Best of Boston

2002 Best Bar, Upscale

Oak Bar, Fairmont Copley Plaza

Raise a glass, if you will, to the ever-stunning Oak Bar. It’s where sex appeal takes its post-prandial drink, where intimacy lounges in a long, cool black dress. It’s where fascination sips a stiff Manhattan. There are mere mortals here, too, in everything from Levi’s to tuxedos, huddled in conversation with one another, raiding the cigar-stocked humidor, slugging oysters from the raw bar, and soaking up the live jazz that oozes through the intricately detailed room. No matter who’s filling it, the Oak Bar is simply one of the New World’s most intoxicating Edwardian settings.

138 St. James Ave., Boston, 617-267-5300, fairmont.com/copley-plaza-boston/dining/oak-long-bar-kitchen/