The Top 100 Places to Drink Near dokidoki
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Rank 1. 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
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Rank 2. Maison Premiere
New Orleans-Style Cocktail Bar
A four-tap absinthe drip at the center of the bar is a replica of the one at the Absinthe House in New Orleans, and that tells you most of what you need to know. Maison Premiere is a cocktail and oyster bar in Williamsburg that commits fully to the bit: dim golden light, mock antique everything, marble bar top, the faint sense that you've wandered into another city and century. It landed on North America's 50 Best Bars list, which tracks.
- Difford's Guide 5 stars · Difford's Guide
- 50 Best #40 · North America's 50 Best Bars
- Time Out #7 · The 30 best bars in NYC right now
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Rank 3. Sauced
Natural Wine Bar
- Time Out #23 · The 30 best bars in NYC right now
- Roadbook The Best Restaurants and Bars in Williamsburg
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Rank 4. 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
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Rank 5. Echo Lake
Rum Cocktail Bar
The $12 daily daiquiri sets the tone at this Williamsburg rum bar, where the menu runs from a lager-and-rum shot combo to oysters with tepache mignonette. The couple behind it know their way around spirits, one having run the editorial side of Punch, the other having shaped Chicago's beloved tropical bar scene. A basement rum bar called Undercurrent adds another layer for anyone who shows up and doesn't want to leave.
- Eater The Best New Bars in New York City
- Eater The Best New Cocktail Bars in New York City
- Difford's Guide Difford's Guide
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Rank 6. L'industrie Pizzeria
New York-style Pizza
The line out the door on South 2nd is the most honest review you'll find. This Williamsburg slice shop has a counter, a few standing ledges, and pizza makers working in plain sight from dough to oven. The crust is thin, crisp, and taken seriously. 50 Top Pizza ranked it the top slice shop in the country, and the New York Times put it on their short list too. Order, pay, wait for your name, eat standing up. That's the whole deal.
- 50 Top Pizza #74 · 50 Top Pizza World
- 50 Top Pizza #1 · 50 Top Pizza Slice USA
- The Infatuation #19 · The 25 Best Restaurants In NYC
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Rank 7. Kinda Nice
Cocktail Bar
A Greek Salad martini built with Tomato Crop vodka and piparra brine should probably not work, and yet here we are. Kinda Nice is a Williamsburg cocktail bar from two Grand Army veterans who describe the vibe as late-night diner meets dive bar, which mostly means the drinks lean savory and strange in satisfying ways. A downstairs dive called Shenanigans is coming, if you need somewhere to spiral afterward.
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Rank 8. The Four Horsemen
Natural Wine Bar
The natural wine list here won a James Beard Award, and the Michelin star belongs to the kitchen, which tells you this Williamsburg bar is doing two things at once and doing neither halfway. The room is famously small and the wait is famously brutal, but Nick Curtola's seasonal menu follows its own logic, landing somewhere between a great wine bar snack and something you'll think about for weeks. James Murphy of LCD Soundsystem is a co-owner, which explains the playlist.
- James Beard Awards 2026 · Nominee · Outstanding Restaurant
- James Beard Awards 2022 · Winner · Outstanding Wine and Other Beverages Program
- Michelin Guide 1 Star
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Rank 9. Superbueno
Mexican Cocktail Bar
- 50 Best #12 · The World's 50 Best Bars
- 50 Best #9 · North America's 50 Best Bars
- James Beard Awards 2025 · Winner · Outstanding Professional in Cocktail Service · Ignacio "Nacho" Jimenez
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Rank 11. Double Chicken Please
Cocktail Bar
- Difford's Guide 5 stars · Difford's Guide
- 50 Best #41 · The World's 50 Best Bars
- 50 Best #35 · North America's 50 Best Bars
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- 50 Best #59 · The World's 50 Best Bars
- 50 Best #4 · North America's 50 Best Bars
- VinePair Bar Program of the Year · The Next Wave Awards
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Rank 14. dokidoki
Japanese
A standing bar modeled on the Japanese tachinomi tradition, which means you're on your feet, shoulder to shoulder, and the whole room is already talking. Low-alcohol cocktails, sake, and shochu anchor the drinks list, with classics quietly reinterpreted through Japanese and Latin ingredients. The two bartenders behind the counter bring serious cocktail-bar pedigree to a room that wears it lightly, and the small bites fold Japanese technique into Puerto Rican and Salvadoran flavors.
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There's no sign on Eldridge Street, just a faux tailor's shop window with a glowing "A" and a buzzer you'll wait at long enough to second-guess yourself. This is the cocktail bar that opened in the old Milk & Honey space after Sasha Petraske moved on, and it runs on the same no-menu, tell-us-what-you-like philosophy. North America's 50 Best Bars lists it, and the wait outside on any given night suggests people have read that list.
- Difford's Guide 5 stars · Difford's Guide
- 50 Best #72 · The World's 50 Best Bars
- 50 Best #37 · North America's 50 Best Bars
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Rank 16. Sip & Guzzle
Innovative Japanese Cocktail Bar
- 50 Best #39 · The World's 50 Best Bars
- 50 Best #1 · North America's 50 Best Bars
- Spirited Awards 2025 · Winner · Best New U.S. Cocktail Bar
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- 50 Best #3 · North America's 50 Best Bars
- Spirited Awards 2025 · Top 4 Finalist · Best New U.S. Cocktail Bar
- James Beard Awards 2026 · Semifinalist · Best New Bar
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- Esquire Candarin Orange · The Best Martinis in America
- Punch Best New Bars
- James Beard Awards 2025 · Semifinalist · Best New Bar
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Rank 21. La Superior
Mexico City-Style
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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.
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Rank 23. 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
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- 50 Best #46 · The World's 50 Best Bars
- 50 Best #33 · North America's 50 Best Bars
- Spirited Awards 2024 · Top 4 Finalist · Best U.S. Cocktail Bar
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- Time Out The Turkey Leg Sandwich · The 18 best sandwiches in the world right now
- Difford's Guide 3.5 stars · Difford's Guide
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Rank 27. 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
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Rank 29. Tigre
Seafood
- Esquire Cigarette Martini · The Best Martinis in America
- Esquire The Best Bars in America
- The Infatuation The Best Cocktail Bars in NYC
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Rank 30. 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
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Rank 31. 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
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Rank 32. Amor Y Amargo
Italian Cocktail Bar
Bitters are both the obsession and the inventory at this tiny East Village cocktail bar, which also sells an overwhelming wall of the stuff to take home. A dozen seats, a menu split between house originals and riffs on classics, and a bespoke option built around a Negroni, Manhattan, or Old-Fashioned if you'd rather just tell them what you're feeling. House-made vermouth pours on tap. A James Beard semifinalist, and the kind of place that makes you feel smarter for having gone.
- Difford's Guide 4.5 stars · Difford's Guide
- Wildsam The 50 Most Essential Bars in America
- James Beard Awards 2024 · Semifinalist · Outstanding Restaurateur · Ravi DeRossi - Overthrow Hospitality
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Rank 33. Lilia Ristorante
Italian
- AAA Four Diamonds
- James Beard Awards 2026 · Semifinalist · Outstanding Chef · Missy Robbins
- Eater The 38 Best Restaurants in New York City
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- VinePair Industry Icon of the Year · The Next Wave Awards
- Time Out #11 · The 30 best bars in NYC right now
- The Infatuation The Best Cocktail Bars in NYC
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Rank 36. Bar Goto
Japanese Cocktail Bar
The Sakura Martini, a sake-and-gin affair finished with a salted cherry blossom, is the thing people come back for at this tiny, warmly lit cocktail bar on Eldridge Street. Kenta Goto spent years at Pegu Club before opening this place, and the short menu of original drinks leans on Japanese ingredients, house infusions, and a quieter kind of precision. Small enough that nobody is a stranger for long.
- Difford's Guide 5 stars · Difford's Guide
- Esquire Sakura Martini · The Best Martinis in America
- Punch Best New Bartenders · Capucine Prager
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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.
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Rank 38. Hotel Delmano
New Orleans-Inspired Cocktail Bar
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- 50 Best #71 · North America's 50 Best Bars
- Esquire The Best Bars in America
- Esquire Cartagena · The Best Martinis in America
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- Esquire The Best Bars in America
- Spirited Awards 2024 · Top 4 Finalist · Best New U.S. Cocktail Bar
- Difford's Guide Difford's Guide
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The long wooden bar came out of a Pennsylvania mining-town dance hall and has been anchoring this Smith Street cocktail bar ever since. Victorian paneling, a tin ceiling, and a curtained parlor with a fireplace in the back make the whole room feel like someone's very well-stocked study. The cocktails are precise and the eponymous Clover Club is on the menu, naturally. The kind of place that makes Brooklyn feel older than it is.
- VinePair Industry Icon of the Year · The Next Wave Awards
- Difford's Guide 4.5 stars · Difford's Guide
- Time Out #8 · The 30 best bars in NYC right now
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Rank 43. Le Crocodile
French
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Rank 45. Katana Kitten
Japanese Cocktail Bar
- 50 Best #52 · North America's 50 Best Bars
- Spirited Awards 2024 · Top 4 Finalist · U.S. Bartender of the Year · Masa Urushido
- Time Out #18 · The 30 best bars in NYC right now
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Rank 46. Dante
Italian Cocktail Bar
- Difford's Guide 5 stars · Difford's Guide
- 50 Best #58 · North America's 50 Best Bars
- Esquire Dante Mini Martini · The Best Martinis in America
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Rank 47. Smithereens
New England Seafood
A subterranean New England seafood joint in the East Village where the menu runs heavily toward the ocean and the wine list follows suit, mostly whites chosen to keep pace with it. The New York Times named it among the city's best new restaurants, and the sommelier took a Next Wave Award. The celery root float has become something of a minor cult object, which tells you something about the kitchen's sense of humor.
- VinePair Sommelier of the Year · The Next Wave Awards · Nikita Malhotra
- The Infatuation #7 · The Top-Rated New Restaurants
- Punch Best New Bartenders · Logan Rodriguez
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- Esquire King Tusk · The Best Martinis in America
- Esquire The Best Bars in America
- Wildsam The 50 Most Essential Bars in America
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Rank 49. The Dead Rabbit
Irish Cocktail Bar
A cocktail bar in the Financial District built around the legend of John Morrissey, a bare-knuckle Irish immigrant who ran one of the city's rougher gangs in the 1800s. The menu reads like a graphic novel, each volume dropping the Rabbit into a new era of New York's murkier chapters. The drinks are theatrical without being silly, and the Irish pub downstairs keeps things grounded for anyone who just wants a pint.
- Difford's Guide 5 stars · Difford's Guide
- The Pinnacle Guide 1 Pin
- Esquire Steakhouse Martini #2 · The Best Martinis in America
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Rank 51. Milady’s
Cocktail Bar
- The Pinnacle Guide 1 Pin
- Esquire The Best Bars in America
- 50 Best Julie Reiner · Industry Icon Award
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Rank 52. Theodora
Mediterranean Seafood
Wood smoke hangs in the air the moment you walk into this Fort Greene seafood restaurant, which should tell you something about how the kitchen operates. Chef Tomer Blechman anchors the menu around dry-aged fish and open-fire cooking, pulling from a Mediterranean pantry that keeps things interesting without announcing itself. The bar draws a crowd that clearly has opinions about natural wine, and the pita alone justifies showing up early.
- VinePair Food & Beverage Program of the Year · The Next Wave Awards
- Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant
- Time Out The 45 best restaurants in NYC right now
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A fortune-teller in the window is not a gimmick so much as a promise about the evening ahead. Past the red velvet curtains, this art deco cocktail bar on Hudson Street runs to carved wood, marble floors, a tin ceiling, and an onyx fireplace, all of it suggesting you should order something serious and stay a while. It landed on North America's 50 Best Bars list, which the regulars probably already knew.
- Difford's Guide 5 stars · Difford's Guide
- 50 Best #95 · The World's 50 Best Bars
- 50 Best #45 · North America's 50 Best Bars
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Rank 54. 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.
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- Esquire The Best Bars in America
- Spirited Awards 2025 · Regional Top 10 Honoree · Best U.S. Hotel Bar – U.S. East
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- 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
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Rank 59. Eel Bar
Basque
- Esquire Wet Martini · The Best Martinis in America
- The New York Times Potato Salad With Trout Roe · Here Are Our Top New York Dishes
- Eater The Best Lower East Side Restaurants
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Rank 60. Peek Inn
Cocktail Bar
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Rank 62. Angel’s Share
Japanese Cocktail Bar
The unmarked door on the second floor of a Japanese restaurant looks exactly like where a broom lives, which is precisely the point. Angel's Share is a speakeasy-style cocktail bar with booth banquettes, bare brick, velvet curtains, and lighting set to confession-booth low. It landed on North America's 50 Best Bars list, and the room feels like it has always known that. Come early, come two, and find the door before someone else needs the mop.
- Difford's Guide 5 stars · Difford's Guide
- 50 Best #31 · North America's 50 Best Bars
- The Infatuation The Best Cocktail Bars in NYC
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Rank 64. The Hidden Pearl
Japanese Cocktail Bar
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Rank 66. Kabawa
Caribbean
Paul Carmichael grew up in Barbados, and Kabawa is his argument that Caribbean cooking belongs in any room it wants. A prix-fixe fine dining restaurant on Extra Place, it seats you at a horseshoe counter in a dark green room with mosaic tilework and a playlist sourced partly from Carmichael's cousin back home. The New York Times named it the top restaurant in New York City, and the cocktail bar next door is his too, for nights when the goat patty feels like the right move.
- 50 Best #14 · North America's 50 Best Restaurants
- Esquire Chef of the Year · Paul Carmichael
- Punch Best New Bars
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- 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
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Rank 68. Frijoleros
Mexican
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Rank 69. Eavesdrop
Japanese
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Rank 70. The Sunken Harbor Club
Tropical Cocktail Bar
- VinePair Bartender of the Year · The Next Wave Awards · Garret Richard
- Time Out #2 · The 30 best bars in NYC right now
- Spirited Awards 2024 · Regional Honoree · Best U.S. Cocktail Bar – U.S. East
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Rank 71. Lise & Vito
Natural Wine Bar
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Rank 74. 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
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Rank 75. 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.
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Rank 78. Bartolo
Spanish
Low ceilings with thick wood beams, amber light, and banquettes that make every table feel like a booth in the back of someone's private club. Bartolo is a Spanish restaurant in the West Village, the kind where you order oxtail braised in red wine and suckling pig and let the table fill up. The martini list has its own following, and the servers are sharp enough to keep a long night moving without making it feel rushed.
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Rank 79. Dante
Italian Cocktail Bar
- Esquire Dante Mini Martini · The Best Martinis in America
- Difford's Guide 4 stars · Difford's Guide
- James Beard Awards 2023 · Semifinalist · Outstanding Bar
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Rank 81. 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
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Rank 82. 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
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- The Pinnacle Guide 1 Pin
- Spirited Awards 2026 · Regional Top 10 Honoree · Best New U.S. Cocktail Bar – U.S. East
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Rank 84. Gage & Tollner
Steakhouse
Vintage mirrors, cherry wood, and brass gas chandeliers give this Downtown Brooklyn steakhouse an amber glow that makes every Tuesday feel like an occasion. The kitchen draws on the legacy of Edna Lewis, who ran it in the late eighties, so fried chicken and crab cakes share the menu with dry-aged prime beef. Dessert gets taken seriously, which a baked Alaska deserves. It has a spot on the World's Best Steak Restaurants list.
- World's 101 Best #84 · World's Best Steak Restaurants
- Esquire Turf Club · The Best Martinis in America
- James Beard Awards 2022 · Nominee · Outstanding Pastry Chef · Caroline Schiff
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- Vogue The 25 Best Restaurants in Brooklyn, According to Vogue Staff
- Spirited Awards 2026 · Regional Top 10 Honoree · Best New U.S. Cocktail Bar – U.S. East
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- VinePair Bartender of the Year · The Next Wave Awards · Patty Dennison
- Time Out #15 · The 30 best bars in NYC right now
- Difford's Guide Difford's Guide
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Rank 87. Dean's
British Dive Bar
- The Infatuation The 21 Best New Restaurants In NYC
- Eater The Best Restaurants in Soho
- Difford's Guide Difford's Guide
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Rank 88. 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
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- Esquire Eartha · The Best Martinis in America
- Time Out #5 · The 30 best bars in NYC right now
- Difford's Guide Difford's Guide
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Rank 90. 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
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Sapphire velvet banquettes and jacketed servers signal exactly what this is: a fine dining room where Angie Mar fuses classic French technique with her Chinese heritage in a Greenwich Village townhouse that glitters like a jewel box. The cooking leans rich and saucy, the way haute French is supposed to, and a tasting menu is available for those who want the full ceremony. James Beard semifinalist, 2026.
- Esquire Bemelman at the Ritz · The Best Martinis in America
- Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant
- James Beard Awards 2026 · Semifinalist · Best Chef: New York State · Angie Mar
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Pressed tin walls funnel you into a room that keeps opening up, Tardis-style, past antique mirrors and grandma lampshades, through a long bar, out to a yard. This Williamsburg neighborhood bar shape-shifts through the week: beer and shots early on, wine mid-week, cocktails by the weekend, and DJs after 10pm Thursday through Sunday when the volume climbs and the whole thing quietly becomes a nightclub without ever making a formal announcement.
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Rank 94. The Wayland
Cocktail Bar
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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
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Rank 97. Brouwerij Lane
Beer Bar
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Rank 100. NARO
Korean