A cocktail bar in a house on Rainey Street

Our ice is nice. But it's just a good bar.

Half Step opened at 75 1/2 Rainey Street at the start of 2014, a cocktail bar in the Milk & Honey tradition set in one of the old houses on the street. Rainey grew up around it, and it's more of a Rainey Street bar now: a porch, a backyard, a band on the calendar. The drinks are still made the old way.

How we got here

2014
Doors open in an old house on Rainey Street: a cocktail bar in the Milk & Honey tradition.
Today
More of a Rainey Street bar now, with a porch, a backyard and a band on the calendar. Still cutting the ice by hand.

Good to know

The ice is cut by hand from big clear blocks. Watch the bartender work a cube for your old fashioned.
Can't decide? Name your spirit and what you like. The bartender takes care of the rest.
The Half Step Freezer Martini is gin and a house dry vermouth blend, 4 to 1, with orange bitters and a lemon peel.
The frozen piña colada is Martinique and St. Lucian rums with housemade coconut cream. Add a Jamaican rum float.

The house

The transom over the front door: 75 and the half-circle mark, lamps glowing inside

Five cocktails lined up on the patio rail: a rocks glass with an orange peel, a julep cup, a tall pink drink, a crushed-ice drink and a coupe

A disco ball hanging from a blue-lit wooden ceiling

The Half Step crew on the front steps of the blue house, the 75 1/2 sign over the red door

Two red metal patio chairs and a small white table on the brick patio

A white cat with black markings stretched out on a wooden patio table

On Rainey

Rainey Street has changed a lot since 2014. Half Step is still a house with a porch, a bar, a backyard, and people who'd rather talk to you than at you. Come for a drink, stay for the band.

Come by

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