A21 Cocktail Lounge opened on Annankatu 21 in 2008 and is the bar that established Helsinki on the international cocktail-bar map. The room is small (around fifty seats across two floors), the lighting is warm-amber, and the menu has, since opening, leaned heavily on Finnish ingredients - cloudberry, sea-buckthorn, spruce tip, pine needle, birch syrup, the country's short list of native botanicals - rather than chasing international ingredient trends. The current menu runs around eighteen cocktails. Six of them are worth annotating.
A21 takes reservations for the bar and the booths through their website; walk-ins are accepted but the bar fills from 8pm on Fridays and Saturdays. The kitchen runs a short small-plates menu - smoked fish, dark bread, pickles, Finnish cheeses - that pairs intentionally with the cocktail programme. Closed Sundays.