Standby

Standby is the serious-cocktail heavyweight of The Belt — a modern bar hidden off the Gratiot end of the alley behind a curtained entrance you’ll genuinely miss if you blink. The résumé is real: a James Beard semifinalist for Outstanding Bar Program in both 2017 and 2018, plus Tales of the Cocktail regional top-ten nods as recently as 2024, with a menu organized by spirit that swings from faithful classics to techniques you haven’t seen before. Crucially, it’s not drinks-only — the from-scratch bar food has its own following, the burger especially, alongside comforts like short ribs, and there’s a happy hour weekdays and Sundays from 5 to 6 for the savvy.

We passed its doorway on our mural stroll and it shot straight up our list: this is the grown-up counterweight to The Skip outside — the room you graduate to when the frozen drink was the opener, not the show. The same team’s fingerprints are on half the alley’s nightlife, including the blacklight basement down the lane, but this is the flagship. Reservations are encouraged, though the bar itself stays first come, first served.