Julien Levy

There’s something about warm weather and drinking. Maybe it’s some of that Lost Generation romance, a life affirmation, a sense of being in rather than of the world. Maybe it’s just a nice change of pace from the long, dark, cold season.  RECOMMENDED: The best bars in NYC But New York City is tricky when it comes to all that. It’s super dense with strict laws governing what goes on in shared space, which, considering the aforementioned human congestion, is basically everywhere. Many blocks in the city—especially downtown and in Brooklyn—are built around a central open atrium, allowing light and air into the back ends of buildings. That, in effect, means that you can’t always tell from a bar’s front what it’s got going on in the back. Covid outdoor seating saw revelry spill out onto the street, much to the delight of many young, hip, recently christened New Yorkers. But for better or worse, those days are behind us. What’s a person to do? Simple: find bars that feature dedicated outdoor spaces.We have a few here, but there’s a whole other rundown focusing entirely on rooftop bars, so we’re trying to keep this strictly terrestrial. To that end, what you have before you is a smattering of different experiences. Backyards, piers, parks, a freaking boat–we’ve tried to cover all the bases and present options. Are they the best bars, period? These are the best bars that offer a discrete outdoor area, which precludes curbside huts and sidewalk tables.So without further ado, here are

You often hear about how New York has great food from around the world—different cuisines, traditions and interpretations. It’s a beautiful thing, the tidiest example of our country at its best. What you don’t hear as much about are different restaurant formats—places that don’t conform to the standard American dining style of per-party tables arranged for privacy. Something you hear discussed even less are different bar formats. RECOMMENDED: Full guide to things to do outside in NYC Enter the bierhall, aka biergarten, aka beer garden. Rather than the pub style with a central bar and scattered tables, a beer garden is built around long communal tables where people gather to drink—well—beer, accompanied (almost by default) by salty, savory hand foods like pretzels and sausages. It’s a fun style and an old tradition often associated with lederhosen, dirndls and Oktoberfest. But it’s actually an everyday setup in parts of Eastern Europe. The catch: this style requires space and is often outdoors—two things New York isn’t exactly known for. But, surprise: the city actually has a lot of bierhalls. And we’re not talking about watered-down versions (though those exist and can be fun). We mean the full experience, transported largely intact to our shores—sausages included. So here’s a list of the best bierhalls and beer gardens in New York. Some are attached to breweries, some lean American, others reinterpret the format—and a few feel straight out of a Czech village.

NYC's Japanese restaurant landscape is rich with ever-growing, ramen, izakaya and Michelin-starred sushi destinations, among many other offerings. The best include casual affairs, grand experiences and some that split the difference. Whatever your preference, these are the finest options for all of that and more right now.  RECOMMENDED: The best restaurants in NYC to book right now added this para, do you want to give it a look over before i make it live? Updated March 2026: Narrowing down the best Japanese restaurants in NYC is a little like narrowing down the best American restaurants. Or the best Italian. Or best anything. Meaning there is so much nuance, technique and variety to be considered. And so we tried our best to include a little of everything. We started with New York's love of omakase and sushi by adding Sushi Nakazawa and Sushi Noz to the list. Since we are still in the thick of a good ol' fashioned New York chill, we updated our entry for Nakumura after a recent visit. As more styles emerged on the scene, we paid them a visit, and they too ended up on our list, including kaiseki restaurant Muku and French–Japanese restaurant Restaurant Yuu. But it isn't all fine dining, as we added our go-to midtown favorite, Katagiri Japanese Grocery, to this list. We removed Japan Village, Hi-Collar, Masa and Nami Nori. We also removed Sushi Ginza Onodera and Shuko as they closed. We also removed 69 Leonard Street as it is temporarily closed due to a fire.

New York City is a melange of people from just about everywhere, but deep down, near the core of its cultural roots, are the Irish. But the Irish are not a monolith. For proof, look no further than the landscape of Irish pubs in New York City. Dives, cafes, cocktail bars ball fly the Irish flag. This means more than Irish ownership, though that obviously helps. Many places calling themselves Irish pubs are little more than generic sports bars. Is that what you really want or do you want the craic? Below you’ll find some of New York’s best Irish bars spanning a diversity of tastes. At any and all the bartender pulls a proper pint of Guinness. RECOMMENDED: See the full St. Patrick's Day in NYC guide Updated February 2026: This list also now includes entries for each of the five boroughs. Irish expats were polled for their opinions regarding that real Irish feel. I myself am not even a little Irish, but being pale and red results in my being mistaken for it often, everywhere I go, including IN Ireland. Needless to say, I have always felt welcome in Irish bars. And I like Guinness and boiled meat and all that brown sauce, so it cuts both ways. Anyway, when I say something feels Irish, I can only refer to my affectionate but limited firsthand impression of the place.

If you haven’t met a New Yorker and therefore haven’t heard the spiel, here it is: Times Square is the worst, and there is virtually no reason to go. No, seriously. Without even trying, you could spend a lifetime eating and drinking in Manhattan without ever crossing Times Square’s glowing threshold (roughly Broadway from 42nd to 48th Streets, though, like neon light, the edges blur). Akin to the Hollywood Walk of Fame, The Alamo, Bourbon Street, Times Square is a tourist magnet whose significance and/or appeal is wildly overrepresented in media. But unlike the aforementioned attractions, New York’s onetime nexus of lasciviousness and vice has been entirely scrubbed of its own history. And we’re not just saying all of this for jaded New Yawka points—we don’t need them. RECOMMENDED: The best bars in New York The place is uncomfortably crowded, offers nothing you can’t find elsewhere in the city (besides certain theaters, chain restaurants, and hustlers dressed like Minnie Mouse); and the advertisements, while thrillingly large and flashy, are nothing more than corporations asserting their right to purchase your attention IRL. At least, ads on the subway are likely to feature hilarious graffiti. All of that said, if you are dead-set on going to Times Square or have tickets to a show or something, you will, no doubt, want a drink or four afterward. To that end, we’ve compiled a list of the best bars near Times Square in which you’ll want to do just that.  Updated February 2026:

There are times when a person just wants the best of things and will settle for no less. Then there’s the rest of the time. NYC dive bars are for the latter—there’s no occasion or circumstance into which they fit, which makes them perfect for any and every. What makes a dive a dive? 1. String lights, 2. A vague to nonexistent menu, 3. Graffitied bathroom, 4. Some degree of shabbiness, 5. The bartenders’ main concern isn’t guests’ experience so much as supplying people with what they need. That might be a sympathetic ear, pristine cocktail, round at lightning speed, unequivocal 86, shot on the house; a reality, ego, or privilege-check. RECOMMENDED: The best bars in NYC And don’t think that just because there are dusty bottles against the mirror and tattered dollars taped to the register and names carved in the table that a dive isn’t worthy of respect. They have been the setting for untold numbers of revelations, stories, fateful encounters that change lives—experiences you just can’t have in more buttoned-up or toned-down rooms. There’s a reason fancy chefs and mixologists tend to retreat to their local dive after keeping it classy all day. Just saying. Updated February 2026: It was really tough to keep this list to 15, but we decided to strictly delineate between pubs, neighborhood bars, and dives–all three worthy and wonderful, but not truly synonymous. Legendary places like Rudy’s, Sunny’s, Montero, Lucky 13, Skinny Dennis, Duff’s—all toe the dive line but ultimately fall

Name recognition and lore will always attract a certain number of people to “iconic” restaurants, but do long lines and waiting lists and wall-to-wall reservations mean that they’re worth going to? To call a restaurant “iconic” means that it’s more than just a place to eat—it’s a symbol for tradition, its respective niche, and maybe most importantly, the city itself. But ask any New Yorker and they’ll tell you: many “iconic” restaurants coast on hype and reputation. So what should you look for when you want to have a great experience at a supposedly “iconic” New York restaurant? We’ve boiled it down to three criteria: consistent quality, value for time and/or money, and, in the absence of a single-star dish, an overall experience that’s emblematic of something larger—a neighborhood, a cuisine, a style. Maybe you’re visiting. Maybe you’re a newcomer. Maybe you’ve lived here for years and haven’t gone to any place you’ve heard about because you’re afraid it would hurt your cred. Well, take this as permission. Every place below is worth a visit at least once.Updated January 2026: Searching our souls, it didn’t really feel right to recommend places whose line is prohibitively long and you’ve probably heard of anyway. We’ve also swapped out any places that are only worth the visit to tick off a box on a list–whatever else they may be, every place on here serves delicious food. Finally, we swapped out some overhyped spots in order to highlight different cultures and cuisines–what m

Your out-of-towner friend wants “something cool,” your date wants ambiance, and you want some local-insider-knowledge cred—NYC speakeasy time. Sure, the trend peaked years ago, when people were wearing suspenders and waxing mustaches and riding fixed-gear bikes for some ungodly reason. Back then, pretensions ran high. But today, it’s all way less serious. The idea works a little better now, tends to be handled with more self-awareness and less self-righteousness. And look: there are no speakeasies. And nothing is truly secret in New York. I mean, you’re reading this. Still, some places effectively toy with the “speakeasy” concept and manage to pull it off, and that’s what we’re here to run down. RECOMMENDED: The best bars in NYC right now There are plenty of bars with unmarked entrances—ones that feel “secret,” not because they’re perpetrating a deliberate trick but just because they’re down a staircase or off a subway platform. Some of these are my favorite bars, places I’m always happy to highlight. But being hard to find does not a speakeasy make. We’ve tried to stick with separating the inconspicuous from places that truly perform a bit of sleight-of-hand. Updated January 5, 2026: Since we last toured the speakeasy-ish landscape, a few doors have quietly shut and a few new ones have flung wide open. We’re missing standout bars like Nothing Really Matters and Angel Share in this go-around, yes. But we had some tough choices to make if we were to bring you real variety and

Brooklyn’s culinary landscape is one of the finest in the world, hosting many of the best restaurants and bars in New York City and beyond. The borough has so many excellent pizza places, BBQ and brunch options, one could spend a lifetime trying them all. If you need a place to get started, look here and peruse through our favorite 23 places for a quick bite, sit-down dinner, or fine dining affair.   RECOMMENDED: Full guide to the best restaurants in NYC December 2025: This list hadn't been touched in some time, and was in need of quite an overhaul. We added some of our favorites that we went back to over the course of 2025, including Theodora, Pitt's, LaRina Pastificio & Vino and L'Industrie. We also added some stellar stars, including Kellogg's Diner, Sailor, Taqueria Ramirez and Win Son Bakery. We removed Clover Hill, Purple Yam, Olmstead, Rangoon and Ugly Baby as they closed. We also removed Agi’s Counter, Atti, Bamboo Garden, Birds of a Feather, Claro, Em Vietnamese Bistro, Govinda's Vegetarian Lunch, Gus’s Chop House, Haenyeo, Hart’s, Inga’s Bar, Kokomo, La Vara, L&B Spumoni Gardens, Nura, Ras Plant Based, Reyes Deli & Grocery, Rana Fifteen, Sofreh, Shan, Win Son and Vinegar Hill House. For more on our editorial policies and ethics, feel free to check out how we review at Time Out.

New York City is home to every kind of drinking establishment; there is no single idea of a New York bar. And since there are simply so many of them, that same principle can be extrapolated and applied specifically to cocktail bars; New York is home to every different conceivable type and kind you can imagine and a few you couldn’t possibly. To make a list of New York City’s best cocktail bars is, in some ways, an impossible task–the city is silly with bartender heroes living incognito; people who cut their teeth ice shaving and dry-shaking and garnishing with tweezers but choose to work in a dive bar and charge you peanuts just because.  RECOMMENDED: The best bars in New York All of that said, wide stratification across class and style means that standards must inherently exist. And though said standards are neither hard-and-fast nor necessarily a measure of a place’s overall value, we can–nay, must–recognize when a bar’s (and its tenders’) work and care and thought and technique consistently yield excellence. Bartending is hard work. But cocktail bartending is almost absurd; each element and technique must be applied in the correct sequence with the correct timing for an often-drunk audience late at night. It takes vision and cunning and tenacity. So today we celebrate them, the bartenders, and the places where they apply their skills, without which we, the drinking public, would not be able to well and truly luxuriate.  How we curate and review at Time Out

Do you hear what I hear? Glasses clinking, stools sliding across the floor, the murmur of a crowd. Why, what did you think I was gonna say? Christmas means wildly different things to different people: faithful friends who’re dear being near, stuffy in-laws and itchy sweaters, Chinese food and a movie. So if you want Christmas to mean absconding to a holiday-agnostic dive day-of, or spending the oh so holy night with your buds over pizza and beer, or going Christmas HAM on a seasonal cocktail or six–you’re in the right place. We’ve got a list of bars in NYC open on Christmas.Mind you: when we say “bars in NYC open on Christmas,” in some cases that means the eve alone, in others, eve and day both. But whether you’re looking for dives, hotel bars, cocktail-meccas, piano bars, Irish pubs, pizza places, gay bars, themed pop-ups, beer halls; affordable to splurge, Bronx to Flushing, naughty to nice–we’ve got you. It’s true that hotel bars are almost always open, and your neighborhood spot may just decide to be open at the last minute–there is no one-size-fits-all solution for the thousands of bars in NYC. “Open on Christmas” isn’t an exhaustive designation as much as encouragement to reserve guessing for what’s wrapped under the tree. If you’re strapped for an itinerary with visitors or itching to indulge your inner (pre-epiphany) Scrooge, look no further: here are 13 bars in NYC that are open on Christmas.Updated November 2025: We’ve tried to branch way out this year, giving you a

For those of us who can’t be bothered with centerpieces or sweaters or drunk uncles who refuse to keep their political opinions to themselves, great news: you can skip it. While most bars are indeed closed for Thanksgiving day, a few take their duty to the public seriously, keeping the doors open and the booze pouring. And why not? We reject that the only valid way to give thanks is by eating the same dry turkey, gummy mashed potatoes, and overcooked green beans. What if we don’t like football or pie or children? Is it so wrong to want to take advantage of open bar real estate? And maybe your family (chosen or blood) is great! Maybe everybody pitches in and the food is delicious and spirits are high. Well, that’s terrific, but it doesn’t preclude a post-dinner drink or two; a debrief, a nightcap, a check-in with oneself before lumbering home with a bag full of leftovers. RECOMMENDED: Full guide to Thanksgiving in NYC To help you in your endeavor, we’ve assembled a list of bars–not restaurants–that are open on Thanksgiving day. Some are serving food but most aren’t. And some are open at their regular hours but most are doing things just a tad differently, so keep that in mind. Whatever you do: don’t lose sight of the bartenders–they should be counted in your thanks, too. Just remember: regardless of their demeanor while serving, they’re not doing it purely for the love of the game and their landlords don’t accept gratitude as payment.Updated November 6, 2025: We’ve looked aro

Maison Premiere is classy through and through. That’s not to say the place is crusty or pretentious. It celebrates and openly refers to New Orleans, a city famous for its revelry and the revelry itself. But Maison Premiere is inspired by NOLA’s gentry rather than its seedier aspects. You aren’t going to tie one on here the way you might in NOLA, but you will certainly enjoy some of the finer things and feel buzzy for having done so. The place is beautiful—simplicity and patina keep focus on the cocktail program, which is one of the city’s best. It also specializes in Absinthe, which they have a large selection of, and it features in their cocktail-making. If you’re trying to steer to the New York standards, the expensive but astoundingly cold Old King Cole Martini is mixed tableside and goes down smooth as liquid crystal. Maison Premiere’s raw bar is the main attraction. It’s hard to say one place’s raw bar is better than another—there’s no cookery happening, so it comes down to presentation and ingredient quality. Well, the people doing this place’s shucking, plating, and buying all function at a very high level. Oysters are terrific and come in a delightful variety. Aside from the raw, the dirty rice verges on paella with lobster, squid and spicy ‘Nduja.Maison Premiere offers New Yorkers a chance to slow down and appreciate the good things in life. In warm weather, the back garden helps reinforce that mission. An evening here isn’t exactly inexpensive, but it’s a life-affir

No trip to Red Hook is complete without a trip to Brooklyn Ice House. Encouraging one to disregard whatever’s happening beyond its borders, shabby in corners with the old asserting itself despite new additions; with shockingly good food, a tight-knit community, and a surprising amount of depth despite its outward appearance—Ice House is Red Hook in microcosm. That is to say, it’s charming and every time I go, I wonder why I don’t go more often.Like any neighborhood dive in any small town in America, the aesthetic at Ice House is incidental; people pass through and leave something behind. It isn’t selling the concept of a dive as has become so popular–one could even argue that it isn’t a dive at all, but more of a neighborhood bar. But that would be to ignore the signs of life scribbled on the bathroom walls, scratched into the picnic tables. It isn’t a dump, but it ain’t the Ritz.  They’ve got a half-dozen or so taps but a surprisingly wide selection of bottles. These are listed according to origin, so if you care about that, you’ll be pleased. Other than that, it’s bar as usual: beer/shot combos, wine that does the job, an array of liquors that the bartender will be happy to whip into whatever cocktails are in their repertoire, which may vary wildly depending on who’s behind the stick. If you’ve got a cocktail in mind, you may as well try your luck. The thing nobody really talks about is that many dive bar bartenders have done a stint in cocktail bars or been trained by some

Zombie Hut is sheer, undiluted fun and makes no apologies for it.  This tiki bar has been holding down a stretch of Smith Street in Carroll Gardens since 2002. It’s outlived wave after wave of neighborhood churn, economic downturns, and certain unnamed pandemics. It feels somewhat unkillable. Not that anyone is actively trying. But this place is clearly going for the gusto in a neighborhood that, at times, feels like it forgot people do that at all. Besides the beachy vibes, the reason Zombie Hut is an excellent choice in warm weather. Their backyard is bigger than one might think, so a large group can claim a picnic table or an entire corner. They don’t have food, but they don’t care if you bring some in.  The bar’s theme is committed, but it’s not overboard. If you’ve ever been in a tiki bar, you know what to expect. Bamboo bar, masks on the walls, a thatched roof, frozen drinks that taste like candy but will put you on your ass. What more do you need?To those who love tiki as a drinking genre, ZH ticks all the boxes. If you’re in the mood to get silly, order a Frozen Zombie. It’s a boozy slushie. Very boozy. If you don’t want to mess with any of that, they’ve got beer and regular cocktails, too. But if you’re here, you may as well say ‘screw it’ and drink a Scorpion Bowl with your friends.

PDT veteran Jeff Bell just opened Highball Ltd. in partnership with Marx Realty: a pretty little bar meant to evoke the golden age of luxury rail travel. Don't mistake it for a place to build plans around. It is, in essence, an office building cosplaying as a cocktail bar. Despite the thematically appropriate address at 10 Grand Central, Highball Ltd. is not housed within the train hall but on the 11th floor of a nearby office building. The entrance is on Third Avenue between 44th and 45th, the building's service entrance. It isn't hidden: there's a red light, a plaque, a guy checking reservations on an iPad. Invoking "speakeasy" was a PR solve when the decision was made to open the place to the public. In reality, Highball Ltd. is one quadrant of The Meeting Galleries, a stylized set of connected amenity spaces for building tenants to host meetings, screenings, and holiday parties. The design is well-realized and genuinely pretty, way more interesting than any office you've ever been in. But the private workspaces, presentation room, screening room, and dry bar with no plumbing and no dedicated bartender tell the full story. The place isn't even open on weekends. Drinks run $20 to $23 and come from the service bar at the back. The menu devotes an entire section to listing classic highballs by name: Vodka Soda, Jameson and ginger, rum and Coke. The signature highballs use infused liquors and aromatics, though both the Pep Talk and the Fresa Fizz arrived flat, which is a probl

Other Half opened in 2014 at the mostly-industrial convergence of Carroll Gardens, Red Hook and Gowanus that old timers still call South Brooklyn. The taproom makes no bones about it. The room is spare: concrete underfoot, bare walls. It’s about the beer here. 20 rotating drafts of the stuff and it’s really good. They also pour wine, cider and soft drinks, with cans and bottles available to go. And this isn’t one of those places that delights in "challenging" IPAs–you know, the ones that taste like a leather strap dissolved in grapefruit juice. Other Half has never and does not now mess with that. These are balanced, genuinely drinkable beers for people who like things that taste good. Something simple but not simplistic. The bartenders are fast, friendly, and if you don’t mess with IPAs, they know how to steer you to the right fit. The place is spitting distance from the Gowanus Canal–which, despite the rash of condos springing up, is still endearingly vile. You’ve got to get off the Smith/9th Street F/G to get here, but that’s its own little treat: it’s the highest elevated station in the entire New York City subway system, and the views are spectacular.

Talea warrants a trip to Williamsburg, late-stage gentrification be damned. NYC's first exclusively women-founded brewery opened in 2021. Other locations have opened in Cobble Hill, The West Village, and Bryant Park, but Williamsburg is where it all started and where we’re focusing here. The taproom is beautiful, devoid of shadowy corners and grime–this isn’t one of those beardo, backward baseball cap, chef’s knife tattoo on the forearm brewpubs. No, no, no. Someone thought carefully about every surface, with high windows letting in lots of daylight, white walls and a bar running most of the length of the room. But this is still a brewery and their brews are, in a word, delicious. Their signature leans toward fruit-forward and sour styles, but Talea offers something for everyone. And the lineup is wide enough to reward repeat visits. These aren't one-note beers that begin and end in the same register. There’s real depth in the subtleties and aromas. If you’re not a beer person, you can still have a good time here–they offer cocktails, wine, snacks, and coffee, which makes it well-suited to an afternoon of remote work or a stolen hour with a book. The bartenders fit the space to a T–friendly and gentle but confident, guiding you without making you feel on the spot. They offer both indoor and outdoor seating, beer to go, and a space free of the gatekeeping and swaggering self-seriousness that can make other, less considered taprooms a drag.

The Arthur Avenue Market bears a near-complete indifference to whatever’s going on elsewhere in the city. And what a joy it is to see, to smell, to taste. It’s a lively covered indoor market of butchers, pasta shops and fish vendors that has been doing exactly this same thing since Uncle Jun’ was in short pants. The Bronx Beer Hall is a carve-out opened in 2013, a partnership between the fromTheBronx brand and the legendary Mike's Deli. Long communal tables run beneath a skylit ceiling. The air is rich from the surrounding stalls: the coppery tang and of cured meat, the brininess of fresh fish, a vinegary note to jolt you awake. Then the malty, yeasty smell of beer. This is the stuff of life. The tap list is sourced entirely from New York State–yet more proof that this space is not apart from the city, but a vital part of it. You can grab half-pints to try two or three things, but full pints, pitchers, and growlers can be had, too. The staff has that neighborhood friendliness. Chef David Greco is something of an ambassador of Arthur Ave–his food menu, built around the market's own vendors, offers an antipasto platter second to none. Don’t miss it.

Though good, the food at Red Rooster was never its primary draw. Chef Marcus Samuelsson’s Harlem restaurant made its bones as a hearth around which New York City could gather, the proverbial melting pot in microcosm. All of that remains true. What’s changed? The world. Now in its 16th year, Red Rooster finds itself in an almost unimaginable reality; the arc of justice seems longer, more asymptotic. Red Rooster is not, and ought not to be seen, as a token for any ethnic cuisine or racial identity, or a locus of socio-political issues. It is a restaurant: a place to go and forget about the world outside for a little while. Still, it can’t be entirely extricated from its context. Since RR opened, many more excellent, upmarket Black-owned and operated restaurants and bars have sprung up, and they have Red Rooster to point to not just as a trailblazer but proof-positive that the wide spectrum of American Black food is far from niche. Rather, it is the U.S.’s most significant and enduring contribution to global gastronomy (music too, but I digress) and will absolutely draw a diverse crowd. Mr. Samuelsson launched his flagship in Manhattan’s historically Black enclave, Harlem—not the most convenient place to get to if you’re not already nearby—a neighborhood that was (and still is, but to a lesser extent) ignored by restaurateurs and Anglo culture vultures. It says everything that, after 16 years of receiving mostly pretty-good-but-not-great reviews for its cuisine, the place still

The word has been out for a long time: PDT is a cocktail bar attached to Crif Dogs, a hot doggery in Manhattan’s East Village. Guests enter a phone booth and announce themselves into the phone; the wall opens to reveal the host. There’s no standing room, and availability is limited.Inside, it’s dark and sparsely decorated, with some moldering taxidermy and a bit of art. There’s a small selection of beer and wine, but cocktails are the thing here, and they’re as complicated as you’d expect after the rigmarole of getting in. If you’re hungry, you can order from an abbreviated Crif Dogs menu. The house specialties come loaded with stuff like kimchi, pastrami, elote, etc. They’re tasty but sloppy, so maybe not ideal for a first date.The name Please Don’t Tell was always a cute joke. Now that word-of-mouth isn’t much of a thing and influencers—passively farmed-out, small-scale mass media—are an essential part of any small business’s livelihood. PDT came along in 2007 when obscurity was currency. In those proto-social-media days, a hideaway that didn’t get foot traffic (RIP: Chumley’s, the original Angel’s Share, Milk & Honey) survived on favorable real estate terms (also RIP) and/or offering an experience so special that enthusiasm turned infectious, that is, viral. These places required people to tell; they had to be worth telling about. But to stay afloat, PDT needed its target market of cool, discerning grownups to stake their cool cred by telling other cool grownups: this plac

For nearly 30 years now, the French brasserie Balthazar has commanded Spring Street like a dreadnought anchored in a bay. Not that it’s imposing or uninviting—just the opposite. Its trappings and window-framed boulangerie evoke the quotidian Paris that we Yanks tend to romanticize. It’s the place’s sheer size, the current of diners, and its biblical name. Balthazar flies its banner with confidence. That sense of presence eddies in the busy vestibule and swells in the dining room proper. For a place of its size, with so many seats, the service at Balthazar is impressive. The crew is attentive, seemingly relaxed, and won’t push to turn your table. There’s a steady hand at the helm here.  The dining room is loud and lively. It isn’t enough to scuttle conversation. The red booths, chandeliers, and mirrors one expects from a brasserie are all present. The food follows suit: casual French favorites plus a raw bar. Of note are the goat cheese and caramelized onion tart topped with canelles of olive tapenade; funk, salt, and sugar in balance. The steak frites is well-tended and comes with a generous pile of fries, perfectly crisp and salty but with just enough inner fluff to swab a plate clean. The bar produces both tidy classic cocktails and streamlined inventions; the Vesper (vodka, gin, Lillet, lemon) ticks all the boxes, and the Gimlet De Provence (gin, lime, Herb de Provence) is perfumey and feels moored to drinkability over ‘wow’ factor. I clocked a scalawag dining in a Hooters

Of all the historic institutions on MacDougal St—one of Greenwich Village’s most culturally significant, busiest stretches—Minetta Tavern is the most venerable. That’s not a value judgment aimed at Mamoun’s, Cafe Wha?, The Comedy Cellar, La Lanterna de Vittorio, Cafe Reggio, or the all-too-often overlooked Monte’s (there’s a reason those places have stuck around). Let’s throw Ben’s Pizza in there, too. Why not? But Minetta Tavern is, without a doubt, the place with the most gravitas, class, and the highest standards. It’s not just the best restaurant on MacDougal Street or in the neighborhood; it’s one of the city’s most quintessential. The name Minetta Tavern has ridden that corner brick building since 1937. In 2009, the place was revamped by Keith McNally, restaurateur of Balthazar fame, and wisely, he kept the interior intact. The result: few places in the city have this same timeless, old New York feel. Red leather, brass, checkerboard floors; low light, caricatures on the wall, a pressed-tin ceiling. It feels great to sit in here, whether at a table or the bar, and soak it up. The service is of a piece with the environment: confident, welcoming, smooth as you could please, without the airs or stiffness of fine dining. This is a classy place, but it feels fun. The cocktail program is, in a word, terrific. Faultless classics predominate, with a few original creations to explore as well; each is beautifully restrained and in lockstep with the old guard. The wine list is als

Most places self-described as a “pub” bill themselves as bar first, restaurant second and Putnam’s isn’t an exception but “cooker” feels like it’s doing the heavy lifting here. The offerings are more eclectic than what you’ll find at most places with “pub” painted on the storefront, which, I suppose is why they’ve described the menu as “American.” Fair enough, but alongside salt and pepper shrimp, duck ragu, and chicken liver mousse, there’s still pot pie, shepherd’s pie, and fish and chips. All that said, you can absolutely forego to the whole sitdown dining thing and park yourself at the bar–there’s a massive draft list, big selection of whiskeys, and cocktails to be had.  The vibe: This is a comfy, homey, friendly neighborhood restaurant. The food: American with traditional Irish options. The drink: A giant draft list with a big selection of whiskys and cocktails. Time Out Tip: Why not get some golden fried calamari to go with your well-pulled Guinness?

You’re out with friends at a bar, club or venue. Everyone’s having fun—drinking, happy. Out of nowhere, the bartender catches an attitude. They were all smiles before; now they’re snippy, serving your drinks with a sigh and an eye roll, maybe ignoring you completely. What the hell is their problem? You. If this sounds familiar, and if it's happened more than once, I'm sorry to say that you, my friend, are THAT person in the bar: The jerk whose behavior kills the vibe, doesn't realize they're embarrassing themselves, and makes everyone breathe easier once they're out the door. RECOMMENDED: The best bars in NYC The good news is that becoming the type of customer bartenders love is easy. More than that, it pays dividends: you'll get served faster, the bartender will make you seem cool in front of your friends, and you could get a drink or two for free. Being well-liked by bartenders makes life way easier. Who am I to make prescriptions? I worked as a full-time bartender in NYC for over a decade. Neighborhood spots, high-volume theme bars, cocktail hideaways, bumping clubs, festivals, private parties, venues—there's almost nothing I haven't dealt with or seen. Below, five signs you're being THAT person in the bar, including things to be aware of and ways you might correct them.  Keep in mind that this is aimed specifically at people going to bars in New York City, but it's good advice for visiting U.S. bars in general.  Don’t be desperate Snapping, clapping, whistling, or shoutin

In partnership with Marx Realty, PDT veteran Jeff Bell just opened Highball Ltd.—a pretty little bar meant to evoke “the golden age of luxury train travel.” But don’t mistake Highball Ltd. for a place you should build plans around: it is, in essence, an office building cosplaying as a cocktail bar.Despite its thematically appropriate address at 10 Grand Central, Highball Ltd. is not housed in the same structure as the train hall. The entrance is actually on Third Avenue between 44th and 45th, the service entrance of an office building. The bar isn't hidden per se: there's a red light, a plaque, a guy stationed on the door checking reservations on an iPad—if you’re not led astray by the street address, it’s not hard to find. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Time Out New York (@timeoutnewyork) RECOMMENDED: The best restaurants in NYC's midtown Manhattan Invoking “speakeasy” was a PR solve when the decision was made to open this bar to the public. Highball Ltd is, in reality, one quadrant of The Meeting Galleries, a larger planned set of “hospitality-inspired” amenities for people who work in the building. Think a stylized set of connected spaces where managers can host meetings, screenings, holiday parties, etc.  Credit where it’s due: the design and decor are all well realized, very pretty and way more interesting than any office I’ve ever set foot in. But make no mistake: Highball Ltd is, quite evidently, a part of an office. Inside, you’ll find p

Dear New York City Bar Patrons, It’s me, your trusty bartender. We need to talk about our relationship since COVID. For a few of us, bartending is a career; maybe even a calling. For the rest, it’s a job. Regardless of the motivation, there’s no denying that the way we turn a buck occupies a unique space in American culture. “We work in a very interesting industry where, yeah, it’s all about fun. But, y’know, in that fun, there’s a lot of risk,” says Dan, 37, who is a 20-year service industry veteran and manager/owner/cocktail wizard at West Village spot, Bandits. “You have to look out for people as a bartender.” But COVID flipped the world upside down. That includes us. “One of the first rules [bartenders] always hear is, ’no politics, no, religion in a bar,’” Dan says. “That went out the window because we were forced to kind of be the liaisons of the rules.”   Photograph: Julien Levy | George bartending at Double Windsor Almost overnight, we were effectively deputized COVID compliance officers, shoved onto the front lines. “That created definitely a weird balance where we were forced–or asked to–police our customers a little extra in order to keep the liquor license,” Dan says. Caught between a deadly virus, the government’s inchoate mandates (some of them arbitrary and punitive), our bosses, and you, norms of affability and commiseration had to take a back seat. “We’re here to serve, but we’re nobody’s servant. Don’t agree? There’s the door.” “We used to call it lifegua