Kenta Goto’s Japanese-style cocktail bar is an oasis of subtle cocktails and small plates, all deeply rooted in personal history. Don't miss the okonomiyaki. Read more.
This bar has one thing on its mind: bitters. Despite having fewer than a dozen seats, it's made a big name for itself as the mecca of all things mouth-puckering. Read more.
In this shrine to the cocktail, Japanese bartenders quietly build drinks, many of which lean classic and spare. This is a bar with rules—and not the tongue-in-cheek kind. Read more.
Attaboy is the everyman’s cocktail bar hidden in plain sight. With a no-menu format, bartenders feel out your vibe and deliver some of the most solid cocktails in all of New York. Read more.
There’s nothing fancy about Boilermaker, but there’s nothing immediately dive-y about it, either. Though it carries the shot-and-a-beer torch with pride, the real gems are the cocktails on draft. Read more.
The Dead Rabbit has the most epic cocktail menu in existence. The walls are lined with tinctures, syrups and Irish whiskey, and the bartenders are some of the best in the world. Read more.
Dark, brooding, and obscured, Death & Co. is everything one expects from a speakeasy-style bar. Though its been around for years, it’s still one of the best places to get an ambitious drink. Read more.
One of NYC’s first classic cocktail bars, 1920s speakeasy-style Little Branch sees some of the city’s best bartenders pass through. As such, dealer’s choice is never a bad decision here. Read more.
Cheap beer, strong whiskey and a consoling ear can all be found here. But Mother’s Ruin also flies under the radar as one of the most inventive cocktail bars in the city. Read more.
Mayahuel is dedicated to the worship and preservation of agave. A mix of Mexican tile, dark wood and lots of tequila & mezcal bottles, it’s an embodiment of the most intentional of cocktail programs. Read more.
The NoMad Bar’s original cocktails have rendered it a must-stop for global cocktail pilgrims. Drinks lean toward spirit-forward and complex, and a reserve list employs rare, luxury spirits. Read more.
For such a tiny bar PDT’s reputation is vast, due in part to its phone booth-in-a-hot-dog-stand entrance and ubiquitous bartender-proprietor Jim Meehan. Read more.
One of the original bars to spur the NY renaissance, Pegu Club is still a bastion of beautiful drinks. It’s the best place to order modern classics like the Gin Gin Mule and the Earl Grey MarTEAni. Read more.
Pouring Ribbons is well-versed in the classics, but going off-piste is also rewarded with eccentric ingredients including seven-spice-pumpkin-coconut mix, corn milk and yogurt. Read more.
Wallflower is a tiny French bistro fronted by a cocktail bar. Garnished with streaks of Angostura, curling citrus peels or thick layers of foam, the drinks are all miniature works of art. Read more.
