Canberra's drinking culture is dominated by two complementary trends: a strong specialty-coffee scene (driven partly by the city's enormous public-sector population and partly by competitive small operators), and a wave of craft-beer and cool-climate-wine bars that have opened since the late 2000s.
For coffee, the Braddon and inner-north corridor (Lonsdale Street, Lyneham, Dickson) holds the most consistent cluster of good operators — Ona, Lonsdale Street Roasters, Barrio Collective, Coffee Lab. For drinks, look to Bar Rochford in the Melbourne Building, Highball Express, the Knightsbridge Penthouse and Molly Bar (a deliberate Prohibition pastiche) in Civic; Hopscotch and the Capital Brewing taproom in Braddon for craft beer; and the Kingston Foreshore strip for waterside drinking. Most of the wine bars carry strong Canberra district and Tumbarumba lists.