Searching for a hangover remedy shouldn’t magnify your headache.
We’ve got you covered with 2023’s Best Cities for a Hangover Cure.
To mark spring break season, Lawn Love compared the 200 biggest U.S. cities based on five categories. We looked at access to diners, convenience stores, and walkability, among 17 total metrics.
Chug some water, and dive into our ranking below. To learn how we ranked the cities, see our methodology.
Editor’s note: Lawn Love neither condones nor promotes alcohol abuse. This study is intended only to provide entertainment value and information. If you think you or someone you know has a problem with alcohol abuse, find support by calling SAMHSA’s National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357).
In this article
City rankings + infographic
See how each city fared in our ranking:
Top 5 close up
Check out the slideshow below for highlights on each of our top five cities.
Hangover Food: 1
Hangover Drinks: 1
Other Remedies: 7
Getting Home: 2
Sleeping in Public: 12
Local tips: Settle your sweet tooth at any hour of the day with a treat from Bob’s Donuts on Polk Street. The city is also home to a couple of 24-hour diners, Orphan Andy’s and Pinecrest Diner.
Photo credit: Eric Thurber | Pexels | Pexels License
Hangover Food: 3
Hangover Drinks: 2
Other Remedies: 1
Getting Home: 11
Sleeping in Public: 65
Local tips: Miami squeezes out the most juice bars per square mile to help you recover in the morning. Drink a smoothie and wash the grime off your party clothes at Mary’s Cafe & Coin Laundry, open 24/7. For other late-night eats, grab tacos from Tacos El Carnal.
Photo credit: Tory Brown | Pexels | Pexels License
Hangover Food: 2
Hangover Drinks: 7
Other Remedies: 67
Getting Home: 1
Sleeping in Public: 1
Local tips: Wake up with a delicious bagel or a B.E.C. from your closest bodega. NYC serves up a variety of late-night fare, from Korean BBQ at Baekjeong NYC to healthy halal food at Sammy’s Halal to 40 kinds of empanadas at Empanada Mama.
Photo credit: Roberto Vivancos | Pexels | Pexels License
Hangover Food: 6
Hangover Drinks: 4
Other Remedies: 18
Getting Home: 4
Sleeping in Public: 4
Local tips: Boston has plenty of late-night diners to decompress after a wild night. Favorite spots include South Street Diner (open 24/7) and Victoria’s Diner. Soak up the booze any time of day with delicious carbs from Bova’s Bakery.
Photo credit: Nate Hovee | Pexels | Pexels License
Hangover Food: 5
Hangover Drinks: 5
Other Remedies: 28
Getting Home: 5
Sleeping in Public: 7
Local tips: Washingtonians know how to work hard and play hard. Spice up your night with a taco from Surfside — their Dupont Circle taco stand is open 24/7. If you have a big night coming up, plan ahead and book a rehydrating liquid IV infusion from DistrictFuze.
Photo credit: Anna Lowe | Pexels | Pexels License
Key insights
The gist
Big cities and popular drinking destinations brew to the top of our ranking, with access to plenty of late-night and early-morning sustenance.
Small suburbs and sleepy cities snooze to the end of our ranking. Joliet, Illinois (No. 196), Pasadena, Texas (No. 197), Fayetteville, North Carolina (No. 198), and Jackson, Mississippi (No. 199), boast low scores across the board, alongside Montgomery, Alabama, in last place.
Standout stats
Sloshed in San Francisco: Whether you’re trying to wake up with a coffee or cure your party-induced hangover with more booze, San Francisco (No. 1) drinks up the competition with the most coffee shops, bars, and liquor stores per square mile.
Stumbling home: Walkable cities with decent public transportation like San Francisco, New York (No. 3), and Boston (No. 4) make it easy for folks to get home safely after a long night out.
Texas taxis: Drive safely and sober in Texas — especially in Houston (No. 25), which has the most drive-thru establishments selling alcohol, with 50 boozy drive-thrus, followed by San Antonio (No. 75) with only eight establishments.
Mitigating migraines: You can find hair of the dog (aka more alcohol) in Las Vegas (No. 27) from brunch (No. 4) to bars (No. 18) — but keep a stock of ibuprofen on hand. Sin City is lacking in 24-hour drug stores (No. 113).
Rust Belt revelry (and recovery): Pittsburgh (No. 11) cheers with the eighth-highest access to bars and chows down with the second-highest number of diners per square mile. Rochester, New York (No. 26), follows closely behind with the ninth-best access to bars but beats Steel City at No. 1 in diners per square mile.
Behind the ranking
First, we determined the factors (metrics) that are most relevant to the Best Cities for a Hangover Cure. We then assigned a weight to each factor based on its importance and grouped those factors into five categories: Hangover Food, Hangover Drinks, Other Remedies, Getting Home, and Sleeping in Public. The categories, factors, and their weights are listed in the table below.
For each of the 200 biggest U.S. cities, we then gathered data on each factor from the sources listed below the table.
Finally, we calculated scores (out of 100 points) for each city to determine its rank in each factor, each category, and overall. A city’s Overall Score is the average of its scores across all factors and categories. The highest Overall Score ranked “Best” (No. 1) and the lowest “Worst” (No. 200).
Notes:
- The “Worst” among individual factors may not be No. 200 due to ties.
- Walk Score and Transit Score are not calculated by Lawn Love. Please see the links in the tables below for each score’s methodology.
Sources
Beyond Menu, Caviar, ChowNow, Delivery.com, Doordash, Foodiecall, Getaround, Grubhub, Instacart, LawnStarter Studies, Other Lawn Love Studies, Postmates, RxList, Seamless, TripAdvisor, Trust for Public Land, Uber Eats, Walk Score, and Yelp
Sleep off your hangover and hire a local Lawn Love pro to tackle your lawn care to-do list this weekend.
Media resources
Main photo credit: iStock
