New York is the American cocktail capital and has been since the form was codified here in the late nineteenth century. The bars are the city's oldest discipline, and the most modern. The hotel rooms remember the twentieth century in a way no other American city's do.
What follows is the directory. The bars worth a seat, the restaurants worth a reservation, the hotels worth the stay.
Where We Drink
Six rooms across Manhattan and Brooklyn. East Village, Greenwich, Financial District, West Village, Bed-Stuy. The list is in the order that makes sense for a long week of drinking.
- BAR
Superbueno
East VillageA highly acclaimed, high-energy East Village Mexican-American cocktail bar that pairs sophisticated, innovative cocktails with vibrant street-market vibes. World's #5 in 2025, North America's #2, and Best Bar in Northeast US for the second year running. A casual neighborhood feel with an incredibly modern cocktail program.
Order: the Green Mango Martini with its signature chili oil droplets, paired with the Birria Grilled Cheese.
13 1st Avenue, New York, NY 10003 - BAR
Sip & Guzzle
Greenwich VillageJapanese-influenced cocktail bar in Greenwich Village from Shingo Gokan and his SG Group team. Two floors: an upstairs all-day bar and a tasting-counter program downstairs. World's #39 in 2025.
Order: the namesake Sip & Guzzle, a milk punch served in two glasses across two temperatures.
433 6th Avenue, New York, NY 10011 - BAR
Overstory
Financial DistrictOn the 64th floor of 70 Pines downtown, with a 360-degree wraparound terrace looking down on lower Manhattan. The bar program is highly technical, focused on terroir-driven ingredients like salt harvested from Fort Tilden in Queens. World's #46 in 2025.
Order: a martini and a window seat.
70 Pine Street, 64th Floor, New York, NY 10005 - BAR
The Dead Rabbit
Financial DistrictThree floors of Irish pub-meets-cocktail-room in the Financial District, World's #1 in 2016 and a permanent fixture on the global lists since opening in 2013. Tap room downstairs, parlor cocktail bar upstairs. The program from Sean Muldoon and Jack McGarry remains one of the most decorated in America.
Order: the Irish Coffee, made the way it was meant to be.
30 Water Street, New York, NY 10004 - BAR
Bar Pisellino
West VillageThe all-day Italian bar from Jody Williams and Rita Sodi (Via Carota, I Sodi) on a corner of the West Village. Espresso in the morning, Negronis at noon, the right Italian aperitivo culture imported wholesale. No reservations.
Order: a Negroni Sbagliato and a plate of olives.
52 Grove Street, New York, NY 10014 - BAR
Milly's
Bedford-Stuyvesant, BrooklynBedford-Stuyvesant cocktail bar opened June 2025 by Anthony Ramos (Hamilton, In the Heights) with longtime friend Ron Leakey, named for his mother Mildred. The beverage program is run by Lynette Marrero, Speed Rack co-founder and one of the most decorated bartenders in America. Walk-in only, salon cocktails and New American small plates in a Lindsay Cowles-wallpapered room.
Order: a salon cocktail. Whatever Marrero's team is excited about that night.
397 Greene Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11216
Where We Eat
The tables New York reserves for itself.
- RESTAURANT
Dante
Greenwich VillageThe Greenwich Village all-day Italian café-bar from Linden Pride and Naren Young, World's Best Bar 2019 and a continuing perennial on the global lists. Functions as a restaurant, a bar, and a Negroni temple at once. The food is Italian-American done seriously; the drinks are why the room is in every cocktail-history book.
79-81 MacDougal Street, New York, NY 10012 - RESTAURANT
Via Carota
West VillageHighly acclaimed, perpetually packed West Village rustic Italian tavern known for exceptional vegetable dishes, simple yet elevated cooking, and a celebrity clientele. Frequently cited as "New York's most perfect restaurant," with a warm tavern-like atmosphere that pairs structurally with Bar Pisellino across the corner. Limited reservations through Resy and lines down Grove Street most nights for walk-ins. Weekday lunch is the easier table.
51 Grove Street, New York, NY 10014
Where We Stay
Where the trip starts and ends.
- HOTEL
Hotel Chelsea
ChelseaThe 1884 redbrick on West 23rd Street, the address that wrote half of American counterculture. Mark Twain, Dylan Thomas, Bob Dylan, Patti Smith and Robert Mapplethorpe, Leonard Cohen and Janis Joplin, Sid Vicious and Nancy Spungen. Every chapter of New York's literary and musical 20th century happened in one of its rooms. Reopened 2022 after a fifteen-year renovation; El Quijote (the Spanish dining room and bar in residence since 1930) is back, and Lobby Bar pours late.
222 West 23rd Street, New York, NY 10011 - HOTEL
The Carlyle
Upper East SideThe Madison Avenue institution. Bemelmans Bar in the lobby, with Ludwig Bemelmans' painted murals from 1947, still pours the canonical New York hotel cocktail. The rooms above are dressed by Dorothy Draper and Mark Hampton and read like the Manhattan of a Whit Stillman film.
35 East 76th Street, New York, NY 10021