The Best Places To Drink In New York
COCKTAILS
Bemelmans
White-jacketed waiters, dirty martinis, a tinkling piano… Not many can do old-school romance like Bemelmans these days. This Upper East Side institution is a class act that always delivers a memorable night out.
Visit RosewoodHotels.com
Paul’s Cocktail Lounge
Within the Roxy hotel, it’s easy enough to find the separate door to Paul’s Cocktail Lounge. Getting through it can be tougher, but negotiations are soon forgotten once you’re inside. Chloë Sevigny’s brother Paul oversees this tastefully tropical Tribeca hotspot that serves drinks on silver trays to a fashionable crowd well into the night.
Visit RoxyHotelNYC.com
Please Don’t Tell
Channelling the NYC of a century ago, speakeasy-style Please Don’t Tell is hidden behind a phone booth in East Village fast-food outlet Crif Dogs. Embrace the charade and seek it out for inventive cocktails in a moody noir setting.
Visit PDTNYC.com
Chapel Bar
Chapel Bar has hosted Vogue’s Met Gala after-party. It used to be members only, but it’s open to all now – find it tucked between a 19th-century church and Swedish photography museum in Gramercy. The cocktails are great, there’s art on the walls and the atmosphere is appealingly swanky.
Visit Fotografiska.com
Apotheke
Apotheke has two places on Manhattan – you’ll want to book ahead for its NoMad location, but we love its Chinatown bar’s first-come, first-served approach. Making good on the bar’s name, the old-timey drinks menu goes big on absinthe and herbal, botanical cocktails.
Visit ApothekeMixology.com
Metrograph
The Metrograph is a two-screen cinema on the Lower East Side that pairs state-of-the-art tech with mid-century stylings. Evoking an old Hollywood atmosphere, its lobby bar and restaurant bar are fun destinations in their own right.
Visit Metrograph.com
Bemelmans; Chapel Bar
Reception Bar
For something you won’t get at home, stay on the Lower East Side and hit up Reception Bar. It uses soju to create original cocktails you won’t find anywhere else. If you fancy trying the clear Korean spirit straight up, there are house-infused flavours like osmanthus, white lotus and Korean green pepper to explore.
Visit ReceptionBar.nyc
The Flower Shop
The Flower Shop takes things back to the 70s on the Lower East Side. There’s a dining room up top doing fried chicken, steak sandwiches and other period fare. Lie low in the kitsch-cool lounge downstairs with a cucumber gimlet or ‘The Spanky’ featuring mezcal, lime, passionfruit and cinnamon.
Visit TheFlowerShopNYC.com
WINE
The Clocktower
You might detect a British accent at The Clocktower on Madison Avenue – it’s in the fish and chips, the billiard room and the generally clubby atmosphere. Within the Edition hotel, it’s also got an award-winning hundreds-strong wine list you can get to know at a bar Don and Betty Draper would feel at home in.
Visit TheClocktowerNYC.com
Rhodora
Brooklyn’s Rhodora is out to make itself America’s first zero-waste wine bar. It’s carbon neutral too – and, of course, the wines are all natural. Spanish and Portuguese canned fish form the basis of the tapas menu and help it hit its admirable goals.
Visit RhodoraBk.com
Skin Contact
An explosion of new openings has made New York a great place to explore natural wines. Skin Contact is a specialist on the Lower East Side that always has an array of nicely priced by-the-glass pours – enjoy them with bar snacks inside, in the backyard or out front on the sidewalk.
Visit SkinContact.nyc
Gem Wine
Gem Wine is a tiny neighbourhood spot on the Lower East Side with chatty, knowledgeable staff. Again, bottles are kept affordable and there’s lot of choice by the glass. There are salads and small plates to accompany, or you can call in something more substantial from the Gem restaurant next door.
Visit Gem-NYC.com
Ostudio
Coffee and juice bar by day, Ostudio becomes a wine bar by night. Head to Brooklyn’s Bed-Stuy neighbourhood for small-producer wines and small plates from a rotating cast of chefs, then browse the cool ceramics made by the studio’s resident artists.
Visit OstudioNY.com
@thenines_nyc
SOMETHING DIFFERENT…
Birdland
New York isn’t just a city that invents great cocktails. So much of 20th-century jazz was born here too. With origins stretching back to the 40s, Birdland is a storied club in Midtown’s Theater District. The smoky atmosphere might have gone, but the world-class musicianship and a classic New York night out remains.
Visit BirdlandJazz.com
The Nines
Old school and upscale but never stuffy, The Nines in NoHo offers another quintessential New York experience: a night at the piano bar. Enjoy the warm, pitch-perfect ambience with a house martini, made with a tot of manzanilla sherry. Just check the dress code before you go – they really do want you to dress to the nines.
Visit NinesNYC.com
Gitano Island
Gitano arrived in New York from Tulum a few years ago. Its subterranean Jungle Room in a SoHo hotel quickly made a mark, but that has now given way to something else. Take a five-minute boat ride from downtown Manhattan and you’ll arrive at Gitano Island – a Mexican restaurant and beach bar that’s open for brunch and waterside lounging by day and sundowners later on.
Visit Gitano.com
DANCE
Little Sister
Three floors underground, at the bottom of the Moxy East Village hotel, Little Sister is a sexier, less sweaty update of the subterranean clubs that defined the neighbourhood’s nightlife back in the 90s. DJs dip into the same decade for the soundtrack, while curvy low ceilings, velvet banquettes and golden accents only enhance the venue’s slinky appeal.
Visit MoxyEastVillage.com
Acme
Once upon a time, Acme in NoHo was best known as a restaurant. It still turns out quality Italian-American fare, but now it’s the club downstairs that everyone wants to get into. The lighting’s low and the booths are leather in this old rock ’n’ roll bar, but the vibe is definitely disco these days. Warm up for it in The Nines piano bar, in the same building a couple of floors above.
Visit AcmeNYC.com
The Blond
At the southern end of SoHo, dark woods and low lighting give The Blond a sultry edge as evening kicks in. The drinks menu at the 11 Howard hotel’s in-house bar amps up the seductive atmosphere: try the Bombshell with mezcal, passionfruit, tabasco and lime; or the vodka, lemon, butterfly pea, falernum and tiki bitters concoction that is the ManEater. You’ll need a reservation to guarantee access after 10pm as the DJs and disco balls start to spin.
Visit 11Howard.com
Le Bain
On top of the Standard’s High Line hotel, Le Bain has everything you need for an epic night out – big-name DJs, amazing views… and a plunge pool bang in the middle of the dance floor. Our tip is to get there early. Relax on the outdoor Rooftop’s artificial turf, watch the sun go down over Manhattan, and let others battle their way past the doormen – safe in the knowledge that your place inside is already assured.
Visit LeBainNewYork.com
Loosie’s
Disco balls. Hundreds of them. That’s how you’ll know you’re in Loosie’s. Beneath the Moxy Lower East Side hotel, this underground club is all about getting everyone dancing. The hot DJs, the killer sound system and the atmospheric lighting mean resistance is futile.
Visit TaoGroup.com
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