Sessions on 15thDowntown Oakland406 15th Street
Cocktail Lounge Oakland
Sessions on 15th is a craft cocktail bar and listening lounge on 15th Street between Broadway and Telegraph — a small, design-forward room that does one thing seriously: cocktails, music, and the conversation that happens between them.
15th & Franklin
Downtown Oakland
Between Broadway + Telegraph
Thu–Sun
Doors at 5p
Sundays 6p
Listening bar
Hi-fi sound
Curated music, DJ programming
19th St BART
5 min walk
Easy to find
The Room
Sessions is a cocktail lounge that holds about 50 — leather banquettes, low light, an audiophile sound system, neon overhead, a back bar built for working stirred drinks. The whole room is designed around the music and the conversation. No TVs. No karaoke. No bottle service podiums. Just the best cocktail lounge experience we know how to put together in one room on 15th Street, between Broadway and Telegraph.
We’re open Thursday through Sunday. Walk-ins welcome at the bar. For groups of 6 or more we recommend reserving a table.
The Cocktail Program
About twenty cocktails on the list at a time, rotated seasonally. Classic specs done correctly: a stirred Dirty Martini at $15, a Mezcal Negroni with Lillet Blanc, an Espresso Martini we will not apologize for. House syrups, fresh citrus, real ice. California spirits when the bottle deserves it. Mezcal we’ll walk you through. The wine list is short and natural-leaning; the beer list is shorter and Bay Area- leaning. If you’ve been looking for an Oakland cocktail lounge where the bartender can actually tell you what is in the glass, this is the room.
Listening Bar, Explained
The listening bar concept came out of 1950s Tokyo: a small room built around an audiophile sound system, curated playback, and a drinks program designed to match the pace of the music. It’s grown into a Bay Area scene over the past decade — bar-shiru and True Laurel in San Francisco, Burdell in Oakland, In Sheep’s Clothing in LA. Sessions is the Downtown Oakland entry: a horn-loaded sound system, treated walls, a DJ booth positioned so the selector hears what the floor hears. Curated music programming early in the night, DJs later.
Where We Are
406 15th Street, between Franklin and Webster. Five minutes from Fox Theater, five minutes from Paramount Theatre, six from Lake Merritt, five from 19th Street BART. Adjacent to the Uptown and Old Oakland corridors — easy to walk in from a dinner, walk out to another spot, or stay for the whole evening.
Frequently Asked