Categories: City Life

The Best Places To Drink In Lincoln

With the new uni students flooding in and the opening and closing of so many bars, I thought it was needed to make a list of the best places to drink in Lincoln. For saying that Lincoln is a small city, the majority of places here are bars, pubs or clubs, making us all look like alcoholics. Nevertheless, we still need a list that narrows down which places are worth going and which to avoid, so here we go.

1. The Curiosity Shop

This is one of the better bars in Lincoln I think because you can just sit and enjoy your drink. They are high quality and with such a wide range you can try something new all the time. They specialise in gin but they also have plenty of whiskeys, rums, larger and wines to please everyone that walks in.

The Curiosity Shop is a very curious bar indeed, the interior decoration of the place is just amazing. It’s so random and cool that you can be there all night and still not have figured out what the theme of the place is. What makes the place even cooler is that you can actually buy their decoration pieces if you fall completely in love with it, you just need to ask someone behind the bar.

But try not to make any drunk purchases because you don’t want to wake up in the morning with a deer head in your bed and scare yourself to death.

If you want a more chilled evening with your mates where you can feel sophisticated and classy, as well as be comfy and have amazing drinks this is your place. It’s so sophisticated that my blood orange gin cocktail was served in a teapot… best drink of my life.

2. Bierkeller

Everyone loves to dance on tables when they’re drunk but obviously, that’s prohibited and normally gets you kicked out of the bar. But at Bierkeller you can dance on the benches all night, clinking your steins of beer or cocktails with your friends and having a dance to all the best hits or to the live Oompah band.

I personally love the Oompah band, when they cover the song from 10 Things I Hate About You ‘Can’t Take My Eyes Off You’ I’m kicking my legs and strutting to the beat having the time of my life. But you also have a DJ who plays you all the great classics and hits of your time, from High School Musical and McFly to Panic At The Disco and Queen. You can even do the Cha Cha Slide, just be careful trying to hop on the bench.

Bierkeller isn’t just a place to drink a steins worth of Sex on the Beach or beer, they also hold Bingo nights and Quiz nights earlier on in the evenings as well as having fun celebrity guest appearances.

The best night to go is on Thursday when they have Double-bucks where you can put £5 into the till and you get £10 back in Bierkeller money. Get drunk for less!

3. Vice & Co

A new and ‘secret’ bar for you to try out. Vice & Co is a bar more focused on the finer things in life, creating amazing cocktails that not only taste great but also look great. They aren’t the generic cocktails that you find at Whetherspoons, and their names for their drinks are also just as good. You can order ‘Bigger on the Inside’ or ‘The Eleventh Hour’ to get your geek on or try ‘Aphrodite’s Elixir’, or even ‘Daddy Issues’ to tailor to your more flirty side.

They aren’t just a cocktail bar if you’re worried, they also have a wide range of beers and ciders, as well as mocktails for you to drink to cover all tastes.

What makes Vice & Co worth visiting is that they also provide entertainment. Drink making is an art form when it’s done by the staff here, so relax and enjoy the show.

4. The Swan

If you want your drinks more on the cheaper side and in a relaxed environment then give the student’s union bar a try. The Swan has pool tables and plenty of board games for you and your friends to chill with on your tables, as well as having a live band play there every week.

Their drinks are more relaxed here, coming more in the form of bottles from the fridge or on tap. But they can cater to your cocktail needs if you desire. They have also ventured out into the iced tea market as well if you want a refreshing drink rather than alcoholic.

If you want a chilled but fun evening with your mates then The Swan is a good bet to go with, hassle-free and good drinks. What more do you need?

5. The Scene

Again this a good place to get cheap drinks, especially on a Tuesday night where they do ‘Quids In’ which makes all shots and spirits and mixers only £1. Bottles are £2 but that’s still cheap by any standards.

As Lincoln’s only gay bar and it’s small size, The Scene can get very crowded but if you need some fresh air from the dance floor there is a spacious outdoor space for you to sit and cool off in. You’ll meet the friendliest people there and people with the biggest personalities. If you are a shy person, you won’t be after you’ve been there for an hour.

If you want some entertainment with your night out, why not go to The Scene on a Monday and participate in the karaoke they host. It’ll be a laugh watching your mates blast out some of the biggest hits from the last 40 years.

And the best part about The Scene is that it is open until 5 am making it the longest opening bar in the city, so if you aren’t ready for your night to be over then head over to The Scene.

6. Lincoln Jazz Cafe

This is a place for the people that like to sit and talk as they drink and not have to deal with a large number of people. The Jazz Cafe can only seat about 20 people as it was designed specifically to be like a living room for the owner and his friends.

You have a few tables and some comfy AF chairs to sit in, if you want to feel like an evil mastermind or just an old fashioned guy sitting in his leather armchair at night with a whiskey in hand, then this is the vibe you want.

Their cocktails are high end, but they also have some of the best tasting whiskeys and wines there as well. Honestly can say they served me the nicest rosé of my life. So if you love yourself a bit of jazz and a good drink then give this place a go.

7. Craft

Opening in the last year it is still trying to establish its name I think in the city, but it’s definitely a bar to go to if not just for the picture you can get with the light-up angel wings.

Craft works more as a bar but it has a DJ there to hype up the atmosphere and get people dancing around the tables, and with 3 floors, 2 bars, and a roof terrace it’s a beautiful space to be in. And with gorgeous drinks and even food, what’s not to love about this place.

Like Vice & Co, the naming of their drinks is great as they are play on words. You can order yourself a ‘Hendrick Lamar’, ‘Rhube Boii’, ‘Young, Rum and Broke’, even ‘Fluorescent Adolescent’ which features vodka, passion fruit, mango and Blue Curacao in a nice mix.

8. Slug And Lettuce

A great place for food and drinks, The Slug And Lettuce may be a more generic drinking spot but it’s still a good place to go nonetheless. It has a great range of cocktails, but what makes it great is the 2-4-1 deal that is on every day. Why not get yourself 2 gins? 2 mojitos?

I’m not encouraging drinking, I’m just encouraging saving money.

The staff there are lovely and are more than happy to help and they definitely know their stuff. We were asking a bartender about these flavoured vodkas and he told us honestly that when they’re in a drink you won’t be able to taste the flavourings and he didn’t think they were worth it. Honestly that was greatly appreciated by us girls that were wanting some good quality drinks.

9. Mailbox

I think Mailbox is a great place to be, it’s a sports bar so it has plenty of beers and lagers in house to get you tipsy. As well as plenty of ciders and wines, they specialise less in the cocktails area than every other place listed but the Mailbox has an advantage over them.

There are board games and card games everywhere for you to play, as well as a Wii and an old Nintendo if you want to play Mariokart with your mates. You can spend the entire night there with a few drinks while you play What Do You Meme or Exploding Kittens. I find this a great way of spending the evening because it adds an extra level to your drinking, making it not just about the dancing in a club.

Of course, if you still want to go out to a club after, then Bierkeller and The Scene are just down the street and you can just carry the night on there.

10. Home

I don’t mean where you live home, there is a nightclub called Home which gets very confusing when you’ve got reps on the street asking you if you want to go Home. You have to revert to saying do you mean home-home or nightclub Home? Which I find quite amusing tbf.

Home has that many different levels to it that you’re covered no matter your music taste, it also means you can lose your friends on any level… could make it an interesting night. With 6 different bars and a roof terrace that plays disco, Spanish music, RnB, and today’s hits, you’ll first need to chose which floor you want to get your drink from.

The Longue Bar, the level you walk in on is most equipped to your drink needs and holds acoustic live sessions earlier on in the night as well.

Home also holds cocktail masterclasses where you can learn to make your own drinks as well. Whether you want to make your own Pornstar Martini or just have someone else make it, you are sure to have a good night ahead of you at Home.