This article appears in the January 2011 issue of Louisville Magazine. To subscribe, please visit loumag.com.

Don’t know about you, but we could really use a drink right about now. So we’ve scoured the city to find our 21 favorite bars — from upscale jazz joints to dives where your beer bottle sticks to the table. We’ve also tossed in some personalities familiar with local nightlife and quotes we overheard while out on the town.

Everybody knows about the Connection. An alternative “alternative” bar, Starbase Q (921 W. Main St.) is tucked beneath the streetlights on East Main Street, in a 150-year-old tobacco warehouse next to the Ninth Street overpass. Its industrial-chic interior greets visitors with an inviting horseshoe-shaped bar and a small karaoke stage in one corner. But venture deeper into the club and you’ll find a huge dance floor and lounge, another smaller dance floor, and a newly renovated showroom, where drag shows take place on weekends.

Photo: John Nation