Welcome to Swig City, where we point you toward don’t-miss cocktails at some of the best bars, restaurants and clubs in the city. Cheers!

Remember when a Super Bowl party meant serving 6-foot party subs and renting a giant Zenith television for everyone to crowd around? Now sports fans have the option of watching Kansas City play Philadelphia on one of the largest indoor screens in the Bay Area. 

Just in time for Sunday’s big game — and, more important, the NBA All-Star Weekend a week later — Chase Center has debuted a two-story sports palace, Splash. The 30,000-square-foot entertainment complex comes from Sidecar Hospitality, the group behind the revival of downtown’s historic German beer hall Schroeder’s, as well as renowned Union Square bar Pacific Cocktail Haven and Kona’s, both from famed mixologist Kevin Diedrich.

Everything seems calibrated to capture the raucousness of a sports arena. Cocktails limbo under the $20 threshold, and a genre-defying menu of upscale pub fare includes nachos, popcorn chicken, California rolls, smashburgers, and a $36 New York strip steak. 

Hundreds turned out to the arena’s Thrive City on Thursday night for an opening party featuring prime rib, Champagne, and performances by the Bay Blue Notes, the official brass band of the Golden State Warriors. Ladies in sleeveless dresses took turns at the Full Swing Golf simulators, while guys in leather jackets shot hoops at two arcade basketball games. Others mingled around memorabilia like a framed Barry Bonds jersey and a basketball styled into a work of art by Jean-Michel Basquiat. 

With three bars, indoor-outdoor spaces, an ESPN-style crawl displaying scores and sports news, and 75 televisions — including one absolute monster of an LED screen running the length of an entire curving wall — Splash feels like it was airlifted straight from Las Vegas. The love child of upscale sushi emporium Roka Akor and Dave & Buster’s opens to the public Friday, although private parties have already gobbled up much of the next week.

The cocktails (most cost $19) are about as highbrow as a sports bar’s offerings get, crowned by the crisp Hot Lips, a margarita riff starring Don Julio blanco tequila, jalapeño, citrus, and bitters, and the titular Splash, a sugary spritz made with Skyy vodka, passion fruit, vanilla, citrus, and sparkling wine. 

As befits co-owner Diedrich’s award-winning mothership, PCH, some creations are exceptionally spirit-forward. Take the Night Night (Gentleman’s Cut bourbon, High West double rye, Christian Drouin calvados, Hine cognac, and bitters), a spin on the already-boozy Saratoga that manages to double its intensity. But there’s plenty of beer (and wine), too — from tastemaker favorites like Enterprise’s Copper Ale and Ghost Town’s Inhume to bottles of Heineken and cans of Tecate. 

“My career has always been craft cocktails,” said Diedrich, a 2024 James Beard finalist in the Outstanding Bar category. “But after 25 years of cocktails, you know what people want when they’re watching sports: sessionable cocktails like palomas and margaritas. Lowbrow, shitty beers with something really nice to sip on.”  

Designing a top-tier craft cocktail menu is a blast, Diedrich added, but sometimes he just wants a Coors Banquet yellow belly or a Bud Heavy. “PCH’s menu is very fun, but I call it ‘fussy and precious,’” he said. “This is a way to have fun with some crushable drinks and make it approachable.”

As we eyed the prime rib carving station, The Standard put one more question to Diedrich: Who’s going to win the big game? 

He was reluctant to prognosticate. “I’m from D.C., so I’m a very hardcore D.C. sports fan,” he said, the implication being that he hates Philadelphia. “But I don’t want to see the Chiefs win another Super Bowl. If it could be the first tie in history, that would be awesome.”