The 50 best bars in NYC right now

With a year and some change under its belt, Superbueno has racked up some super good accolades. In 2024 alone, it was named one of the top bars by Food & Wine and nabbed the number two spot for the World’s Best 50 Bars North America—and for good reason. Margaritas are blackened thanks to a blend of huitlacoche and mole meets mezcal in the Mole Negroni. On top of it all, this Lower East hang is all about fun with tunes and conga lines extending well into the evening.

An NYC classic (of somewhat recent origin; Attaboy opened in the famed Milk and Honey space in 2012), this LES cocktail leader has a speakeasy vibe, a steel-brushed bar and some of the best drinks in town to top it with. 

Hovering near the top of special occasion libation destinations, Overstory is also poised among the clouds on the 64th floor of a downtown Art Deco skyscraper. Yes, special occasion is still a euphemism for spendy, and Overstory actually pays off as a ‘worth it’ splurge. Its nicely crafted cocktails are all $24, and the views from its wrap-around terrace approach priceless. 

The Central Casting ideal of Old New York, the Carlyle Hotel’s throwback grandeur is juxtaposed with Ludwig Bemelmans’ whimsical original murals here at his namesake bar. It’s as expensive as you’d expect, and the cover charge that starts at $10 after 5:30pm gets you a seat, piano tunes and the opportunity to order $28 vesper martinis, $30 Manhattans and $38 sidecars.

One of Smith Street’s finest since 2008, Clover Club has endured while other beloved restaurants and bars have come and go. This one’s both, plus it’s pretty all around, comfortable and still feels special, whether you’re a regular or coming by for the first time. Its bar’s the best seat on the block, and you’ll need one to peruse the whole novella of a cocktail menu. Or just try the Clover Club. 

Sohui Kim, Ben Schneider and St. John Frizell’s glittering Gage & Tollner revival was one of NYC’s best new restaurants of 2021, and the team followed that smashing success with Sunken Harbor Club upstairs. The permanent addition picks up where Frizell’s weekly parties of the same name left off at Fort Defiance when the Red Hook favorite relocated. Sunken Harbor Club’s new forever space has dramatic enchanted shipwreck themes and studied drink menus as deep as the sea.   

Occupying a corner spot that operated under the same name for five decades, and now ten years into its second act, Long Island Bar comes by its retro-lite ambiance honestly. Its flickering neon beckons eventual—inevitable—guests from all the way down the block, and rewards their patronage with comforting, welcoming environs and best-in-class gimlets and martinis, plus beer, wine and a full menu. It has a way of filling up fast, and the addition of outdoor seating hasn't actually eased the crowds that much. 

New York's oldest operating bar, the lights of Pete's Tavern have been on since 1864. Yes, even during the Prohibition era, the bar stayed open, hiding in plain sight as a flower shop. So bring some cash, find a wooden booth and drink in the history. 

What first began as a vintage Volkswagen minibus tour around the United States became a brick-and-mortar destination in late 2020. It’s collected a lot of honors in just a few years in operation, including the number one position on the ‘50 Best’ organization’s list of North America’s finest bars. Reservations are necessary as walk-ins can be hard to come by. Luckily the front bar, Free Range, has plenty of cocktails to whet your whistle while you wait.

Everyone has a favorite child. Dante's is clearly the negroni, evident by 12 different variations, from the traditional to tipples stirred with mezcal and Grey Goose. But before you drink through all the options, select a few small plates to keep your feet on the ground.

A canonical NYC destination, Sunny’s still feels serendipitous when you luck into it on a random, meandering afternoon. It has nautical nods, a long bar and booths up front, tables and enough room for twangy live music in the back and a side yard for alternating breaths of fresh air and the opposite of fresh air. There’s a full bar, but they’re particularly adept at making beer here. 

Milday's is back, baby! Previously a beloved dive bar by the same name that occupied this space for several decades, it's been lovingly reimagined with excellent cocktails and a lengthy menus, including one of NYC's best burgers. 

This Time Out New York Best of the City award winner first opened in Queens in 2009. The ever-popular spot still makes standout cocktails, including the bespoke creations that first put it on the map, in an environment that's relaxed a lot over the years. 

One of recent years' ubiquitous speakeasy-inspired bars, Saint Tuesday is closer to the archetype than any of the rest. Its Cortlandt Alley entrance is hard enough to find to humble even the most smug among us, and getting to the bar still feels like the Goodfellas Copa shot once you’re through the door. It's also pretty inside with vaguely old-fashioned design, there’s live music every night and the drinks are terrific. 

Grand Central Terminal itself is rather beautiful, but running its gauntlet always requires a reward. The Campbell, née, The Campbell Apartment, in the building’s southwest corner, is the closest and best place to get one. Once the massive office of the ur-rich NYC finance guy for which it’s twice named, The Campbell’s present form toasts its original leaded-glass windows, soaring hand-painted ceiling and stone fireplace with classic cocktails. This is what all those latter-day speakeasies aspire to without the goofy costuming. 

This Williamsburg mainstay beloved for its chicly distressed interior and romantic ambiance is best known for its oysters and absinthe. Sip a potent variety of the anise-forward spirit in the lush backyard.

Mace has been a regular on local and international “best of” lists since it first opened in 2015. A later move to West 8th Street gives the perennial fave a little more room for outdoor dining, in addition to a comfortable interior and 27-foot zinc bar. Sip spice and botanical-forward cocktails, or one of the best frozen drinks in town, and see how fast you’ll make Mace your own personal recommendation.

While many of the best views in NYC are free, they’re even better when they come with cocktails. Panorama Room on the 18th floor of the Graduate Roosevelt Island hotel has outstanding vistas of the NYC skyline through its walls of windows and from out on its sweeping terrace. 

Manhattan’s best dive bar in a borough where they’re ever-dwindling, Jimmy’s Corner first opened near Times Square in 1971. Today, the late famed boxer and trainer Jimmy Glenn’s iconic, memorabilia-rich spot attracts excited crowds from near and far, while maintaining its neighborhood charm with easy to swallow prices. 

The last few years brought a (re) resurgence of speakeasy concepts to NYC, and Nothing Really Matters is among the best. More incidentally hidden than many ironically more heavily branded bars of the genre, its gently obscured subway platform-adjacent location makes it feel safely ensconced from friends, foes and social media followers, even if it does have a particularly Instagram-worthy bathroom. 

This mildly maritime-esque bar’s menu is frequently updated with themes like CATS!–”not the musical” and Nicholas Cage. This season’s sips nod to Mean Girls, and some of Grand Army's greatest hits are also available. 

If you know anything about one of the world's most famous speakeasy-style bars (sip the irony), you know that it is located down a few stairs, inside Crif Dogs, and beyond a phone booth that longtime bartender and present owner Jeff Bell points out may be unrecognizable to the newest generation of drinkers. 

Visit the beautiful Bar Room in the historic Beekman Hotel for high-key romance that really wows. The soaring atrium locale is ornate from its soaring ceiling down to the bar, which is topped with martinis and all manner of other classic and creative cocktails. Tables, armchairs and large booths populate the rest of the space, should you wish to sink in a little longer. 

This three-year-old bar in Greenwich Village was once named the tenth best in the world. See what the buzz is about over highballs, carefully crafted signature cocktails, boilermakers, sake, beer and wine across Katana Kitten’s two stylish floors. Skewers and small plates are available to pair. 

Smith Street’s designation as an eating and drinking destination has ebbed and flowed over the years, but Brooklyn Social has held steady as a prime cocktail spot since 2004. It seems to have settled out of its once impossibly crowded state, but we’re always looking over our shoulder for the masses to return to its low key bar, flock around its backroom pool table and fill up its hidden patio once more. 

Sauced doesn’t have a menu, and frankly, it doesn’t need one. This natural wine bar in Williamsburg invites conversation with the bartender, your friends and even strangers who love to imbibe. All you need to do is describe the kind of wine you like (from jammy to funky) and let the bartender give you a pour in one of their many stubby wine glasses. While the wooden shellacked interior is a beaut, the string-lit patio with a sturdy tree is the place to be when the weather’s nice.

Aptly named Old Town has occupied its ever-changing neighborhood a block above Union Square since 1892.  It was possibly pushed into actual speakeasy status during prohibition, but the bar does not dine out on that confoundingly popular designation today. Instead, the large-but-easily-crowded staple’s neon sign beckons all for beer and all the other expected beverages, plus bar food. It's also one of the easiest hangouts in the retail-saturated Union Square area. 

This woman-owned brewery opened its first taproom in Williamsburg in March of 2021, and now has locations all over the city including Cobble Hill to Penn Station. In addition to refreshing, fruit-forward beer and seasonal suds, cocktails, wine, and snacks are also on the menu. Sit inside our out, grab a draft and pick up some canned beer to go when it's time to say goodnight. 

From a Carbone alum, this new Italian-American cocktail bar has certainly made an impact, earning our 2024 Best Bar Award. Cocktails feature coconut-washed gins and limoncello milk punches, next to amari, grappas and sambuca. And while a bar it may be, Bar Madonna is serious about its food. Their Smashed Meatball Sub caused quite the stir, dominating the airwaves (or internet waves?) the summer it dropped in 2024.

You don't come here for the cocktails. You come here to belt it out with the rest of New York. Standing-room-only, this underground bar is a theater kid's playground, where you can gather around the piano to sing along to Broadway hits and show tunes from yesteryear. Cheap drinks are the name of the game here, so bring some cash to whet your whistle. 

First opened in the earlier years of NYC’s great cocktail resurgence, Death & Co. is still a top pick for booze devotees who take their spirits seriously. Seating is first come, first served in its effortlessly glamorous space, so prepare to break a sweat if you’re trying to nab a spot at peak imbibing times. 

No dearly departed hares here: The Dead Rabbit has been one of NYC's most award-winning locales since it first opened in the sometimes sleepy Financial District in 2013. The place still gets packed for terrific food and drinks, including a best in class Irish coffee. 

An ideal neighborhood go-to now in its second decade, Sweet Afton must be doing something right. The beer, wine, cocktails and weekday happy hour where some of the above are priced from $5-$13 are a good start, and the roomy indoor and back patio seating areas don’t hurt, either. 

Not to be confused with similarly named establishments around town, Russian Vodka Room’s stout 52nd Street exterior opens to a long piano bar and dining room filled with vodka infusions, occasional live piano tunes and a full menu including pâté, salmon roe, caviar, schnitzel and stroganoff. It's an old favorite with a lot of character, seemingly impervious to Times Square’s chain-creep. 

For 20 years, New Yorkers have brushed past a fortune teller's lair in search of one of the city's original speakeasies: Employees Only. Find your truth among cocktails shaken by chef's coat–clad barkeeps and stick around until closing to get one of EO's most famous bites: a bowl of free chicken noodle soup. 

The team behind Dear Irving added a second outpost on the 40th and 41st floors of the Aliz Hotel in Times Square in 2019. Its high design is a little 60s-era James Bond and a little Art Deco, and -on Hudson serves some of the best cocktails in an area where venues often skate by on simply existing. 

Bartenders at this cool downstairs bar serve fantastic sips in such unlikely vessels as upturned “lightbulbs,” honey bears and even glowing approximations of lava lamps. Retro tunes and amber hues play off of wood paneling and beaded curtains inside, and there’s a dreamy, vine-lined garden out back. 

Historic Julius’ autobiographical headline is “New York’s oldest gay bar and Greenwich Village’s oldest bar.” Today, the small, iconic spot hosts parties, events and a happy hour weekdays from 5pm to 7pm. It's also known for its burgers, available in a few varieties, plus sandwiches, classic sides and bar snacks. 

New York's outpost of the famous French drinking den is so back. Tucked a level underneath La Compagnie Wine Bar, you can find well-crafted classics, rare French aperitifs and even a few non-alcoholic options among the swankiest of environments. 

Dating back to 1762, Fraunces Tavern doesn’t look a day over 261. In addition to modern conveniences like indoor plumbing, its distinct spaces serve as a one-stop-shop for a few different photo-ops: grab a beer at the main bar, sip Brenne beside the fireplace in the whiskey room or head up to the landmarked building's more recent concept, its, second floor piano bar. 

Don’t be surprised if you spend most of your time at Clemente Bar looking up. Neo-expressionist, Francisco Clemente's sultry works are all about the newest bar found up above Eleven Madison Park, behind the bar, on the walls and even on the ceiling. But Sebastian Tollius's cocktails will bring you back down to Earth. The Negroni Colada is sure to ground you, a hybrid of a pina colada and a negroni with a frozen disk of Campari that melts as the evening carries on. You can get the full experience priced at $225 per person in the studio or you can get a more casual experience (as casual as E.M.P. can get) by ordering a la carte.

One of the oldest bars in New York City, McSorley’s Old Ale House has the sawdust on the floor and dusty aged curios to prove it. The prices seem suspended in time, too: Dark or light ales are $6 per pair of half pints. Yes, you must choose from just two beers, and your one [1] order is served in two [2] mugs. Most of McSorley’s food (sandwiches, burgers, dogs) is under $10. 

The crowds that started filing into Leyenda for Best American Bartender Ivy Mix’s “pan-Latin inspired” cocktails when it first opened in 2015 have seldom slowed since then. Though it’s roomy, the Smith Street space, where candle light flickers off a tin ceiling, fills up quick for freshly shaken and draft drinks. 

As evidenced by La Noxe’s popularity, the New York City subway system sure does drive people to drink. This subterranean destination is adjacent to the 1 train in the 28th Street station. When traveling above ground, try your luck at the bell at 162 West 28th Street; you’ll need all the good fortune you can get for a shot at sampling the buzzy spot’s exclusive libations.  

A known industry haunt, this Nolita hang slings cocktails, beers and slushies no matter the weather. With a kitchen open until 3:30am, the late night crowd is properly boozed and fed with prosciutto mozzy sticks, Old Bay waffle fries and a delightfully crispy chicken sandwich. 

This exemplar cocktailer in a historic clock tower that was once a piano factory where portraits of long-ago luminaries presently line the walls sure checks a lot of boxes. Fill in the rest over Champagne Charlies, made with gin or vodka, honey, passionfruit, lemon juice and prosecco and served in a coupe. 

Pegu Club alum Kenta Goto’s polished black-and-gold venture is nicely secluded from the chaos of nearby Houston Street. Expert cocktails are joined by many Japanese whisky varieties and a brief but satisfying snack menu. 

The team behind Harlem’s popular ramen destination ROKC (where drinks quickly became the main attraction) was at it again at the end of 2019 when they opened NR on East 75th Street. Super-simply named cocktails betray their show-stealing presentation: the mezcal-based Grapefruit is literally smoking, the tequila Cucumber is served in a green bell pepper and the Pineapple + Passionfruit with rum is on fire.

One of New York’s few lesbian bars, Cubbyhole has stood in the West Village for 30 years. Inside, you’ll find a colorful tapestry, with a ceiling decked out in paper lanterns, pinwheels, toys, holiday lights—really the more you look, the more you’ll find. The bar is a comfy neighborhood hang in the early hours, but really gets going once the sun goes down.  

Harlem Hops, Harlem’s first Black-owned craft beer bar, specializes in hard-to-find beers. With a talent for surfacing delicious brews from microbreweries and locally- and POC-owned businesses, this is the spot for finding that rare bottle you’ll remember forever. The backyard is dreamy on a beautiful day, but inside, you can take a seat at the long bar to learn from the bartender about the science and magic of craft brews.