Bold Street and Hope Street
Independent cafés and small bars climb the hill from Liverpool Central. A few minutes further up, the Philharmonic Dining Rooms on Hope Street is a gloriously over-the-top Victorian pub of copper panels and marble, with two snugs named Brahms and Liszt, which rather says it all.
The Baltic Triangle
Old warehouses south of the centre, turned into bars, street food and studios. Louder and later than the rest of town: a great second date, a lot for a first hello.
The Waterfront
The Royal Albert Dock and Pier Head give you the river, the Three Graces and room to walk if the chat's flowing. The Pump House, in the dock's old hydraulic pumping station, has a dockside garden for when the weather behaves.