Second Best

A Street Address and a State of Mind

Watson Street in Detroit's Midtown district does not announce itself loudly. The block sits a short walk from the cultural corridor connecting the Detroit Institute of Arts to Wayne State University, an area where the city's bar scene has, over the past fifteen years, shifted from dive pragmatism toward something considerably more considered. Second Best is a bar in Detroit's Midtown district. It lands in that shift. The name is a provocation, the kind of self-aware irony that signals a room where the people running it take the craft seriously enough to joke about hierarchy.

Detroit's cocktail scene has followed a trajectory common to post-industrial cities that went through genuine economic contraction: because real estate remained accessible longer than in coastal markets, operators with genuine programs rather than investor backing could plant roots. Second Best at 42 Watson St is part of that tier.

The Cocktail Programme as the Point

American cocktail bars at this level generally split between two orientations: the archive approach, which reaches back into pre-Prohibition technique and source material, and the forward-facing approach, which treats the bar as a kind of beverage laboratory. The most interesting programs tend to hold both in tension, deploying classical structure while finding room for fermentation, clarification, fat-washing, or unusual base spirits.

Detroit's peer set for Second Leading within the city includes Saksey's, which runs a tight cocktail list in a similarly intimate format, and the more casual register of Dirty Shake, where nostalgic references do more of the work. Second Best occupies space between those poles: less retro-themed, more technically oriented than the nostalgia bars, but not so laboratory-cold that it loses the warmth that makes a neighborhood bar worth returning to.

For visitors who track serious cocktail programming across American cities, the relevant comparison points extend well beyond Detroit. Kumiko in Chicago set a template for Midwest bars integrating Japanese technique and ingredient philosophy into a Western spirits framework. Jewel of the South in New Orleans takes the archive approach to its logical conclusion, with a program rooted in the city's particular cocktail history. Bar Leather Apron in Honolulu demonstrated that serious technique could anchor a program in a market not typically associated with cocktail culture. Second Best belongs to this broader wave of American bars that have moved the conversation away from speakeasy theatre toward programs defined by what is actually in the glass.

Internationally, the same shift is visible at venues like The Parlour in Frankfurt, where European precision meets a similar drive toward ingredient-led cocktails. The Detroit iteration carries its own character, shaped partly by the city's particular relationship with music, manufacturing, and a certain earned skepticism about trend-chasing.

Detroit's Bar Scene in 2025

To understand where Second Best sits, it helps to understand what Detroit's drinking culture has become. The city's bar scene is no longer a footnote to the restaurant conversation. Places like 1459 Bagley St in Mexicantown have built reputations that draw visitors specifically for the drinks program. 3Fifty Terrace takes a rooftop format and applies it to a genuine cocktail list rather than bottled beer and volume. Andrews on the Corner holds down the classic neighborhood bar format with more care than the category typically suggests. And the brewery side of the scene, represented by Atwater Brewery and Tap House, fills a different need entirely.

Second Best occupies the segment of this ecosystem where the cocktail itself is the primary object of attention. That is a smaller segment than the total bar market, and it requires a specific kind of customer: someone who reads a drinks list the way others read a menu, who notices the base spirit choices and asks about the modifiers. Detroit now has enough of those customers, and enough visitors who fit the profile, to support several programs at this level.

The Midtown Address

The 48201 zip code places Second Leading in a part of Detroit that has seen sustained reinvestment without losing the texture that makes it interesting. Midtown is walkable by Detroit standards, which means it rewards staying in the neighborhood rather than driving bar to bar. The proximity to the DIA, to Cass Corridor, and to the growing restaurant density along Woodward means that an evening anchored at Second Leading can extend naturally into a full night in one of the city's most active districts.

Bars at this level in mid-sized American cities tend to occupy a particular physical register: rooms that are not large, designed with enough intention to signal seriousness without crossing into the precious or the Instagram-optimized. The address on Watson suggests that register. The name reinforces it. A bar that calls itself Second Best has already made a decision about what kind of place it wants to be.

For travelers building a serious drinking itinerary across American cities, it is worth mapping Second Leading alongside comparably oriented programs in other markets. Julep in Houston takes a specifically Southern lens on cocktail history. ABV in San Francisco prioritizes ingredient sourcing. Superbueno in New York brings Latin American spirits into a technically rigorous framework. Second Best in Detroit fits the same overall category: bars where the program reflects a coherent point of view rather than a market survey.

Know Before You Go

• Address: 42 Watson St, Detroit, MI 48201
• Neighbourhood: Midtown, Detroit
• Hours: Mon: 4 PM-12 AM; Tue: 4 PM-12 AM; Wed: 4 PM-12 AM; Thu: 4 PM-12 AM; Fri: 4 PM-2 AM; Sat: 1 PM-2 AM; Sun: 1 PM-12 AM
• Booking: Walk-ins are friendly.
• Price range: $$