The hotel lobby bar is a subgenre of saloon unique unto itself: a rendezvous, usually in a bustling downtown location, where friends, lovers, and co-workers can meet over a relaxing cocktail in an elegant but convenient setting. The year-old Clock Bar at the St. Francis is the perfect mixture of all those things. For generations, people have been meeting under the clock in the St. Francis lobby, making it ideal real estate for a hotel bar par excellence. A cross-lobby extension of the St. Francis' Michael Mina restaurant, Clock Bar boasts vibrant yet sophisticated surroundings (the Times Square–ish newscrawls giving the local time in London, Rome, Tokyo, and Rio) and inventive house cocktails. The lounge (Mina's first) serves up top-shelf bar snacks — black truffle and white cheddar popcorn, lemon-chile pistachios, Cowgirl Creamery cheese with Frog Hollow Farm chutney — to accompany unique libations like the English Breakfast (Earl Grey–infused 209 gin with orange marmalade and egg white) and the Paddington (pisco, honey syrup, celery bitters, and a tincture of Peruvian pepper). It's a date!