Drexl Bar

This is where the most serious craft bartenders in the SF Bay Area pick up a shift when they don’t want to have to be so serious. You can have a shot and a beer, or you can have Alex or Marguerite or Howie make you something so balanced and subtle that you literally will not be able to determine what the base spirit is. Then go grab your balls. I mean, hit the Skee-​Ball machine upstairs. Bow tie on: Ben Cooper or Whitechapel. Bow tie off: Drexl. Cocktail quality: Same.

I went to drexl 1÷9÷16 for my cousins surprise birthday party worst experience i ever had in at an oakland bar. A few people were taking drinks outside The female bartender with blonde hair went on a rant threatening to kick us out and ban us for life friendly warning right? It’s a majority Caucasian hipster bar felt racist vibes from her.

I just recently discover this small strip of watering holes on 19^th Street and decided to stop in at Drexl. The parking was easy at 4:30PM and was one of the few patrons to arrive. Marguerite, the bartender, was pleasant and greeted us with a smile. She shared us a taste of a new spirit of a limited cask, which was a nice gesture. The store filled up right after 5:00PM and was at least three rows deep. My pal and I where ready to check out and wow… a $ 50 bar tab for a beer and three cocktails! Those who know me know I’m not cheap, but I’ll pass on to another place across the street.

The cocktails here are EFFING DELICIOUS. I always want more than 2 when I’m there, and they happily oblige. I wish it was less expensive ($ 13 for a drink!), but that’s the going rate for a cocktail in San Francisco. OH WAIT — I’m not in San Francisco.
Take a few bucks off the drinks (we are in Oakland, after all) and I’ll be there twice as much!

On a Saturday night the area is dead, I’m talking scary dead. I wouldn’t think a bar would be located here. Hubs said its busy during the week with people visiting the waterhole before heading home.
The place is nice. Dimly lit with a bunch of candles. It’s quiet on the lower level. I heard the loft area, it was more lively with a party going on. Large bar area and a few tables on the side.
The bartenders were great. The one that served us was telling the story about applejack. I had the orchard sour ($ 12) which had the applejack in it that prompted the history lesson.
Bathroom was clean and that was the men’s. After waiting awhile for the women’s I took a deep breath and turned the men’s room door handle expecting the worst but was pleasantly surprised.

Great beers on tap, and not too crowded of a place when I went on a Saturday night. I like the in house DJ that they have upstairs. The place overall is a bit on the loud side, but definitely head upstairs for space that’s more talkable. If you don’t like strong beers, I would highly recommend their grapefruit hefeweizen as it basically tastes like a non-​alcoholic drink and is very sweet. On the other hand, if you’re looking for a very strong beer, they do have some double-​IPAs on tap as well. I would definitely come back if I’m in the area.

I wish I could give 0 stars. Extremely disappointing.
My friends and I came for NYE. They had been the previous year and had a great time so we decided to give it a go.
Walked in and loved the environment. Cute set up, cozy feel, but right away got attitude while ordering drinks from the blonde bartender. Very rude, seemed like she didn’t want to serve me, and just stuck up.
A little later my friend bought a drink and a shot and had asked for a coke back. The brunette bartender gave her such bad attitude about the coke back for the shot and brought her back a water back, yes a WATER BACK. Ridiculous.
As we were getting ready to leave we decided to have just one more drink and I stood at the bar as they looked at me and kept walking by and helping everyone else around me (who just walked up to the bar). The brunette bartender came back from wherever she was and I asked her if she was able to help me. Rudely, she laughed and said what? I put in my order and she turned around, walked over to the blonde bartender and told her what I asked and they looked at me and laughed and the blonde said «of course» and rolled her eyes.
I’m not sure if that’s their personalities or they were just drunk (as they were taking shots with almost every drink they poured), but I have never felt so uncomfortable or disrespected being a paying customer at a bar before.
I WOULD NOT recommend this bar to anybody.

I’m so torn. The bar itself is a nice space, but gahtDAMN they are expensive! I ordered a double gin and tonic and my jaw dropped when the bartender told me it was $ 17. My martini later was $ 12. Granted, they make a damn good martini, $ 17 for a regular gin and tonic is excessive.
It’s a bit small, and if it’s a packed house you’ll probably end up waiting awhile for a drink. There’s skeeball upstairs, which is pretty neat. I’d be down to come by on a weekday, but not sure I’d wanna brave the crowds on a busy weekend.

This review is dedicated to the hot guy I met at this bar. This is why drinking and dating don’t mix. Somehow, I got charged twice (but I still need to investigate whether I got charged twice or if I literally drank the same two drinks twice in two separate transactions but the former sounds more accurate). Other than getting charged twice, the drinks were on point. So on point that I managed to lose the number of said hot guy. Was it on a napkin? Did I even get the number in the first place? Did this really happen?
But back to the bar… it’s a great scene! Sit down comfy tables downstairs and then there is an upstairs section with more tables. Now, the bar lost a star because I got charged twice, but they gained a star for having… SKEEBALL! Yes, that’s right, SKEEBALL. Sooooo if you see a random Indian girl drinking whiskey and ginger and playing skeeball upstairs, holla back!
Also remember that there are stairs involved so I would suggest doing most of your drinking downstairs.

This is very much a 2010 San Francisco bar/​lounge which, like so many San Franciscans, has been oh-​so-​expeditiously «relocated» to greener pastures.
Great vibe, amazing music/​DJ, love the skee-​ball and the PacMan (although it shouldn’t be used as JUST a table, it’s kinda a classic), and a great ratio.
Perfect way to start the better half of the night before going to dance nearby (several options but one in particular) around ¹⁰⁄₁₁ pm.

Drexl is one of my favorite bars in Oakland and part of the whole 19^th street crawl that is becoming a staple in my nights out. They have excellent mixologists who will not steer you wrong, and a number of coll areas that allow groups to have their own space.
Love love love the skee-​ball upstairs, and really enjoy the DJs on the weekends.

Great bar. Very clean and quaint. Located in a beautiful part of Oakland.
The drinks are yummy. Once a month they have comedy shows. The dynamics are interesting. I wish they served food but there are a ton of cute restaurants nearby.

Came here to chill out during Oakland Pride. Beer was okay, it was a bit busy due to the street festivities but that is to be expected. Can’t really give a proper review unless I return when there isn’t tons of people crammed inside to avoid the dancing crowds on the streets.

Real cool bar in Uptown Oakland with real cool bartenders inside. Lots of space and big windows make it a nice place to grab a quick drink before or after dining at one of Uptown’s many establishments. They have a drink menu with a few specialty cocktails on it (which were delish) but don’t hesitate to ask one of their creative mixologists to come up with something fancy for you. Everyone at this bar was super friendly… including fellow patrons with whom we created the «14 year old girl» drink (maybe they’ll recall this concoction if you drop the name!). Definitely worth checking out!

Drexl Bar makes craft cocktails.
One of our favorite bartenders, Brian, left Sidebar and came to Drexl Bar, but I heard he’s leaving (or left) to Maui! Good for him, but I hope someone that stayed behind can make an Old Fashioned as good as he can.
Beautiful inside. Bartenders are well versed in keeping stray customers out of your seat if you step away to use the loo.

Unsafe. Never in my 20+ years of living in the Bay Area have I experienced such terrible disrespect by the staff of an establishment. The music was good, and the place had a good vibe, but the bouncer has a superiority complex. Unfortunately by the end of the night, the staff became aggressive, staff were taking drinks that we had just ordered right out of our hands with no warning. As paying customers we expected to at least be treated with common human dignity. Avoid this place if you want to have a good time.
p. s. The bouncer threatened to put a rufi in my drink.

«Secret» bar hidden in a less populated area of Downtown Oakland.
TL;DR:
Drinks ⁵⁄₅ — good variety of cocktails and beers
Price ⁴⁄₅ — missed happy hour, so it was a little on the pricey end; pricier if you end up playing skee ball for most of the night
Service 4.5÷5 — a little aloof but then again, which bartender isn’t on a Friday night?
Ambiance ⁵⁄₅ — difficult to pin down the style/​theme/​mood they’re going for here, but it’s a mystery in a really good way.
Whoever thought of adding an arcade element to a bar was an absolute genius. I brought my boyfriend here because he’s an self-​proclaimed skee ball champ, and Drexl has a pretty cool skee ball machine upstairs in the lounge. The machine conveniently accepts both card and cash — yes you do have to pay $ 1 each turn — and it’s pretty well kept. Drexl definitely seems like a fun place to be since they even have official skee ball tournaments during the weekday.
The drinks are pretty good and about an «appropriate» price for a cocktail. They have a good selection of beers as well. One that my friend (and other reviewers) raved about was the Grapefruit Hefeweizen, which apparently «tasted like really good juice». I can’t remember the name of the drink that I ordered, but it was a very citrus-​driven, refreshing cocktail. The price wasn’t too steep, given its location and the general ambiance it has.
Drexl has an open layout with a good number and variety of seating options. The bar itself is a good size and has a very rustic/​artsy feel with the distressed wood and collection of unlabeled apothecary bottles on top. The wall behind the bar has bottles shelved behind wiring, adding a lot of character. The loft/​mezzanine is a little small, with a corner being taken up by the skee ball machine. It has really comfy lounge chairs, cushy stools, and a pac man machine. Finally, their bathrooms are actually clean!!!

Great little bar tucked away in Downtown Oakland. Love the interiors, the lighting, the trendy skee-​ball area upstairs that has a bunch of couches and seating to lounge around in. The music selection is eclectic, kind of random but also kind of awesome.
Right away they gave me a good impression because the door man was NICE! He greeted us very warmly, and wished us a good time inside. Door men are usually such rough people that I was so taken aback by that. The bartenders are quick to acknowledge that they see you and they will assist you momentarily. Crafty cocktails are available on the menu, but I would nottttttt recommend the «On the Boat». The combination of grapefruit hefeweizen and rum was a bit much for me. But other than that, a very nice place when you’re looking to have a drink in a comfortable, not overly crowded, not overly pretentious spot. And the bathrooms were spotless!

Walked past the bar and decided to check it out.
Really loved the ambiance inside. Very laid back bar with plenty of seats and tables. Moderate noise level, which made it great for catching up with a friend. I think I may have just missed the happy hour crowd, which was perfect. I didn’t miss the happy hours prices ($ 9 craft cocktails) which go till 7:00 pm. :)
The cocktails were good, but not great. I think I have high expectations now in the Bourbon & Branch mixology era.
Overall a great bar, and I would definitely recommend it!

Yet another fabulous addition to the bustling bar scene in the greater downtown/​uptown/​Lake Merritt areas of Oakland. There’s a lot of space to spread out inside, whether the airy main room at street level, or the cozier loft with skeeball and video games in the back. While the menu of drinks and bar bites may look deceivingly small, there are some quality selections, in particular the Schofferhofer grapefruit hefeweizen which I can’t get enough of.
All in all, a great place to chill out over a few drinks as you chat with friends or watch some local sports on their TVs.