Bars
Your guide to bars and drinking in New York City. Whether you’re looking for a cocktail or a beer, use our guide to find the best bars in NYC.
The 50 best bars in NYC you can't miss
We completely renovated our best bars in NYC list to reflect the way that people are actually imbibing this year, as well as the vision of our two new Food & Drink Editors. Our list spans craft beer bars and serious cocktail bars but it also takes into consideration, smaller less expensive destinations that you'll actually be able to hit up time and time again. We're also interested in looking at the ways that bars can be more sustainable, and the creative innovations that some bar owners are employing. Not to mention, we've added a cocktail bar that focuses entirely on non-alcoholic mixed drinks that places just as much focus on the craft as anywhere else. Also, who can forget the importance of bar snacks? To narrow down the endless options, we’ve compiled this list of the 50 best bars in NYC right now. And if you are looking for more of the best, here are the best restaurants in NYC. Drank somewhere on this list and loved it? Share it with the hashtag #TimeOutDrinkList. You can also find out more about how Time Out makes recommendations and reviews bars here.
The best rooftop bars in NYC
When it comes to things to do outside with the best views in nyc, rooftop restaurants are where it’s at. Whether you’re looking to grab afterwork drinks with coworkers or a spot for an early-game Tinder date, we know how to make the warm weather remain a breeze. From dive bars in Bushwick to fancy shmancy sky-high nights in Midtown, raise a glass to the best rooftop bars you can find us at all summer long. RECOMMENDED: Full guide to the best bars in NYC Want more? Sign up here to stay in the know.
The best wine bars in NYC
Looking for a great wine bar? Whether you're on a first date and looking for somewhere romantic or meeting up with friends to spill the tea, wine canteens are a rapidly growing local obsession among New York barflies. The rise of haute cocktails and homegrown craft beer bars may have once stolen wine's thunder with the masses, but grape aficionados haven't retreated into their cellars to sulk. Instead, they've reinvented the genre, tossing out stuffy pretenses, pushing farther out into Brooklyn and creating funky, affordable vin lists paired with chef-driven bar fare. From the West Village to Williamsburg, sip and swirl your way through the best wine bars in NYC. RECOMMENDED: More of the best bars in NYC
The best juice bars in NYC
For as many gut-busting meals New York has to offer, the fair city also boasts plenty of virtuous dishes and drinks at its healthy restaurants, vegan and vegetarian restaurants and these top-notch juice bars. Combine fresh-pressed juices with some of the best fitness apps to get ready for beach season, or switch out your go-to coffee for a healthier morning pick-me-up at a juice bar in New York City.
Famous cocktails invented in NYC bars
Many things were invented in NYC: In 1914, we invented the Reuben sandwich, forever changing your Jewish deli experience; in the early 1970s, we gave the world New York hip-hop, which, more than forty years later, gave musical misanthropes a reason to throw down for Hamilton tickets; and NYC is also home to a slew of the world's most famous cocktails. From the Martini to the Manhattan, the Penicillin to picklebacks, you can trace their origin stories right back here to the Big Apple. Read on to find out where in New York these famous classic cocktails were invented, who invented them, and most importantly, where you can drink them today. RECOMMENDED: Full guide to the best cocktails in NYC
Latest bar stories
The best ways to drink in NYC
The best to-go cocktails available right now at bars and restaurants in NYC
As you might’ve read from us, the State Liquor Authority has relaxed liquor laws to allow restaurants and bars to add cocktails to their offerings (provided they also offer food) if they've pivoted toward to-go and and delivery. To-go cocktails, wines, and beers are an exciting new prospect for New Yorkers: a small win in a time that’s immensely bleak for small businesses, particularly those in the hospitality industry. We’ve put together a list of the places selling to-go cocktails and wine that we’re most jazzed about. And, please remember, delivery workers are on the front-lines of this epidemic and do not have the same luxury of taking sick days or working from home. Tip kindly—as always—but especially in crisis. Bar Camillo View this post on Instagram A post shared by Bar Camillo (@barcamillobk) on Apr 9, 2020 at 1:22pm PDT Dante View this post on Instagram A post shared by Dante NYC (@dantenewyorkcity) on Apr 17, 2020 at 8:50am PDT Palmetto View this post on Instagram A post shared by Palmetto (@palmetto_bk) on Apr 23, 2020 at 4:13pm PDT Honey’s View this post on Instagram A post shared by Honey's (@honeysbrooklyn) on Apr 26, 2020 at 11:47am PDT Evil Twin Brewery/ Selma's Bar View this post on Instagram A post shared by Selma’s Bar (@selmasbar) on Apr 15, 2020 at 9:52am PDT Hunky Dory View th
The coolest wine shops in NYC
Hit up the hippest new wine shops around the city and bring a bottle home. Whether you're looking for a Netflix 'n Chill kind of night or hosting a lowkey dinner party, staying in doesn't mean you have to compromise. Educate your mind and palate by going for a funky natural wine selected by these expert newcomers. RECOMMENDED: The best wine bars in NYC
The best speakeasies in NYC
It feels like speakeasy NYC bars are a dime a dozen right now. In a city as vibrant and storied as New York, there’s no telling how many hidden architectural gems, in-the-know parties and clandestine art galleries lay unnoticed to the greater masses—ditto with NYC’s best speakeasy bars and restaurants. From dialing in codes, secret entrances through a telephone booth and a Japanese restaurants' tasting menu served behind an unassuming butcher shop, these are the best restaurants and bars offering great eats and drinks on the down low. RECOMMENDED: Full guide to the best bars in NYC
Latest bar reviews
Public Records
We first encountered chef Daniel Bagnall a few months back at Short Stories, a clubby restaurant on the Bowery that initially seems easy to write off as basic due to its millennial-pink interior and influencer-heavy clientele. But the food—we tasted a pasta with ramp pesto and pickled strawberries—was memorable. Bagnall left for Public Records, where he’s whipping up more impressive, plant-based offerings.More than a restaurant, Public Records is also a music venue, a bar and a zine shop stocked with printed matter on niche topics, like the aesthetics of football culture, next to lingonberry gummy candies. No matter what mood you’re in, the spot has something to offer: a morning cortado, an energetic yet mature group hangout where you can feel like you’ve “gone out” but still make it to bed by 10pm, and food that’s flexible to dietary restrictions. Located on an industrial block, it feels like a secret passageway into one of the laid-back restaurants that are currently hot in Mexico City, with a touch of hypnotic, austere Berlin nightlife. Grand ceilings, skylights and a spacious gravel patio feel like a blessing in a city known for cramped quarters. And the entirely vegan menu is a nod to the building’s history as a former ASPCA. Dishes are ambitious and surprising (and not just because the dim lights don’t do justice to the Technicolor ingredients). The outstanding but vaguely named Fermented Bok Choy ($13) was a thick-cut sourdough toast topped with kimchi–bok choy an
No Bar
It’s long been a sad but all too real fact of nightlife that a designated gay bar is usually never a solid cocktail destination—until earlier this year, that is, when former Mission Chinese executive chef Angela Dimayuga unveiled this pioneering concept at the Standard East Village.Unabashedly queer and unbound by convention—No Bar’s website declares that there are “no covers, no rules, no holds barred”—the bar serves thoughtful cocktails like the In the Gig ($8), a Tecate-mezcal boilermaker served in a togarashi-rimmed beer can, and the fresh green-juice–esque Feel the Beet ($14), sloshing vodka with Lillet and a fragrant beet shrub. But the gag is that you can enjoy all of these drinks at a DJ-soundtracked, drag queen–moderated viewing party for the latest episode of RuPaul’s Drag Race. It’s the ethos of this interdisciplinary approach that makes No Bar a forward-thinking endeavour, and one that expands on what hospitality can be. Why should LGBTQ revelers not enjoy good cocktails and, for that matter, good bar food? From the kitchen, Dimayuga turns out gussied-up pub grub, such as a perfectly browned, made-for-dipping grilled-cheese sandwiches with gooey cheddar and provolone and amped up with a sweet tomato ragù. Then there’s the real showpiece: a spicy Italian sausage sandwich, the meaty links nestled on crunchy broccoli rabe and a funky alpine fontina. Yes, these are simply fancy bar snacks. And, sure, well-made drinks are a dime a dozen in New York. But that belies No
Mister Paradise
The name Mister Paradise sounds like it would be perfect for a bombastic WWE heel-face turn (a character the audience is supposed to hate but ends up loving), and that’s quite fitting for the East Village bar, which has both pomp and substance. While the space is gorgeous, and the cocktails are complex (Party Lobster: blanco tequila, mezcal, Campari, watermelon, lime, fermented habanero and garlic) it is all entirely amusing and accessible. Not to be missed are the french fries, which can be ordered with sea-urchin aioli or whipped foie gras mousse—sophisticated, surely—but the fries were modeled on those the staff were eating from a place across the street during the build-out, and that little spot is called McDonald’s.
Reception
When you think of the word reception, do you think of a warm welcome at someone’s home, where the hostess takes your coat, inquires how you’ve been and—oh, while she’s in the kitchen—asks whether you need anything to drink? Or do you think of a fabulous party, where all the gussied-up guests are indulging in equally gussied-up gastronomic treats? At the cocktail bar named Reception, you’ll find neither. Instead, you’ll enter a candy-coated, retro-futuristic space with nary a greeting. On a recent Wednesday night, all four tables were filled with groups of friends in beanies and thick glasses. Even parked on a barstool, I had trouble flagging down one of the two bartenders who seemed to be constantly preoccupied and slightly ticked that I was interrupting them. The downtown bar serves cocktails but touts its Korean-inspired “elixirs”—a nebulous buzzword for non-alcoholic drinks that harbor Gwyneth Paltrow–approved health benefits. We went to see if these stone-cold-sober options could cure our winter blues. They couldn’t. Out of the five elixirs, four are indistinguishable from chilled, off-brand seltzers. The exception is Aphrodite’s Milk: As a libation intended to “increase libido,” it’s appropriately thick and nutty, mixed with egg white and black sesame. However, the Skinny Shroom (“aids in the breakdown of fat”) with sparkling buckwheat, shimeji mushroom shrub and quince honey is thin on flavor, and Queen Min’s Botanics (“balances hormones”) with white lotus, ginseng h
Felix Roasting Co.
There’s so much to poke fun of at this chichi coffee shop. Take the Pepto-pink room that could double as a Wes Anderson set or its preening “every coffee has a story” motto or the tableside rose-water spritzes. But damn if our cynical hearts weren’t melted when the barista, unbidden, offered a one-on-one demonstration of how to make the $14.50 (ha!) Hickory-Smoked S’mores Latte. “Just tell me if you need me to pause for pictures at any point,” he offered this clumsy iPhone photographer. Yes, he’s done this before. And during this adorably overwrought prep, a lot of things happen. First, he offers you a shot of the addictive graham-cracker–infused steamed milk—which would make a fantastic stand-alone slurp—before mixing it with espresso in a chocolate-rimmed coupe. Then, he covers the drink with a glass cloche, infusing it with hickory smoke, thereby cocooning it—and you—in a woodsy aroma. Finally, he adds the finishing touch: a caramelized marshmallow that he torches until it’s golden brown. Midway through drinking your velvety, campfire-kissed treat, he’ll drop off warm hand towels to aid in the gooey, chocolately mess dripping down the stem. But in case the S’mores Latte is sold out (sometimes by 10am—the shop opens at 7am during the week, 8am on weekends), another new-age java is the Deconstructed Espresso Tonic, which comes in a Bordeaux wineglass filled with tonic water, non-alcoholic Campari reduction and lemon-basil leaves. The server mentions that you should first s
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Grand Banks
If you're looking for an elegant seaside experience that rivals a day in the Hamptons, step aboard Grand Banks, the historic schooner turned oyster bar...
Sunday in Brooklyn
Contrary to what the name might suggest, Sunday in Brooklyn is open for brunch and dinner every day of the week. The rustic three-story space boasts an...
DaDong NY
When Michelle Obama visited Dong Zhenxiang’s famed Beijing restaurant to try his yijing (“artistic conception”) cuisine, she ordered six...
North River Lobster Company
At Pier 81, this former Florida gambling ship rejiggered with New England charm, offers three decks for imbibing and watching the sun drop during its...