The most romantic bars in NYC

A little wine and a little spritz make for a good date night. Dim lights and a sprinkle of vinyl make for a great date night. The fact that it all goes down at Good Guy's makes it the best date night. While any visit is sure to be special, a slow start to the week with your sweetie begins with their Conserva Sundays. Settle in over two spritzes, a snack (go for the labneh) and a tin of fish for the sharing all for $75. 

The dimly lit environs at The Ten Bells encourages closeness, as you and your date will both need to lean over the candelight to peruse through tapas menu. Just getting to know each other? See if the spark is there over their daily happy hour of $1.50 oysters and $20 carafes of wine. 

Jadis is so charmingly incidentally romantic it may as well be John Cusack in any old movie except the try-hard radio-holding one. The lovely little wine bar infatuates simply by being itself, no airs or accoutrement necessary. 

Maison Premiere seems made for romance, but it also looks as effortless as a crush riding a morotcycle into the sunset. Antiquey finishes create a haunting patina among the cozy booths and banquettes, and a verdant garden feels like it's of the secret variety. What could be more enchanting? Absinthe, which they also have alongside nearly every other spirit known to the heavens. 

Trains are inherently romantic, calling to mind chance meetings and bittersweet goodbyes. The subway more or less counts, and Nothing Really Matters’ adjacency to the 1 train on the downtown-bound platform at 50th Street and Broadway, its dim lighting and just enough nooks combine to create a pretty great date place. Plus the name alone, although inspired by a Queen song, sounds like something a sexy, sexy sailor would say in a black and white French film between drags of a Gitane. 

Cocktails and jazz is the formula for romance. And The Last Word is the catalyst. Looking to get closer to that special someone? Follow this: go on Sunday night for jazz night. Find a plush booth. Lean in close and sway to the rhythmic beats. Perhaps then, their last words here will be "let's get out of here."  

The bar above fantastic restaurants Crown Shy and Saga has one of the best views in and of NYC that money can buy. Here, that amounts to $24 a cocktail. Zero-ABV drinks, wine and beer are also on the menu, reservations are a near-must and the glimpse of the city’s skyline and waterways from 64 floors up that you may or may not wish to commit to digital memory, depending on your date, are, as they say in wedding toasts and 90s-era ad campaigns, priceless. 

Ye’s has alluring ambiance for days, by way of dreamy jewel tones cast under flattering, low lights that’ll still catch the twinkle in your eye. Its gleaming bar is petite to say the least, but the rest of the room is packed (really: don’t tell too many secrets) with tables to make the evening last a little longer over a nibble or two. 

Most speakeasy-inspired, oriented or themed bars are also going to skew romantic, and Little Branch is one of the best in both categories. Its entrance could not be more apparent, but you do have to descend a staircase to get near the craft cocktails and intimate tables. 

Seduction takes many forms and Ophelia's is as vampy as they come. There's a lot going on in the highly-designed, sumptuous space (watch out for those dizzying checkered floors once you pass two cocktails!), which also has incredible NYC skyline views from its perch 26 floors above land. 

This is one of the city’s semi-secretly located spots, and one where it is legitimately a little hard to find on your first visit. See whether the search amounts to your first adventure together or simply follow our instructions and head up an exterior staircase on Cortlandt Alley near White Street. Ring the buzzer, head down a few more industrial flights and enjoy polished cocktails in the stony and seductive basement space. 

Although it has recently been overrun by youths with a penchant for senescence, Bemelmans is still an NYC classic that evokes Manhattan's mid-century zeitgeist. Order a classic martini and become intoxicated by Ludwig Bemelmans iconic murals. 

Romance? In Times Square? Trust us, it's possible. The sleek decor at this bi-level cocktail bar that takes up the 40th and 41st floors of the Aliz Hotel gives incredible views that will make you feel you (and your love) are defying gravity.