Lounges in New York

Amor y Amargo is the world's most important bitter-focused cocktail bar — an East Village lounge where Sother Teague explores the full spectrum of amaro, bitters, and digestifs in the most specialized and educational cocktail experience in America. Its role in launching the American amaro movement, its extraordinary collection of 500+ bitters, and its commitment to bitter-forward cocktail culture have made it one of New York's most intellectually stimulating bar experiences.

Angel's Share is New York's most elegantly Japanese cocktail bar — a hidden East Village lounge accessible only through a Japanese restaurant that has presented world-class cocktails with Japanese precision and restraint since 1994. Its extraordinary influence on the NYC cocktail scene, its beautiful minimalist design, and its rule forbidding groups of more than four (to preserve the intimate atmosphere) make it one of the most distinctive bar experiences in the United States.

Apothéke is New York's most distinctive cocktail concept — a Chinatown bar styled as a 19th-century apothecary dispensary where cocktails are created as medicinal formulas using botanicals, herbs, and rare spirits. Its location on Doyers Street (historically known as the Bloody Angle for its Chinese Tong gang associations), its extraordinary apothecary aesthetic, and its genuinely creative cocktail program make it one of Manhattan's most distinctive nightlife destinations.

Bar Goto is New York's most celebrated Japanese cocktail lounge — a Lower East Side bar where Kenta Goto creates cocktails drawing on Japanese culinary traditions and izakaya hospitality culture in the most intimate bar setting in New York. Its multiple World's 50 Best Bars appearances and its extraordinary creative vision have established it as one of the most influential Japanese-American cocktail experiences in the United States.

PDT (Please Don't Tell) is one of the world's most famous speakeasies — an East Village cocktail bar accessible only through a phone booth inside a hot dog restaurant that helped launch the American cocktail renaissance when it opened in 2007. Its extraordinary cocktail menu created by Jim Meehan, its consistently innovative programming, and its role in inspiring the global speakeasy cocktail bar movement make it one of the most historically significant bars in the world.

Pegu Club (1994–2020) was one of the world's most influential cocktail bars — a SoHo lounge founded by Audrey Saunders that helped spark the American craft cocktail revival and trained many of New York's most celebrated bartenders. Its legacy lives on in the dozens of celebrated bars and cocktail programs founded by Pegu Club alumni, making it the spiritual home of modern American cocktail culture.

Slowly Shirley is one of New York's most beloved underground cocktail lounges — a West Village basement bar presenting extraordinary cocktails with a commitment to creating the most genuinely comfortable and intimate drinking experience in Manhattan. Its combination of excellent cocktails, warm and unpretentious atmosphere, and its position as a gathering place for the West Village's bar community make it one of the most beloved neighborhood cocktail bars in New York.

The Campbell is New York's most extraordinary historic bar — a beautifully restored 1920s office in Grand Central Terminal where financier John W. Campbell once held court, now converted to a cocktail lounge presenting Prohibition-era cocktails in one of Manhattan's most architecturally magnificent spaces. Its location inside Grand Central (the world's most visited tourist attraction), its extraordinary architectural preservation, and its connection to Manhattan's Gilded Age business culture create a bar experience with no parallel in the United States.

The Dead Rabbit is one of the world's most acclaimed cocktail bars — a Financial District Irish-American pub named World's Best Bar multiple times that presents extraordinary Irish-influenced cocktails in a beautifully designed historic building steps from Wall Street. Its extraordinary cocktail menu (built around Irish whiskey and punch traditions), its beautiful Victorian graphic design, and its consistent recognition as one of the world's finest bar experiences make it New York's most celebrated destination cocktail bar.

The Wren is one of New York's most beloved neighborhood bars — a NoHo lounge that combines excellent cocktails, a sophisticated beer list, and the warm atmosphere of a genuine neighborhood gathering place on the Bowery. Its consistency, its beautiful renovation of a classic Bowery storefront, and its role as a genuine gathering place for the NoHo creative community make it one of Manhattan's most beloved bars.