Julien Levy

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

Just beneath where Manhattan’s grid begins at 14th Street sits Greenwich Village. Generally speaking, it’s divided into thirds by vibe: The Village is touristy, NYU, chi chi; The East Village is grittier, cooler, with more attitude; and then there’s the subject at hand–top contender for the highest concentration of gorgeous townhouses, adorable blocks, and the confusing spiderweb of named intersecting streets. Yes, we’re talking about a place where West 4th Street, West 10th Street, and 7th Avenue converge: the West Village. RECOMMENDED: The best bars in NYC The neighborhood has undergone and continues to undergo massive change, but a few things will always be true (we hope): this is Manhattan’s queer beating heart, the spaces are quaint and the buildings are old, and on almost every block there’s an enticing bar or restaurant. So what we’ve assembled for you here is a list of the best bars in the neighborhood. We’ve tried to cover every taste, from dirty dives to cocktail classiness and everything in between. If you haven’t done so, do yourself a favor and spend a fair-weather afternoon wandering the West Village from the Hudson to 6th Ave–you’ll find the astounding concentration of different experiences, interests, and people for which this city is most famous and most proud.Updated October 29, 2025: We’ve tried to welcome newcomers to the neighborhood, shout out stalwarts, and give credit where it’s due. Some places in a previous iteration of this list were too exclusive

One of New York City’s most enduring features is that almost nothing in it endures; the place is constantly undergoing change. Buildings are razed and reconstructed, streets are renamed and rerouted, neighborhoods’ identities are redefined and reinvented. That’s why it’s so special when a bar (of all things!) survives. The new and shiny may get a lot of attention, but there are places in this city that have persisted in the face of ever-present churn and seemingly-endless upheaval and they, too deserve a shout. These places are stalwarts, bits of history with fun baked in. It’s where your immigrant ancestors may very well have tied one on, where historical figures may have gotten sloppy, where the movements that shaped our country found liquid courage.  RECOMMENDED:  The best bars in NYC: your definitive drinking guide Below is a list of some of New York City’s oldest bars. Is it an exhaustive list? Nah. Are they some of the best bars? Not necessarily. Do they have a kind of character you can’t possibly manufacture? Absolutely. So if you fancy yourself a New Yorker or aspire to call yourself one someday, we daresay you can’t claim the title until you’ve heard last call at one of these places.  October 20, 2025: We’ve swapped a few places with more exposure for a couple that are indeed old and deserve a little more attention e.g. Keen’s for Julius’. It’s also worth noting that the places below aren’t in order of age or founding and that some of the finer historical details are

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?

Bea’s is a cozy little neighborhood cocktail bar doing real dinner. But it’s also a little neighborhood restaurant with great cocktails. That depends on you. The food is comfort-oriented: proteins with sides, pastas, pizzas, salads—you don’t have to understand anything to find something that works. And most of it is quite good, with all the parts in the right place: well-seasoned and properly temped proteins like the 8oz filet mignon; generous saucing, as seen in the spinach tagliatelle with garlic and shrimp; and accoutrements that make sense, represented by the mint chimichurri, zucchini and mashed potatoes that come with the marinated lamb chops. It may not be revelatory, but this is honest food calibrated to satisfy. Cocktails are where Bea really turns up the theatricality. There’s a lot more invention and verve going on here than you might have surmised from the victuals; the short but sweet list has a sense of whimsy. The Anything Goes (prickly pear gin, grenadine, lime, sparkling wine) is cool and comfy as freshly laundered bedsheets, whereas the smoky, tangy, salty Wicked Witch of the West Side (mezcal, Montenegro, saffron liqueur, grapefruit, lime and a smoked salt rim) wraps you up like a down comforter on a cold night. And if you’re not on the sauce, mocktails here are treated with similar levels of care. If all of that’s not doing it for you, there are ample choices on the wine and beer lists. Service is excellent—quick, reassuring and friendly. They’re pros at a

Madame George feels a little like bait for the type of person who would never go to midtown. By dint of location alone, it isn’t likely to tempt anyone who might otherwise kick it downtown, let alone in Brooklyn. Still, if you’re in the area, it’s a pretty place with sultry vibes where you can loosen your tie/shoe straps, drink a great cocktail, maybe even bring a date. The NYC-themed cocktail menu is the product of vision and a high-level of execution. The drinks are playful and tasty; immediately after finishing my Supafly (Cognac, blueberry/shishito shrub, raspberry, prosecco), I wanted another. Still, with so much New York-themed spin on the ball, it didn’t feel aimed at me, that is, a person who actually lives here. But that really has nothing to do with their quality or drinkability, both of which hit high marks. The food is a harder sell, but not because it isn’t well-made or tasty. It's a question of value: $33 for 4 Wagyu pigs in a blanket is indicative of the menu as a whole. That's the neighborhood for you. Atmosphere-wise, it’s hitting its mark–the place has that sexy, low-lit, loungey vibe. And service is wonderful–composed bartenders whipping out orders with flair and friendly, responsive servers who know exactly how much presence to exert. Who exactly Madame George is aimed at besides tourists and influencers is difficult to understand, but the strength of its cocktail program alone ought to tempt even the most jaded New Yorker. 

Look, not everything that’s good has to be “cool,” okay? Get over yourself. Sometimes the thing that you want—that you need—is a low-pressure situation, the comforting embrace of old favorites, and a friendly face beckoning you in. Connolly’s has all of that covered, plus a ton of seating, TVs so you can watch the game, a food menu of Irish pub favorites, and 50 beers to pick from. You can rely on it. Connolly’s is family-owned and operated. This might not mean much to you, but in this day and age in this neighborhood, it is a small miracle. The service understands the brief, so they’re all incredibly friendly–if you’re struggling to find a place that won’t intimidate or stress your Middle-American parents after wandering around on foot all day, Connolly’s has your back. The burger is tasty, the fried bits and bobs come out hot and crunchy, and the Irish beef stew ticks all the boxes. There’s no reinvention or experimentation–just simple, time-tested pub standbys. You want a Guinness? They’ve got it. A classic cocktail? No prob. Don’t drink alcohol? There are plenty of options for you.  The place has three floors plus a rooftop bar, but believe it or not, when it’s nearing curtain time, it gets packed—that’s just the nature of a place in this neighborhood. Somehow, the servers and bartenders manage to get diners out the door in time without impatience or pushiness–an impressive feat. And if you want, you can even catch a show without going anywhere; on the 3rd floor, Connolly

Milano’s has been around since the 1800s. The place doesn’t wear its bonafides like so many others struggling against time’s current or surfing its waves to relevance. No, Milano’s just is—a steady ship that, despite a crack here and leak there, sails true. To quote its own website, Milano’s is the quintessential New York dive bar. This is inarguable. A little odd, a little musty, inexpensive by neighborhood standards; they don’t serve food, they don’t host music, they don’t make anything with matcha or protein. It’s narrow and long and dark; the walls are covered in photos of people you don’t know, and the bathrooms offer less than total privacy. Nobody who loves the place cares and nobody who cares will love the place. This is an establishment wholly without pretense—a room where anyone and everyone can feel comfortable if they relax. Due to its bottleneck and the scant seating in back, you’re probably not going to find Milano’s conducive to a big group hang. But you won’t find a better place to go with a friend or two, or a date if they’re into a beer/shot combo kind of evening. 

International Bar is, for many, the last stop on any night out in the East Village. It can be the game corrective to a sideways evening, a place to wallow, or the site of a victory lap—it all feels right. Stroll in late at night, and you’ll find the staff from other bars and restaurants in the neighborhood mixing it up with regulars. That tells you a lot—not only about who tends bar here but the place’s overall bearing and ethos. There is no one type or profile of the I-Bar drinker; all are welcome, and none are special, but that’s a dive for you: a place where, if you expect nothing, you’re liable to find anything. The semicircular bar lends the room that community feeling, but the place is, in a sense, as much about what you’ll find here (inexpensive drinks, seasoned bartenders, weirdo regulars) as what you won’t: any indication that it has anything to prove to anyone. The jukebox is awesome, the backyard is cute, and the lighting is suitably low.

George Bang Bang is the kind of place you end up at when dinner in Koreatown runs late and somebody says, “Wanna see something cool?” You enter through a disguised wall at the back of the unassuming (and excellent in its own right) Okdongsik. Then everything changes. The place is shadowy, moody, stylized—it’s all very intentional. There’s a long, low bar, red-lit shelving, lots of dark wood, and oil lamps. You’ll want to take a photo, but somehow the place is so cool that pulling out your phone feels gauche. It’s not a shouting bar; it’s too composed for that. The bartenders take their work seriously and the product shows.  The menu is movie-titled and ingredient-forward, with a sweet-and-botanical streak: mezcal and Korean pear shrub in the Old Boy; gin brightened with pineapple, beet, cucumber, and lemon in Emma’s Wife; fig-infused mezcal with pandan and Campari in Juliet of the Spirits. There are many Japanese bottles of whiskey if you’re into that. And if you want food, there are snacks: honey butter chips, tater tots, shumai, skewers, and pan con tomate. As an after-dinner destination to unwind, it’s perfect: plush, attentive, and specific about what it’s serving, right down to the last aromatic garnish.

The Woo Woo is an adults-only speakeasy close enough to Times Square that any New Yorker will get the ick. But if you can get over yourself, you ring a doorbell, speak the password (which you can find on their site), and then you’re almost there. You first have to pass through the shop, which is, to be clear, a sex shop replete with sex toys. All this before anything resembling a drink happens. If you’re bashful, this place isn’t for you.  The transition is the whole gag: a graffiti-lined descent, a red curtain, some neon light and that little thrill of being a wee bit daring and naughty. It’s supposedly '80s Times Square themed. I didn’t find it to be that exactly, but I get what it’s trying to evoke, and I appreciate it. Not everything we remember fondly was actually good. The schtick here is indeed fun to inspect and will definitely garner some giggles. Once you’re actually inside the bar, things do tone down. There’s a bunch of little tables to sit at, some lounge seating, and a bar with stools that have backs. It’s low-lit and comfy, campy fun, a gaze back at the Deuce from a safe remove. Yeah, it’s whitewashing and romanticizing the shit out of a time and place. But what is history if not grist for the mill? This is what Times Square would look like in an alternate universe wherein Disney still took over but retained the existing businesses/working people and just kind of spruced it all up. The staff keep it moving with a straight face and a light touch, which is exactl

Double Chicken Please is a double act. Up front, Free Range is a straightforward LES bar. Venture deeper for The Coop–inner sanctum of cocktail invention. Here, the brief is blurring the line between food and drink. While it’s more than a gimmick, confirming that firsthand will likely require a long wait. Service is brisk up front and convivial in back. No surprise there. Actually getting into the place is the shocker–reservations for The Coop are booked solid. This reveals the true purpose of the front room: a waiting area for the back. You could do worse. Still, eager drinkers stake out a place in line well in advance of opening, so prepare yourself.  DCP’s signature is not deconstruction but transliteration; familiar foods are the cocktails, or is it vice versa? Waldorf Salad, French Toast, Thai Curry–each cocktail is equal parts technique, humor, and ingenuity. “Cold Pizza” is a tequila-based cocktail that hits tomato, basil, and bready notes with a background parmesan funk, served up. It may not work on paper, but the place’s slew of awards proves the practice. They’ve got classics, too, which are also excellent. If you’re after actual food, they serve a small but enticing menu of sandwiches and snacks in both front and back. The chicken sando is the signature, but the Bolognese Grilled Cheese is as tasty as you suspect it is.  If standard cocktailing feels stale, a trip to Double Chicken Please is invigorating. But either show up early or make peace with whiling time aw

The Long Island Bar has the outward trappings of an American diner, with a chrome-and-humming neon facade, neatly aligned booths, and Art Deco touches. At one time, it was exactly that. And it could so easily be just another new-American retrofit, adding liquor and luring influencers. Instead, it pulls off something more ambitious and harder to define: a destination bar that serves delicious comfort food, pristine cocktails, and an enviable neighborhood spirit. The ethos guiding the room’s decor isn’t subtle, but that doesn’t make it any less appealing. Leather booths and barstools and a beautiful polished-wood L-shaped bar–the vintage styling here feels earnest. This may be down to the place’s longtime status as a neighborhood favorite, even if it had once been something else entirely. Call it nostalgia, call it soul–whatever it is, the vibe is working. Behind the bar, classic cocktails reign. They’re beautifully made, clean, and exactly the way you want them. Flashiness and trendiness and novelty hold virtually no sway here; it’s all about timeless standards and sincerity. The food is similarly ambivalent to whatever’s going on in the city’s ‘hipper’ corners; the deviled eggs, burger, and fried cheese curds could be found on any greasy-spoon’s menu but are executed here with the kind of clear-eyed intention that reminds one of why they’ve become so ubiquitous.

Entering Paradise Lost is like tumbling through a portal, arriving in a bar located in Pee-wee Herman’s nightmare… in the best way. It’s an upscale psychobilly tiki lounge with well-realized design, good music, and a massive menu of well-crafted cocktails. Despite the staff’s uniform of ripped-denim vests, the bar functions much like many other upscale cocktail establishments, i.e., it doesn’t take reservations, has standing room only, and doesn't pull pints of cheap domestic beer. As such, comparison to a dive would be disingenuous, but compared to New York’s other upscale cocktail bars, the place has a decidedly punk rock attitude. The “tropical hellscape” aesthetic does, anyway. The staff are welcoming and laid-back. And the menu is well-organized with clearly labeled ingredients, allergens, and intoxication factors. Drinks are mostly rum and fruit-forward. But outside of the standard tiki classics, the menu is populated by cheeky inventions featuring out-of-the-box ingredients like the Chaos Magick, featuring rum, coffee, pineapple, and ras el hanout. This complex, fragrant, and totally novel concoction packs a punch. Many cocktails arrive smoking, aflame, or topped with kitschy toy garnishes. Commitment to camp allows the cocktailing to take big wacky swings and makes each visit feel whimsical. The food plays it much safer with tasty, if not expected, sandwiches and finger foods. Then again, Spam musubi is always welcome. Prices are in special-occasion territory and keep

There are many West Village rooms that feel too fancy, too crowded, too moody for a casual night out. Then there’s Donna–a cheery, inviting, casual worker-owned cooperative cocktail bar. A reincarnation of the Williamsburg original, this West Village location is just as accessible, confident, and charming.The bright room recalls Brazilian Neo-Concretism with its defined geometric shapes and color contrast, giving the place’s minimalism a touch of whimsy. It’s fun, tempered by class with white brick, soft pink banquettes, compact tables with just enough elbow room for a couple to lean in for intimate conversation. Music is present but calibrated to allow speaking at a normal volume, even when the place is full. The crowd skews neighborhoody with a steady trickle of industry folks buzzing around the bar. Service has the relaxed assurance and confidence you get when the people pouring are also the people with a stake. Surprise! Employee ownership and the elimination of wage slavery yield more responsive service! Whoda thunk it? Drinks are where Donna shines brightest.  For anyone who doesn’t do liquor, you’ll find a couple of draft beers and some wines by the glass/bottle. But the cocktailing here is the main draw and it is luscious; a tiki/beachy/tropical-leaning list heavy on fruit flavors but balanced with skill. If you’re looking for dessert in a cocktail, lucky you: they’ve got an entire section for it, like the keylime flip: vodka, lime, cream, cinnamon, biscotti liquor, a

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