Amélie Upper West Side: $14 Wine Flights and $9 Cocktails on Amsterdam Avenue
Amélie Upper West Side runs happy hour every day from 4 to 6pm at 566 Amsterdam Avenue: $14 wine flights, $10 for the wine of the day, $9 cocktails and a short list of bistro plates from $6. On Sundays and Mondays, oysters are $1.50 all day.
The verdict: the flight is the reason to come, and the food is the reason to stay. Three pours for $14 is the same flight that costs $18 after 6pm, and you can build your own or take a house set. The happy-hour plates are real cuts off the dinner menu, not a separate bar-snack list. Chicken liver mousse is $9 against $16 at dinner, crispy artichokes $9 against $15, the warm pistachio-crusted goat cheese $9 against $12, and the hand-cut beef tartare $15 against $19. And $26 buys moules-frites with a glass of house white, when the moules-frites marinière on the dinner menu is $29 on its own.
Also at: Amélie West Village, on W 8th St, which runs its own 4–6pm menu with different prices.
The Happy Hour
Amélie’s website lists the happy hour as every day, 4 to 6pm. Flights are $14 and $18 after 6pm: build your own or pick one of six house sets, each three wines, from aromatic whites and mineral whites to orange wines, natural reds, chilled reds and light reds. The wine of the day comes in white, rosé, red or sparkling, at $10 a glass or $40 a bottle. Cocktails are $9: espresso martini, cosmopolitan, daiquiri, old fashioned, margarita and negroni. The Aperol spritz is $11.
The food: pommes-frites $6, warm pistachio-crusted goat cheese $9, chicken liver mousse $9, crispy artichokes $9, escargots $13, hand-cut beef tartare $15, and the plateau apéro of cured meats and cheese for $16. Two early-bird specials are $26 each: the dry-aged Amélie burger with a Kronenbourg 1664 draft, or moules-frites with a glass of house white. Oysters are $1.50 all day every Sunday and Monday, a separate deal from the 4–6pm menu.
The local move: come on a Sunday or Monday at 4pm. That’s the only time the $1.50 oysters and the $14 flight land on the same table. For more shellfish deals, see our oyster happy hours in NYC.
The Room
Amélie opened here in late 2017, in the old B. Cafe space, and calls itself a bistro with the heart of a wine bar. The bar is small; the restaurant’s own line is that it fills up by six. There are sidewalk tables for the happy hour, and co-owner Olivier Filograsso is a certified sommelier, so the by-the-glass list runs deep enough that a flight is a cheap way to find a bottle you’d actually order. Lunch runs Tuesday to Friday, noon to 3pm, and brunch Saturday and Sunday, 11am to 3pm. The 1 at 86th Street is the closest train.
More windows nearby are in our Upper West Side happy hour guide, and more pours in our best wine bars in NYC.
Who Amélie Upper West Side Is For
| Occasion | Why It Works |
|---|---|
| Learning what you like in wine | $14 three-wine flights, 4–6pm daily |
| Oysters on a Sunday or Monday | $1.50 apiece, all day |
| An early dinner for two | $26 burger and a beer, or moules-frites and a glass of wine |
| Weekend brunch | Saturday and Sunday, 11am–3pm |