The Best Bars for a First Date in San Diego

Velvet emerald furniture and good acoustics make Convoy Music Bar, a listening bar in the Convoy District, a place to talk for hours. Vintage R&B plays on a hi-fi system, and the entrance is through a back alley in a strip mall.

We'd start with the tomato gimlet. Book online, and plan on an hour and a half on most weekends, since stays are limited.

Slip through a discreet door inside Asa Bakery to reach Craft Bar Kamon, a Japanese craft cocktail bar in East Village. The 1920s-themed room has armchairs and love seats, paper-screen walls, an antique wall phone and a zen garden.

Try the hojicha Negroni or the curry-dusted espresso martini, and share the chicken karaage. Guests must be 21 or older. Open-air shows at Quartyard, across the street, are an option for extending the night.

WetStone Wine Bar fills a snug space in Banker's Hill, the lower half of an old home dating to the turn of the century. Guess at the blind flight together: three small pours, each served in a test tube.

We'd pair it with the guava paste quesadilla and the lychee and melon white sangria. It is open Tuesday through Saturday from 5pm to 10pm and Sunday from 4pm to 9pm.

Share a flaming punchbowl at False Idol, a tiki speakeasy inside Craft & Commerce in Little Italy. Skulls sit in cave-like walls and a fountain mists the room.

The menu runs to nearly 40 cocktails, and we'd start with the Saturn or the Ube Bae.

Candles and roses sit on the tables in the black-and-white room at Fifth & Rose, a modern cocktail bar inside Pendry San Diego. Try the Fifth and Rosemary cocktail, which blends tequila with rosemary, passionfruit and sparkling wine, and add shishito peppers or caviar service.

Browse the record shop at the back of Part Time Lover, a vinyl-only listening bar in North Park. On weekday evenings you can sit on velvet furniture while a DJ plays, and Saturday nights bring a line.

We'd go for the Tunnel Vision, a tequila drink with koji and wasabi salt. The bar is open from 4pm to 2am.

Stone walls, dim light and tufted leather booths set the room at Starlite, a cocktail bar that is also a full restaurant. We recommend the Alaskan Gentleman, a bourbon cocktail with coffee and maple cream whipped by hand, or a glass of prosecco at the glowing bar.

Starlite is open Sunday through Wednesday from 5pm to 1am and Thursday through Saturday from 5pm to 2am.

Find the door behind Tahona, next to the cemetery in Old Town, to reach Oculto 477, a speakeasy open daily from 5pm to 12am. Occult decor sets the scene, the Manzatini arrives in a miniature bathtub, and mocktails are made to order.

Take in views of downtown, the Coronado Bridge and Point Loma from The Nolen Rooftop Bar, a rooftop cocktail bar on the 14th floor of the Courtyard by Marriott San Diego Gaslamp/Convention Center in the Gaslamp Quarter. Fire pits, classic and house cocktails and bar bites round out the menu.

Reserve ahead for front-row lounge seats.

Pick dinner from any of the restaurants around the Sky Deck food hall in Carmel Valley and have it brought to your table at Understory, the cocktail bar at its center. That spread of choices has made it a go-to first-date spot, since nobody has to guess what the other person wants to eat.

The room is filled with plants, white faux tree limbs and tables cut from trees that are millions of years old. The bar barrel-ages some of its own spirits, including the Woodford Reserve in its Old Fashioned. We'd start with the VanDam's Vanga, a cross between a margarita and a paloma made with activated charcoal. Classics carry forest names on the menu, like the Night Owl, an espresso martini.