Cheap bars: Where to drink on budget in New York
Discover cheap bars—and not just dives, either—where a few bucks go a long way toward ending that whole sobriety thing.
Thu Feb 28 2013
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Best New York deals
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Cheap New York attractions and days out
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Cheap New York bars
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This week's best sales
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Cheap New York theater
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Cheap New York club nights and parties
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Cheap eats in New York 2012
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Free things to do in New York City
Cheap things to do in NYC: Your guide to bargains in Gotham
The Alibi Club Photograph: Hannah Mattix
Affordable tippling doesn’t have to take place in a dive or during an afternoon happy hour. Need proof? Consult our guide to hundreds of cheap bars for lovers of beer, whiskey and other drinks.
RECOMMENDED: Full list of cheap things to do in NYC
The Commodore
- Rated as: 4/5
- Price band: 1/4
- Critics choice
First came the gastropub, an import from Britain featuring upmarket pub grub in an ale-drinking setting. Now, welcome the gastrodive, which further blurs the lines between restaurant and bar. The Commodore in Williamsburg, with its old arcade games, Schlitz in a can and stereo pumping out the Knight Rider theme song, offers the city’s best
- 366 Metropolitan Ave, at Havemeyer St
- Average main course: $9
KGB Bar
- Rated as: 4/5
- Price band: 1/4
- Critics choice
- Free
Bespectacled lit chicks outnumber apparatchiks in this former Ukrainian social club. The dim parlor-style bar nestled in the second floor of a walk-up has Cold War decor, cheap Baltika beer, whiskey on the rocks and free readings—all of which lure New York’s literary underground, including stars like A.M. Homes and Kathryn Harrison.
- 85 E 4th St , between Bowery and Second Ave, 10003
Peoples Improv Theater
- Rated as: 4/5
- Price band: 1/4
After many years in Chelsea, this improv and sketch theater moved crosstown to a dramatic east-side location with a warm mainstage proscenium stage, a black box in the basement and an inviting bar. Cheap shows and free jams keep the crowds young and lively.
- 123 E 24th St, between Park Ave South and Lexington Ave
- $5–$10
Tender Trap
- Rated as: 4/5
- Price band: 1/4
- Critics choice
The New York dive bar is an institution in flux. While the old, scum-encrusted stalwarts like Mars Bar fade away, newcomers to the genre often come off as self-conscious replicas of their predecessors, trying their damnedest to appear gritty in parts of town that, for better or for worse, just aren’t that gritty anymore. What’s great about Tender
- 245 South 1st St, between Havemeyer and Roebling Sts
Union Hall
- Rated as: 4/5
- Price band: 1/4
- Critics choice
Upstairs in this bi-level bar, boozers chomp miniburgers and nip at microbrews like Sixpoint in the gentlemen’s-club–style anteroom (decorated with Soviet-era globes, paintings of fez-capped men, fireplaces)—before battling it out on the clay bocce courts. Downstairs, spectators are treated to a rotating roster of live talent, such as blaring
- 702 Union St, between Fifth and Sixth Aves
Beer Authority
- Rated as: 3/5
- Price band: 1/4
The craft-beer movement has been in expansion mode recently, colonizing far-flung neighborhoods like Washington Heights (Buddha Beer Bar), Long Island City (Alewife Queens) and Bed-Stuy (Brooklyn Tap House). What’s been glaringly missing from the takeover, however, has been a foothold in the thick of midtown—prime terrain for converting the
- 300 W 40th St, at Eighth Ave, 10018
Burnside
- Rated as: 3/5
- Price band: 1/4
- Critics choice
Who needs a road trip when you've got Grand Street in Williamsburg? The pub-crawl-friendly strip is fast becoming a microcosm of regional dive-bar culture, where you can chase Labatt longnecks at Ontario Bar with slugs of bourbon and honky-tonk ballads at the Dixieland-leaning Lady Jay's. And now, Midwest transplants and their hipster doppelgngers
- 506 Grand St, between Lorimer St and Union Ave
Evelyn Drinkery
- Rated as: 3/5
- Price band: 1/4
- Critics choice
Like a boozy remake of Weird Science, a trio of cocktail geeks have forged their own fantasy babe from scratch. The beauty in question is Evelyn, a seductive Alphabet City spirits den primped with dripping candles and beckoning soft leather booths. From the black walnut bar comes one of the year’s craftiest new cocktail programs, divided into five
- 171 Ave C, between 10th and 11th Sts, 10009
The Iron Horse
- Rated as: 3/5
- Price band: 1/4
Taking cues from Coyote Ugly, this FiDi saloon makes its bartenders the main event. The all-female cast of boozeslingers is known to perform feats of fire-blowing and hula-hooping while serving cheap swill like $2 Rolling Rocks—one of them may even pull you up on to the bar for a dance. A full menu includes typical bar fare, and if you go there on
- 32 Cliff St, between Fulton and John Sts, 10038
The Penrose
- Rated as: 3/5
- Price band: 1/4
- Critics choice
The Upper East Side has its share of low-key gems (Torishin) and crown-jewel restaurants (Daniel), but verifiable hot spots? There are few. The idea of a hobnobbing scene in Manhattan’s stuffiest zip code seemed laughable a few years ago—as likely as an electrodisco party in Greenwich, Connecticut. But the Penrose—named for a neighborhood in Cork,
- 1590 Second Ave, between 82nd and 83rd Sts
Pork Slope
- Rated as: 3/5
- Price band: 1/4
- Critics choice
Good dive bars, attracting regulars from all walks of life, are as integral to the fabric of the city as rent control, bodega flowers and angry cabbies. Many serve food, but that’s rarely the draw. Occasionally, though, the boozing takes a backseat to the kitchen. The Corner Bistro’s burgers long ago put that West Village hole-in-the-wall on the
- 247 Fifth Ave, between Carroll St and Garfield Pl, 11215
- Average beer: $5. Cash only
Tooker Alley
- Rated as: 3/5
- Price band: 1/4
- Critics choice
Del Pedro, the owner of this tidy Prospect Heights cocktail den on bustling Washington Avenue, cuts a singular silhouette on New York’s mixology scene. Pegu Club regulars will recognize the bald gentle giant from his days holding court in that Manhattan high church of mixology. At this scruffier drinkery, Pedro’s passions—Americana, jazz,
- 793 Washington Ave, between Lincoln Pl and St. Johns Pl
Coco66
- Rated as: 2/5
- Price band: 1/4
Coco66, located in the nether regions of Greenpoint, is a bar where barely legal locals down pints of Guinness, well-dressed businessmen sip Scotch and greasy-haired hipsters stay focused on the music.
- 66 Greenpoint Ave, between Franklin and West Sts
The Abbey
- Price band: 1/4
A catholic-with-a-small-c flock congregates nightly at the Abbey, which calls out equally to hipsters, punk rockers and problem drinkers. Old-fashioned pub decor is bathed in red light, the jukebox is solid, and the entertainment is no-frills: Deer Hunter, Ms. Pac-Man, MegaTouch, two TVs and a pool table (there’s a popular tournament on Monday
- 536 Driggs Ave, between North 7th and North 8th Sts
The Abbey Pub
- Price band: 1/4
Throwing down a pint at this neighborhood joint is almost a religious experience, thanks to the stained-glass windows and pews that double as seating. (A nearby Lutheran church closed back in ’69, and auctioned off many of the artifacts that you now see here.) Ponder the meaning of life over one of eight beers on tap, including seasonal Harpoon
- 237 W 105th St , between Amsterdam Ave and Broadway, 10025
