Frankfurt
Frankfurt has the most elaborate first-class infrastructure of any airport in Europe. The Lufthansa First Class Terminal — known internally as the FCT — is a separate freestanding building between Terminals 1 and 2, with its own check-in, its own customs, its own duty-free, its own bar staffed by an actual cigar sommelier, and a chauffeured-car service that takes you to your aircraft. It is accessible only to Lufthansa First Class and HON Circle members. For everyone else, it remains the airport-drinking equivalent of a closed club you've heard about — a hierarchy peak nobody else can reach.
Bahnhofsviertel · $$$
Frankfurt's most awarded cocktail bar.
Bahnhofsviertel · $$$
Cocktail bar inside the Roomers Hotel.
Bahnhofsviertel · $$$$
Hidden inside the Tigerpalast variety theatre.
Bornheim · $$
Cocktail-and-craft-beer bar with one of Germany's tightest amaro lists.
The cheat code if you're not flying First is The Squaire — the multi-storey commercial complex literally on top of T1, connected by walkway. The Hilton Frankfurt Airport's restaurant Rickmers serves lunch and dinner in a quiet room with a real bar. Five minutes from T1 immigration. If you've got 60 minutes pre-airport, the Frankfurter Hauptbahnhof is 12 minutes by S-Bahn from Frankfurt Flughafen station, and the Tiger Bar at Roomers Hotel is six minutes' walk from there — one of the better cocktail rooms in mainland Europe.
Plays for Frankfurt Airport: post-security, pre-security, lounges, and the airport-hotel cheat code.
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Looking beyond Frankfurt? See our guide to the best airport bars worldwide, or compare airport bars city by city.