At East Bay's best new bar, the community is as vibrant as the cocktails

"Nosh Awards voters, over and over again, used the word community to explain why they chose 13 Orphans as the East Bay's Best New Bar of 2025. 13 Orphans is more than a bar, it's a creative community that invites everyone to celebrate. Asian culture, in an inclusive way. The drinks and food are also amaaazing of course!Love how community oriented the owners are.They really care about the community and have been representing Asian American culture for years."

"From the beginning, community was at the core of the idea a speakeasy-style mahjong lounge. We actually have done a lot of community events for the past three and a half years with the [upper] space and kind of wanted to really focus on something that was tried and true, and really spoke to us within our culture and our community,"

Cheers set a cultural expectation that a great bar creates belonging and familiarity. Scientific studies indicate humans are healthier when they have places where everybody knows their name. Nosh readers cast votes prior to Thanksgiving and the 2025 Nosh Awards winners are being announced daily through Dec. 12. Voters repeatedly cited community when choosing 13 Orphans as the East Bay’s Best New Bar of 2025. 13 Orphans operates as a creative community and inclusive celebration of Asian culture, with praised drinks and food. Owners Jenn Lui, Eman Garcia and Alan Chen converted an upper event space into a speakeasy-style mahjong lounge focused on community events.

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