Tucked into the vibrant Near Southside neighborhood of Fort Worth, Acre Distillery is the kind of place that earns a permanent spot on your personal list of favorites the moment you walk through the door. It is part working craft distillery, part sleek cocktail bar, and entirely the sort of Texas experience that reminds you why this city does things a little differently than anywhere else in the country.
Acre opened with a straightforward mission: make genuinely good spirits right here in Fort Worth and serve them with care. What that looks like in practice is a beautifully designed tasting room where the copper pot stills are visible through a glass partition, gleaming and hard at work, turning locally sourced grains into something worth savoring. There is a quiet pride in that transparency. You are not just drinking a cocktail — you are watching the whole story unfold a few feet away.
The spirit lineup is anchored by their Texas whiskeys and vodka, but the seasonal releases and small-batch expressions are where things get especially interesting. The team here is not shy about experimenting, and the results are consistently worth exploring. Ask the bartender what is new and you will almost certainly end up trying something you did not plan on ordering. That is a good thing.
The cocktail menu takes full advantage of the house-made spirits without feeling showy about it. Drinks are well-balanced and thoughtfully constructed — the kind of cocktails that taste exactly like someone who genuinely loves their craft put them together. If you prefer your whiskey neat or on a single large cube of ice, they will absolutely accommodate that and do it with zero judgment. The bar staff knows their product inside and out, and conversations about flavor profiles and distillation techniques happen naturally, never in a way that feels like a lecture.
The atmosphere strikes a wonderful balance between polished and relaxed. The space has an industrial-warm aesthetic — exposed brick, warm wood tones, good lighting — that makes it equally suited for a date night, a post-work drink with colleagues, or a leisurely Saturday afternoon tasting with out-of-town guests who want something more memorable than a chain bar experience. The Near Southside location puts you close to some of Fort Worth’s best dining options, so building an evening around a pre-dinner visit to Acre makes for an excellent plan.
Tours of the distillery are available and worth scheduling if you have any curiosity at all about how craft spirits are made. The behind-the-scenes look at the process — from grain to glass — adds a layer of appreciation to every sip that follows.
Fort Worth has always had personality. Acre Distillery bottles it, quite literally, and invites you to pull up a stool and stay a while. Do not pass this one up.
