It is impossible to whittle what is arguably the world’s greatest collection of drinking establishments down to an essential six. There are nearly as many bars and restaurants here as there are residents in this city. Narrow the pool to cocktail bars only, and it’s no easier. New York has been leading the cocktail renaissance since the late 1990s, when a handful of enterprising bartenders began to think about mixing drinks the old way, employing fresh juices and forgotten spirits. This newfound knowledge progressed into a decade of speakeasy-style bars and their appropriators, places where serious bartenders lorded over intricate cocktails consumed under dim lighting and on tufted furniture. The following 10 saw this knowledge flow freely into every kind of bar, from Japanese-inspired drinking dens to maximalist mezcalerías to your trusty local. These days you’ve got to watch your step, lest you trip over a well-made Manhattan on your way home from work.
All this is to say, New York is a great place to find a good drink. As such, this list is anything but exhaustive—it, like our other guides, is intentionally spartan. It assumes a guest in our home city has a single weekend to sample New York’s current point of view on cocktails. Some are new, some anything but. Either way, no visit to the city is complete without them.
New York City
Where to drink in
With only a limited time in the city, here are the can’t-miss places to drink.