Long Beach has emerged as the nation’s best city for outdoor socializing, while Los Angeles ended up at the bottom of a new ranking that measured where Americans can most easily gather outside. For people in Southern California looking for a place to relax with friends, the result points south toward Long Beach’s beer gardens, breweries and patios.
The ranking came from Maxwell Social, a private membership club and event venue, which placed Long Beach No. 1 among 45 major U.S. cities. Oakland finished second and Atlanta took third. Los Angeles, Phoenix and Houston were the lowest-ranked cities in the list. Maxwell Social said it weighed patios, rooftop bars, beer gardens and breweries per capita, along with search interest in outdoor social venues.
To build the outdoor socializing list, Maxwell Social used population estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau’s Vintage 2025 figures and compared the 45 most populous U.S. cities. The company measured five categories per 100,000 residents: patios from Google Maps, rooftop bars from Google Maps, beer gardens from Yelp, breweries from Yelp and Google search volume for terms tied to outdoor venues, including “patios near me,” “outdoor bars,” “rooftop bars,” “beer gardens” and “outdoor restaurants” for 2025–2026.
The data showed that some cities stand out for specific features. Virginia Beach, Va., Mesa, Ariz., and Colorado Springs ranked strongly for patios. Mesa and Detroit led for rooftop bars, with 21.6 and 17.2 per 100,000 residents, respectively. Those numbers helped shape a broader picture of which urban areas give residents more options to meet outside, drink, and spend time together.
Maxwell Social also surveyed 1,000 Americans in the cities it reviewed to learn how, where and why they gather outdoors. The results suggested demand is high. Nearly one in five respondents, or 18%, said they had wanted to hang out outside with friends but could not find a place that was good, legal or comfortable. Another 19% said they had been asked to leave or quiet down while socializing outdoors over the past year.
