The 20 very best happy hours and cheap deals in NYC

What is it: A Brooklyn institution with excellent food and drink, somewhere between old world class and today’s cutting edge. This is a classy joint but not a stuffy one. Refined but not fancy. Deliberate but not precious.

Why we like it: Exceptional cocktailing and understated but delicious food served in handsome environs.

Address: 210 Smith St. Brooklyn

Hours: Monday – Friday, 4pm - 6pm.

Deals and Details: You’ll find an abbreviated menu of their excellent cocktails for $12 per. In addition, wine drops to $10, a Brooklyn Lager costs $6, and a handful of bar snacks is available for $5. This means that you can luxuriate in a Oaxacan Witch (an invigorating concoction that includes mezcal, jalepeño and mint) and get house-made potato chips fried in duck fat–all for less than $20.

What is it: An adorable little Italian restaurant that's bright and airy, laid back and welcoming. It serves Italian, mostly Neapolitan pizza, but there’s an inviting selection of other dishes. Lots of wine is on the menu as is a few craft beers, and a handful of easy-breezy cocktails.

Why we like it: It’s a lovely place to sit back and grab a casual meal. 

Address: 1 Perry Street at Greenwich Ave, New York, NY 10014

Hours: Monday - Friday, 4-6pm

Happy Hour Deals and Details: Grab a $4 lager from the tap, a $5 Rosemary’s spritz, $6 wine, and a small but delicious $7 margherita pizza. $11 (plus tip!) for a pizza and beer is a steal.

What is it: The Times Square location of a New York mini-chain of oyster bars. Despite the location, this place exudes sophistication. This is the anti-Bubba Gump. The food is excellent. The environs are refined. The quality of the raw seafood is top-notch. Seafood prepared as it should be: simply. The food isn’t fussy, just high quality. There’s also few other non-seafood selections like steaks and burgers. They’ve got a full bar including beer and wine, so whatever you’re into. But they specialize in spritzes, negronis, and have a few signature cocktails.

Address: 127 W 43rd St.

Hours: Monday - Sunday, 4-5:30pm

Happy Hour Deals and Details: $12 buys a half a dozen oysters or littleneck clams, $11 for fried calamari, $4 for a mini fish taco, etc. Drink discounts include $12 margaritas, $9 beers, and a recommended $12 cocktail called the Pink Flamingo–gin, strawberry, and basil.

What is it: Mary’s is a relatively new bar on the Lower East Side from the same people behind Park Slope’s The Commissioner. This side of divey. Or maybe dive-esque. They’ve got xmas lights and beer pitchers and a disco ball, but everything is clean and highly presentable. The food is pub-ish: pot roast, fish and chips, tacos, burgers, et al. Draught beers can all be had in pitchers and bottles/cans can all be had in buckets. There’s wine, but the selection is limited. The bartenders are skilled and the cocktails are nice–nothing nuts or out there but it notches a few higher than vodkasodalime, for sure.

Why we like it: Mary’s does a lot of different things really well. Food, dancing, drinking–they’re working hard to cultivate a following and it shows.

Address: 146 Orchard St.

Hours: Weekdays 3-6pm; Saturday & Sunday 12-4pm

Happy Hour Deals and Details: $12 cocktails (¾ the normal price) plus $6 drafts and $10 wine. Martini Mondays is a no-brainer: Adult Happy Meals consist of a basket of fries and an icy martini for just $18 (before tip!).

This dive bar with books is one of the last great punk bars in the East Village with a phenomenal jukebox. It's punky but not kitschy. Ramshackle in the best way. The bartenders are all tattooed ladies with a heart of gold who don’t take any shit.

The drink: It’s a dive bar, so think cheap beer. There’s liquor to shoot or mix, and the bartenders will make you a cocktail if you ask (and they feel like it) but this isn’t the place for mixology.

Happy Hour Deals and Details: Absolutely insane. Monday - Friday: 5pm-8pm. Drinks are two for the price of one (per person, so don’t try sharing with a friend or you’ll get a stern warning if not the boot). The bartender will hand you a little plastic toy to use as a chit for the second drink, so don’t lose it.

What is it? This cute little bar/gastropub on the LES.

Why we like it: It’s a nice departure from the graffiti-covered, xmas-light-festooned beer/shot extravaganza that predominates in the neighborhood. They’ve got a nice back yard and a civilized atmosphere.

Address: 186 Avenue B

Hours: Monday - Friday, 5-7pm

Happy Hour Deals and Details: Unassuming though it may be, The York’s happy hour is, low-key, one of the best deals you’ll find in the city: $4 beers, $7 well drinks, and $10 natural wines, yes yes yes, but the pièce de résistance is a burger with fries and a beer for just $13

What is it: One of the best bars in Queens. Kris Moran, (set decorator most known for her work on Wes Anderson's Moonrise Kingdom) redesigned Sweet Afton. So imagine a neighborhood bar in the Wes Andersonverse. You’ll likely find a lot of people in Carhartt, creepers, and Dahmer glasses drinking here. Bar finger foods and sandwiches, but everything is better than it has any right to be. Philly steak patty melt with homemade whiz? Yesyesyes. Also, bonus points for a late night kitchen that serves until 1am 7 days a week. They’ve got a nice selection of almost everything including cocktails on tap. The house cocktails are all worth trying. We really enjoyed The Audrey #4: bourbon, amaro, and citrus–a sort of new fangled old fashioned. 

Why we like it: Everything they do, they do really well. It’s picturesque, the food is tasty, there’s plenty of excellent craft beers, the cocktailing is fun.

Address: 30-09 34th St, Astoria

Hours: Monday - Thursday, 4-7pm; Friday, 3-7pm 

Happy Hour Deals and Details: $2 off liquor from the rail, select draft beers, cocktails and wines.

What is it: A vibrant restaurant and bar with highly-curated Caribbean touches and design elements everywhere. From the menu to the decor–it’s clear that there’s a lot of love behind cultivating a tasteful, celebratory atmosphere. A lot of your favorite flavors and ingredients are here, but you’ll find them in novel preparations. Ackee and Saltfish Shumai, for example is fun and delicious with a spicy sauce. There’s some beer and wine to choose from. Cocktails are super fun here. Not Tiki, but more in that zone than others on this list. Unsurprisingly, rum features heavily. Try a floral, lip-smacking Sorrel Margarita. 

Why we like it: There’s a lot of fun to be had at Kokomo with DJs and late night dance parties and happy hour and boozy brunch. The food is also delicious. 

Address: 65 Kent Avenue, Brooklyn

Hours: Tuesday - Friday: 11am-7pm (drinks) & 5-7pm (food)

Happy Hour Deals and Details: Cocktail specials run for between $10 and $12, beer and wine for $6 and $7 respectively. If you order a drink from their “Everything Rum” menu ($17-$18) you get a free rum punch. And from 5pm-7pm you can get a tasty Jerk Chicken flatbread for $13.

What is it: A nice, pretty, Italian-ish restaurant, but it isn’t a flickering-candle-on-red-checkered-tablecloth situation. It’s light and airy with high ceilings and tall windows and a skylight. There's plenty of mid-priced wine to pair with your food. A nice selection of craft beers. Cocktails that, mirroring the food, let quality ingredients stand up for themselves. For the food, think herby whipped ricotta versus unsalted mozzarella. Italian-inspired, but light on the melty cheese and acidic sauces, focusing more on quality ingredients and simple preparations.

Why we like it: The atmosphere is a big selling point–place has a calming effect. The food and service are also excellent. This is a great place to take a date or your visiting in-laws. 

Address: 113 Franklin St, Brooklyn

Hours: Daily 4-7pm

Happy Hour Deals and Details: Specials include $10 cocktails and wine, $5 and $6 beers, and a menu of discounted food, which, considering the quality is a steal. House-made focaccia for $5, whipped ricotta+focaccia for $12, Burger+Beer for $20, and $2 oysters.

What is it? A quirky little East Village pseudo-wine bar has a happy hour that is truly bananas. It's skillful, tattooed, friendly bartenders are you’d expect from an East Village bar, but the room’s vibes are a bizarre mishmash–part wine store, part euro-discotech, part after-hours lounge. It serves wine bar fare, sort of with not a lot of cookery being done. Like the space itself, the menu is a little confused but ultimately works. Charcuterie boards, paninis, tacos, hummus, etc. There are many and varied wines, craft beers, and cocktails that don’t reinvent the wheel but iterate on the familiar, which is just fine. Ever had a watermelon mojito? Try one. 

Address: 121 St Marks Place

Hours: Daily noon-8pm.

Happy Hour Deals and Details: All drinks are buy one get one free.

What is it: A stylish little neighborhood cocktail bar with yes, beer and wine, but cocktails are more the thing. Fruit features in many house concoctions, but in memorable supporting roles. The Phoenix Down, for example–a sort of bourbon mule, shaken–is a great, less booze-forward alternative to an old fashioned. It has a small menu of small bites including oysters, toasts, and shrimp cocktail and there are stamped tin ceilings, reclaimed light fixtures, vine-like metalwork. This place has some serious art-nouveau romanticism cooking. There’s two-top booths, so it’s a great place for a date but it’s also perfect to bring yourself on an afternoon date with a book.

Why we like it: The bartenders are friendly as could be, it’s comfy, and it’s unpretentious despite being very cool.

Address: 179 Nassau Avenue, Brooklyn

Hours: Monday - Friday, 4-7pm

Happy Hour Deals and Details:  $10 hot toddies, old fashioneds, or moscow mules; $10 wine and $6 Snappy House Lager, plus $2 East Coast oysters. 

What is it: A longtime dive bar with a leopard-print pool table and cheap drinks. It's shabby-chic, secondhand-store eclectic with lots of neon and xmas lights and almost every different type of person comes here for nearly every conceivable reason. It can be a a shitshow on weekends, but...

Why we like it: It’s always there when we need it, more or less exactly as we left it. Almost everybody with an active drinking life has a story set in 169.

Address: 169 E Broadway

Hours: Daily 2-7pm

Happy Hour Deals and Details: $2 off liquor drinks (except well shots), $1 off any beer, and a tidy beer/shot combo: add a $2 well shot with the purchase of any beer.

What is it? A Caribbean spot named for the final hours of Carnival season in Trinidad and Tobago. It's celebratory vibes are infectious and they offer a fun take on the things we already love. 

Why we like it: This place is all about having a good time and the environs reflect that–it’s got some Caribbean flare but it’s not overwrought. It’s night-clubby but all the better to dance in. Also, the fruity rum cocktails are the specialty here (they have a juicer!). They go down easy but they’re not light on the booze. The Hurry Up Rum! Rum, for example, is rum, lime, mango, and raspberry. They’ve also got massive punch bowls to share for big groups.

Address: 74 Orchard St.

Hours: Monday - Friday, 5-8pm.

Happy Hour Deals and Details: Cocktails are $15, wine $10, beer $6.

What is it: A romantic wine bar that's laid-back and bohemian with exposed brick walls and ceiling beams. It’s the kind of spot you don’t have to shout in order to carry on a conversation. 

Why we like it: It’s been a backdrop for date nights, meet-cutes and boozy self-care sessions since 2006.

Address: 42 Rivington St

Hours: Daily, 5-7pm

Happy Hour Deals and Details: A healthy selection of wines including reds, whites, sparkling, and orange are available for less than $10. There’s also discounted spritzes and other assorted bevvies, including a $7 draft beer. The food special consists of a few tasty spreads and cheeses that go hand-in-glove with a glass of wine, all for less than $10

What is it: A french tapas/cocktail bar inside a narrow, 30-seat space fitted with blue-and-gold damask wallpaper and budget reproductions of famous paintings. It’s a little kitschy, sure, but it’s fun.

Why we like it: The place is truly one of a kind, the food is delicious, and oh yeah, the happy hour special is amazing.

Address: 96 Orchard St.

Hours: Monday - Friday, 5-7pm; Sunday 4-6pm

Happy Hour Deals and Details:  Select cocktails, beer, and wine are all buy-one-get-one free (per person).

What is it: Neighborhood bar that verges on divey with lots of seating. Think beer and liquor and (not great but serviceable) wine. The bartenders are game to make you whatever cocktail you want (if they feel like it), so don’t be shy but don’t expect miracles.

Why we like it: Lots of space, so great for big groups. The whole affair is no-nonsense or faffery–just a good bar with merciful prices

Address: 21 Avenue A

Hours: Monday - Friday, 3-7pm; Saturday - Sunday, 1-7pm

Happy Hour Deals and Details: Wine and well drinks are discounted by $2; select drafts are $3 or $4, and every other beer on tap goes for a buck off.

Address: 211 Avenue A, New York, NY 10009

What is it: A tiny, friendly, low-key restaurant with a seasonally rotating seafood menu. Preparations depend on the protein in question, but most are simple and let the ingredients sing. Oysters are always on the menu. 

Why we like it: Everything on the menu is delicious, they take great care in curating the seafood as well as the craft beer which is all from New York State.

Address: 95 1st Avenue

Hours: Daily, 5-7pm 

Happy Hour Deals and Details: You can get 6 hand-picked oysters and a craft beer on draft for just $12. BTW, the craft beer program is impressive. Once one keg kicks, it’s getting swapped for something else. You can tell they have a great relationship with breweries. There’s also wine.

What is it? A lowkey, easy to miss loungey bar down some stairs in Soho that has been around for a long time, faithfully serving a diverse clientele.

Why we like it: It’s casual, cool, one might even say indy-sleaze. Low ceilings, murmured conversations. There’s a ton of seating and a more intimate back room. It’s in Soho but you wouldn’t know it from the prices. And that’s before happy hour.

Address: 47 E Houston St.

Hours: Daily, 5pm-7pm

Happy Hour Deals and Details: $2-off draft beers, $6 well drinks, $6 house wines, and $3 off frozens (e.g. Frosé, Mezcal paloma, Marg).

What is it: A 1970s NYC-themed bar with go-go dancers and hamburgers.

Why we like it: There’s really nothing like it in the neighborhood. It screams fun.

Address: 1629 2nd Avenue

Hours: Daily, 5-7pm

Happy Hour Deals and Details: $6 draft beer, $10 beer/shot combo, $7 wine, $10 cocktails–all are bartenders’ choice, but at those prices just say ‘thank you’ and leave a tip. $7 gets you either a cheeseburger, wings, or pigs in a blanket. There’s a few other items, but I don’t think you need more convincing. 

What is it: A charming and casual seafood restaurant with excellent lobster rolls.

Why we like it: We haven’t tried anything that wasn’t A. incredibly fresh, B. insanely delicious. It’s also a great spot to begin a night out in Redhook.

Address: 284 Van Brunt St, Brooklyn

Hours: Monday - Friday, 4-6pm

Happy Hour Deals and Details: $1 oysters (minimum half-dozen) $5 wine and beer selections, $10 frozen Margaritas, and further deals if buying a bottle of wine or bucket of beers.