The Top 100 Places to Drink Near The Georgetown Owl Market & Cafe
-
Rank 1. La Bastide by Andrea Calstier
Modern French
A converted farmhouse in North Salem with sweeping views of actual countryside, which somehow makes the tasting menu feel earned rather than theatrical. This is a Michelin-starred modern French fine dining room with very few tables, run by a husband-and-wife team whose roots are in the south of France. The cooking is precise and quietly confident, and dessert gets its own moment to shine. Esquire named the Vesper martini among the finest in America, which is a strange fact about a farmhouse, and a good one.
-
-
Rank 3. The Lantern Inn
Pizza
-
Rank 4. Martiny’s
Japanese Cocktail Bar
- 50 Best #75 · The World's 50 Best Bars
- 50 Best #23 · North America's 50 Best Bars
- Esquire The Best Bars in America
-
Rank 5. Clemente Bar
Vegan Cocktail Bar
- 50 Best #15 · North America's 50 Best Bars
- Esquire Martini of the Year: Clemente Martini · The Best Martinis in America
- VinePair Bartender of the Year · The Next Wave Awards · Sebastian Tollius
-
Rank 6. Shinji’s
Japanese Cocktail Bar
- VinePair Bar Program of the Year · The Next Wave Awards
- The Pinnacle Guide 1 Pin
- 50 Best #77 · North America's 50 Best Bars
-
- 50 Best #71 · North America's 50 Best Bars
- Esquire The Best Bars in America
- Esquire Cartagena · The Best Martinis in America
-
Rank 8. Ai Fiori
Italian
Marble bar, leather chairs, thick linens, and windows looking straight down Fifth Avenue: Ai Fiori is a formal Italian restaurant on the second floor of the Langham Hotel that telegraphs expense account before you've ordered drinks. The kitchen leans Italian with enough invention to keep it interesting, and the room is polished enough that nobody's rushing you. Gracious service throughout lunch and dinner.
-
- Esquire King Tusk · The Best Martinis in America
- Esquire The Best Bars in America
- Wildsam The 50 Most Essential Bars in America
-
Rank 10. Bar Madonna
Italian Cocktail Bar
- 50 Best #36 · North America's 50 Best Bars
- Time Out #20 · The 30 best bars in NYC right now
- Spirited Awards 2026 · Top 10 Nominee · Best U.S. Restaurant Bar
-
- VinePair Drinks Professional of the Year · The Next Wave Awards · Meaghan Dorman
- Spirited Awards 2025 · Top 4 Finalist · Best U.S. Hotel Bar
- Time Out #26 · The 30 best bars in NYC right now
-
- Esquire 1884 Martini · The Best Martinis in America
- Esquire The Best Bars in America
- Spirited Awards 2025 · Top 10 U.S. Nominee · Best U.S. Hotel Bar
-
Rank 13. Sugar Monk
Cocktail Bar
- The Pinnacle Guide 1 Pin
- The Infatuation The Best Cocktail Bars in NYC
- Difford's Guide Difford's Guide
-
- Esquire Eartha · The Best Martinis in America
- Time Out #5 · The 30 best bars in NYC right now
- Difford's Guide Difford's Guide
-
-
-
- James Beard Awards 2023 · Semifinalist · Outstanding Bar
- Time Out #30 · The 30 best bars in NYC right now
-
- Time Out #12 · The 30 best bars in NYC right now
- Spirited Awards 2024 · Regional Honoree · Best U.S. Hotel Bar – U.S. East
-
Rank 19. Caviar Kaspia At The Mark
Russian French
-
Rank 20. Bonnie's
Modern Cantonese
Calvin Eng's Cantonese restaurant and bar sits on a nondescript east Williamsburg corner, close enough to the BQE that you'll feel the trucks. Inside, it reads like a retro Hong Kong diner, but the kitchen runs modern interpretations of regional Cantonese food, and the MSG Martini earned a spot on Esquire's national list. The Michelin Guide gives it a Bib Gourmand, and the James Beard Foundation named Eng an Emerging Chef nominee.
- Esquire MSG Martini · The Best Martinis in America
- James Beard Awards 2022 · Nominee · Emerging Chef · Calvin Eng
- Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand
-
Rank 21. Hawksmoor
British Steakhouse
- Esquire Ultimate Vodka Martini · The Best Martinis in America
- Time Out The 45 best restaurants in NYC right now
- James Beard Awards 2025 · Semifinalist · Outstanding Wine and Other Beverages Program
-
Rank 22. LenLen
Thai
A Flatiron bar tricked out like a 1970s Bangkok shophouse, with vintage televisions and family photos on the walls and Thai cocktails on the menu. The jasmine martini landed on Esquire's list of the best martinis in America, which gives you a sense of how seriously the drinks program is taken. The kitchen keeps pace with late-night Thai food that pairs naturally with the cocktails. Open late, which the neighborhood needed.
-
- The Pinnacle Guide 1 Pin
- Spirited Awards 2026 · Regional Top 10 Honoree · Best New U.S. Cocktail Bar – U.S. East
-
-
Rank 25. Keens Steakhouse
Steakhouse
The ceiling is covered in thousands of clay churchwarden pipes, each one claimed by a regular who never came back to collect it. Keens is an old-school Manhattan steakhouse in Midtown, all dark wood and white tablecloths, and the mutton chop alone has landed on the New York Times list of the city's defining dishes. The porterhouse is USDA Prime, dry-aged in-house, and broiled without apology. It sits at number 68 on the World's Best Steak Restaurants list.
- World's 101 Best #68 · World's Best Steak Restaurants
- Spirited Awards 2025 · Winner · Timeless U.S. Award
- Eater The Best Classic Restaurants in NYC
-
Rank 26. Midnight Blue
Japanese Cocktail Bar
- Spirited Awards 2025 · Top 4 Finalist · U.S. Bartender of the Year · Takuma Watanabe
- Spirited Awards 2026 · Top 10 Nominee · U.S. Bartender of the Year · Takuma Watanabe
-
Rank 27. L’Americana
Italian Coffee Shop
- Spirited Awards 2025 · Top 4 Finalist · U.S. Bartender of the Year · Takuma Watanabe
- Spirited Awards 2026 · Top 10 Nominee · U.S. Bartender of the Year · Takuma Watanabe
- Difford's Guide Difford's Guide
-
Rank 28. NARO
Korean
-
Rank 29. Oiji Mi
Modern Korean
A five-course prix fixe of modern Korean cooking in a sleek Flatiron room where the staff outnumbers the guests by a comfortable margin. The chef takes a restrained approach to bold flavors, which sounds like a contradiction until you're eating it. The cocktail program is sharp enough to earn its own following. Michelin awarded it a star, and the James Beard Foundation named the chef a 2025 semifinalist for Best Chef: New York State.
- Michelin Guide 1 Star
- Esquire Martini Royale · The Best Martinis in America
- Esquire The Best New Restaurants in America
-
Rank 30. Bar Americano
Spanish/Northern Italian Wine Bar
- The Infatuation The Best Bars In Greenpoint
- Spirited Awards 2025 · Regional Top 10 Honoree · Best U.S. Cocktail Bar – U.S. East
- Difford's Guide Difford's Guide
-
You ring an unmarked bell on an unmarked door below street level, and that's the whole game announced before you've ordered a drink. Inside, this cocktail bar in Chelsea is all deep armchairs, shaded lamps, a fireplace, and curtained alcoves fitted with a buzzer to summon your server when you're ready. It's a speakeasy setup done without irony, and the room is quiet enough that people actually talk to each other.
- Difford's Guide 4.5 stars · Difford's Guide
- Spirited Awards 2026 · Top 10 Nominee · Best U.S. Hotel Bar
- Spirited Awards 2024 · Top 10 Nominee · Best U.S. Hotel Bar
-
Rank 32. Hellbender
Mexican
- Esquire The Best New Restaurants in America
- The New York Times #58 · The 100 Best Restaurants in New York City
- The New York Times The Best New Restaurants in New York
-
- Spirited Awards 2024 · Top 10 Nominee · Best U.S. Hotel Bar
- Spirited Awards 2026 · Regional Top 10 Honoree · Best U.S. Hotel Bar – U.S. East
- Spirited Awards 2025 · Regional Top 10 Honoree · Best U.S. Hotel Bar – U.S. East
-
Rank 34. Analogue (West Village, NYC)
Cocktail Bar
-
Rank 35. P.J. Clarke's
American
The low-slung 19th-century building gets swallowed by Midtown towers on all sides, which somehow makes it feel more defiant. P.J. Clarke's is an old-school Manhattan pub, dark-paneled and unhurried, with a worn mahogany bar, a zinc oyster counter, and photos of former barkeeps watching over things. Nothing much has changed since the gaslight era, and the crowd at the rail seems to prefer it that way.
-
Rank 36. COQODAQ
Korean
The hand-washing station at the entrance stocks Loewe soap, which tells you most of what you need to know about this Korean fried chicken restaurant. Club music bounces off vaulted ceilings while you work through a bucket of gluten-free fried chicken with consommé, banchan, and frozen yogurt soft serve to finish. Champagne is the obvious pairing, and caviar-topped nuggets are available for anyone who finds the baseline insufficiently absurd. It holds a Michelin Bib Gourmand.
- Condé Nast Traveler The best new restaurants in the world
- Wine Enthusiast Forward 50 Restaurants
- Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand
-
A Maxfield Parrish mural of Old King Cole anchors this small, high-ceilinged hotel cocktail bar inside the St. Regis, and it's been staring down the room since the Golden Age of illustration. The bar's other claim to history is the Bloody Mary, which Fernand Petiot is said to have perfected here. The menu still leans into that, which is either heritage or a hint. Either way, the room is beautiful and the drinks are stiff.
-
-
-
Rank 40. Apotheke
Cocktail Bar
Apotheke sits on Doyers Street, the crooked Chinatown alley once nicknamed Bloody Angle for the tong wars fought there, behind a red awning that still reads "Gold Flower Restaurant." Inside, the former opium den has gone full Victorian apothecary, all candlelight and curios, with a five-ton marble bar where the bartenders play doctor. The cocktails lean medicinal and elaborate, which suits the room perfectly.
-
Rank 41. Frijoleros
Mexican
-
-
Rank 43. Peek Inn
Cocktail Bar
-
Rank 44. Stone & Soil
Japanese
-
Rank 45. Little Ned
Cocktail Bar
-
Rank 46. NoMad
Cocktail Bar
-
Rank 47. Bodega Nights
Iberian Cocktail Bar
-
-
-
The cocktail bar on the second floor of the landmark Metropolitan Life building, where the ceilings are tall enough to make you feel like you should order something serious. The drinks program travels with the restaurant group globally, which keeps the bar from feeling like an afterthought to the dining room below. A polished crowd in no hurry fills the seats most evenings, and the room does most of the work before the first drink arrives.
-
Rank 51. Thyme
Cocktail Bar
-
- Spirited Awards 2024 · Regional Honoree · Best U.S. Cocktail Bar – U.S. East
- Difford's Guide Difford's Guide
-
Rank 53. Seirēn
Spanish-Portuguese Cocktail Bar
-
-
Rank 55. El Quijote
Spanish
-
-
Rank 57. Flatiron Room
Cocktail Bar
-
-
-
-
-
-
A former antique shop on 33rd Street that now deals in classically built cocktails, organized on the menu by category the way a serious bar should be. This is a two-floor cocktail bar from the late Sasha Petraske's lineage, sibling to Little Branch, with communal high tables downstairs where live jazz pulls in the neighbors, and a looser, loungier room upstairs when you need to actually hear yourself think.
-
Rank 64. Borgo
Italian
Andrew Tarlow, the restaurateur who more or less invented the Brooklyn communal-table aesthetic, runs his only Manhattan outpost here on East 27th. The neighborhood trattoria seats you at long tables with a daily menu scrawled on butcher paper, and the food leans into the gamy, the bitter, and the slow-cooked, the things that take patience to understand. The New York Times placed it sixth on its 100 Best Restaurants list.
- James Beard Awards 2026 · Winner · Outstanding Professional in Beverage Service · Lee Campbell
- Esquire Wine Director of the Year · Lee Campbell
- VinePair Wine Professional of the Year · The Next Wave Awards · Lee Campbell
-
A plate-glass window in the exposed-brick wall looks straight into a working still, which tells you everything about what kind of cocktail bar this is. The Shanty is the front room of New York Distilling Company, so the gin in your glass traveled about twenty feet to get there. It sits on a quiet warehouse block in Greenpoint, easy to miss, which seems to suit the regulars just fine.
-
Rank 66. Whitehall
Modern British
Edison bulbs over factory-tiled walls and a ceiling that looks like it never quite finished being renovated: Whitehall calls itself a "gastro bar" rather than a gastropub, and the distinction holds. It's a neighborhood cocktail bar on Greenwich Avenue with a modern British menu running alongside, but people mostly come for the warm room and the staff who seem to mean it. Think London train station, interpreted loosely and affectionately.
-
-
The glowing floor stayed when the Hudson Hotel's Library Bar got its makeover, but the furniture got considerably more fashionable. This cocktail bar swings between loud dance music and live jazz depending on the night, with exposed brick, low tables, and lighting that flatters everyone equally. It's the kind of flirty hotel bar where the room does most of the work, and nobody seems to mind.
-
A gilded rat guards the door, which is the first sign you're in the right place. This cocktail bar sits beneath the Andaz 5th Avenue, easy to miss from the street if you're not looking for the discreet sign. Once down the stairs, the room opens into banquettes and long walnut communal tables where a bartender works one side while drinkers take the other three, which collapses the usual bar geography in a quietly clever way.
-
Rank 70. Porchlight
Southern
Concrete floors that look like the previous tenant's linoleum was ripped up last Tuesday set the tone at this spacious Southern-leaning cocktail bar in west Chelsea. Danny Meyer's first standalone bar leans on the spirit of Blue Smoke, which means Sazeracs and bar food with a drawl. The games room in the back suggests the intention is for you to stay a while, and the raw brick walls give you no reason to hurry.
-
-
The lobby bar you pass through on your way to somewhere else, bright and airy in that hotel-lounge way that somehow makes you stop anyway. Cocktails lean playful and a little precious, the kind with long ingredient lists and names that make you read them twice. A good spot to settle in before or after dinner upstairs, or to skip the reservation altogether and just drink somewhere that doesn't feel like it's trying too hard.
-
A red light above an unmarked door in a Chelsea coffee shop is the only signal that there's a cocktail bar behind it. Once through, the room opens into flocked wallpaper, fringed lampshades, and an antique copper bathtub sitting squarely in the middle of things, which everyone photographs and then pretends they weren't going to. The seven-seat copper bar is the calmer alternative. Dressed-up but not stiff, and a long way from the espresso machine out front.
-
-
-
-
Rank 77. Brouwerij Lane
Beer Bar
-
Rank 78. Lise & Vito
Natural Wine Bar
-
-
Rank 80. Eavesdrop
Japanese
-
Rank 81. The Hidden Pearl
Japanese Cocktail Bar
-
-
-
-
Rank 85. Le Crocodile
French
-
A small "Cocktails" neon sign is the only clue visible through the net-curtained windows of this Williamsburg cocktail bar, which occupies a former auto-parts store near McCarren Park. Inside, ornamental plates crowd the walls, tasseled fittings hang overhead, and ceramic tiles fool the eye into reading as rugs. It feels like a great-aunt's drawing room, if your great-aunt had excellent taste and kept unusual hours.
-
-
Rank 88. Lilia Ristorante
Italian
- AAA Four Diamonds
- James Beard Awards 2026 · Semifinalist · Outstanding Chef · Missy Robbins
- Eater The 38 Best Restaurants in New York City
-
Rank 89. Hotel Delmano
New Orleans-Inspired Cocktail Bar
-
-
Leather-bound journals line the shelves of this hushed, clubby cocktail bar near the UN, where wooden monkey sculptures hold the lamps and cigar smoke hangs in the air like a gentleman's agreement. The crescent booths and soft lighting give it the feel of a classic hotel sitting room that decided to serve drinks instead. Jazz plays just loud enough to cover the conversation of the business crowd unwinding after whatever it is they do.
-
Rank 92. On the Rocks
Beer Bar
A whiskey bar on 10th Avenue in Hell's Kitchen, small and sleek and stocked with over 200 bottles, ranging from everyday pours to Pappy Van Winkle at the kind of price that makes you sit up straight. There's no cocktail menu, but the staff know their classics, and the regulars mostly want a single-malt Scotch or an Old-Fashioned anyway. The beer list is longer than you'd expect for a place so clearly devoted to whiskey.
-
Rank 93. Añejo
Mexican
Sotol on the menu is a flex few New York bars can match. This Hell's Kitchen tequila and mezcal bar leans deep into Mexican spirits, with a list that runs well past the usual suspects. Sotol, distilled from the Desert Spoon plant and sometimes called tequila's northern cousin, is a rarity here, and finding it alongside a serious mezcal selection gives the drinks menu a reason to linger over it.
-
Rank 94. Forty Four
Cocktail Bar
-
A cocktail bar tucked into what used to be a private office inside Grand Central, designed to look like a 13th-century Florentine palace because its original occupant simply wanted the biggest room in New York. The vaulted ceiling and dark wood do most of the heavy lifting, so the drinks don't need to be extraordinary to make the visit feel like one. Come dressed for it; the room sets a standard and most people read the memo.
-
Ivy trellises climb the walls of the rooftop bar on the 15th floor, which is the one worth engineering your evening around. Ian Schrager, who gave the world Studio 54 and the Delano, put his stamp on this Gramercy landmark, and the result is three bars across the hotel, each with a crowd dressed like they had somewhere better to be and came here anyway.
-
Rank 97. Rye House
Cocktail Bar
-
-
-