by name. Partly because the producers deserve the credit, and partly because it makes ordering the second drink easier.
The Modern Classics menu is the counterweight to the seasonal list: house cocktails that were so popular when they first came out, we decided to keep them on the menu. If you know what you like, start here. If you don't, it is a good place to find out.
There are more than 150 beers and 100 wines, and a back bar deep enough to wander through with a bartender's help. Our mocktails go through the same testing as everything else, because a guest who isn't drinking still deserves a drink with some thought behind it.
Lake Effect fills three floors of a historic downtown building. The Main Floor has art nouveau chandeliers and live music every night. The Rabbit Hole, downstairs, is a low-lit speakeasy-style bar with live jazz on Wednesdays. Church, upstairs, is a gothic club with stained glass and a pink stone bar.
In 2023, OpenTable's Diners' Choice awards named Lake Effect for Best Ambiance, Most Vibrant Bar Scene and Hot Spot in Utah. We were glad to hear it—to put it lightly.
The kitchen is Latin-inspired and open every day from brunch at 11am until 1am. The menu is written with the bar in mind, so dinner and a second round tend to get along.
What kind of bar is Lake Effect? A cocktail bar, Latin-inspired restaurant and live music venue in downtown Salt Lake City.
How often does the cocktail menu change? The house menu changes twice a year. The Modern Classics & Classic Cocktail menu stays largely the same.
Does Lake Effect have non-alcoholic cocktails? Yes. There are house mocktails & NA beers on the menu.
Is there a speakeasy at Lake Effect? The Rabbit Hole is a speakeasy-style bar downstairs, with live jazz every Wednesday.
Can I eat at the bar? Yes. The full menu is served at the bar until 10pm & then a more limited late night menu is served til close.
