Juneau, Alaska: Where To Eat And Drink When Your Cruise Docks For The Day

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Juneau, Alaska's small, dense, and walkable downtown feels unreal when you see an urban high-rise framed by steep, forested mountain slopes with snowy peaks. This little pocket metropolis is surrounded by wilderness with no roads connecting it to the rest of the world. With around 32,000 people living in the city and up to 16,000 ship passengers disembarking daily during the cruise season, the streets often fill with tourists. That's why a plan makes all the difference.

I have family in Juneau, so I visit often. Mendenhall Glacier, a whale-watching excursion, or even the world's smallest Costco are all well worth your time, but so is a wander through town. It's full of interesting shops, restaurants, and bars to explore — the good stuff starts around Griz Bar and Red Dog Saloon. I love the city for its walkability: I can be in a restaurant run by a James Beard-nominated chef, then walk 30 minutes to a trailhead that looks out over miles of mountainous backcountry once inhabited by the original Áak'w Kwáan and T'aakú Kwáan peoples. Juneau's food and drink are equally compelling, especially when a chef or brewmaster can work in one of my favorite local ingredients: spruce tips.

If you're staying the night, you can watch the stragglers run to catch their boat from the roof of Griz Bar, then enjoy the view opening up as the ships pull out. Follow that with bar hopping at The Narrows, The Alaskan, Crystal Saloon, and Lucky Lady, and cap it all off with a 1 a.m. visit to Pel'meni for a rowdy Juneau night. If you're just there for the day, however, here's where I like to eat and drink.

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Beau Schooler, head chef of In Bocca al Lupo, has six James Beard Award nominations. As the restaurant's website reveals, it was on the New York Times' list of 50 restaurants the outlet was excited about in 2023. All that to say: Make a reservation.

Influences from Alaska and Juneau's large Filipino population are apparent throughout the Italian restaurant, often showing up in specials like duck leg adobo with sweet potato ravioli and duck skin crumble, or calamansi candy painted smoked salmon offcuts. (All this, and the restaurant is on the New York Times' list of the best pizzerias in the U.S.)

Alongside a wood-fired pizza, I always make sure to get a Thunderdome — flat bread puffed up with steam and served with a healthy portion of garlic butter and parmesan cream. If you're after king crab (but not the line) at Tracy's, In Bocca al Lupo's king crab pappardelle was enough to lure Guy Fieri to Alaska. He even called the dish "Outstanding" on "Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives."

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Newly expanded as of 2024, the Franklin Food Court is home to a few of Juneau's stellar dining options. Among its multiple bars and food carts, the stars are Deckhand Dave's and Pucker Wilson's. Check the menus at each cart — you'll sometimes find a spruce tip IPA, which brings a sweet lemon and pine flavor to the hop character.

Owned and run by a former commercial fisherman, Deckhand Dave's is known for its wild Alaskan seafood tacos. Owner David McCasland is the driving force behind the food cart pod, inspired by visits to Oregon, where Portland's food cart pods dominate the food scene. The fish is sustainably sourced, fresh, and local. Don't skip the Dirty Fries, which cover the crispy, beer-battered potatoes in spicy crema and cilantro. As for Pucker Wilson's, we called its cheeseburger the best in the whole state of Alaska, and the veggie burger also holds its own. The 3 Way Fries, meanwhile, bring some fun variety — they come with regular and sweet potato fries, plus fried Brussels sprouts.

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Amalga Distillery is where the locals gather around batch-made gin cocktails. In the late spring and early summer, it offers drinks made with spruce tip gin from the season's fresh harvest. If you're early enough, you can pick up a bottle, but they go fast. Cans of the Spruce Tip Collins, a piney version of a Tom Collins, can be found for sale longer.

The bright, airy space is full of plants and features giant windows to let in the sun. You can sit next to the Vendome copper pot still used to make the gin, meaning the alcohol in your cocktail travels mere feet from the still to your glass. Alaskan distilleries are only allowed to serve people 3 ounces of alcohol per day, which, at Amalga, caps you at two drinks.

As you sip, pick up local foods like my personal favorite that I always stock up on during a Juneau trip: Bullwhip kelp hot sauce from Barnacle Foods. After your second drink, stop in at the Alaska Robotics Gallery, which shares an entrance with Amalga, to pick up some local art for your walls at home.

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Another social hub for Juneauites, Devil's Club Brewing Company has some of the best beer in the city. Stop in for a basket of the brewery's fan-favorite popcorn (made with nutritional yeast) and a pint of whatever is seasonal. Depending on the time of year, you can find locally grown or foraged ingredients like spruce tips, berries, kelp, and other plants from the rainforests surrounding the city. The hops are crisp and juicy, the malts are crackery — and brews from here would shine even in a crowded and dynamic beer scene like the one in my home base of Los Angeles.

Devil's Club Brewing Company is also an important part of the community. On Monday nights, the locals gather there to play board games. Except during summer, it hosts an event called Science on Tap, in which a scientist speaks about the work they do in the region. Devil's Club has even partnered with the local Southeast Alaska Land Trust to raise money for the nonprofit by brewing beer using foraged plants.

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From bread to burger patties, The Rookery Café makes most of its food in-house. I often stop here in the morning, as the Stumptown coffee is well-made (the nitro cold brew is strong and creamy without any milk), and the breakfast bowls, plates, and sandos are all satisfying and filling. The region's Filipino influences are on display with dishes like an adobo loco moco for breakfast and an adobo dip roast beef sandwich for lunch.

The atmosphere is pleasant, with window seats for watching passersby, black booths with wooden tables, and plenty of art on the walls, including a giant mural above the register. Keep your eyes open for a man sketching patrons; he's a regular and is the painter behind the mural. On the colder, rainier days Juneau is famous for, The Rookery is exactly the kind of place that makes the city worth returning to — beyond the glaciers and the backcountry, of course.