New York City / Cocktail Bars
Best Cocktail Bars
in NYC
All thirteen New York bars on North America’s 50 Best 2026, what they actually charge, and the twelve places where a good drink is genuinely cheap.
Twelve of these twenty-eight bars run a real happy hour — most start between 3pm and 5pm.
- 28 bars verified
- 13 award winners
- martinis from $10
- 12 real happy hours
The best cocktail bars in NYC right now are Sip & Guzzle in the West Village, named No.1 in North America in April 2026, Bar Snack in the East Village, which took Best U.S. Cocktail Bar at the Spirited Awards in July, and Schmuck a few blocks away at No.4. Thirteen New York bars made North America’s 50 Best 2026 and all thirteen are on this page, in list order, with what they actually charge. Only two of them run a happy hour at all. The best-value great cocktail in the city is Dante’s $10 Negroni Sessions, 3–5pm daily, and the cheapest properly made martini is Lamonte’s at $10, all day Sunday to Thursday. We checked all twenty-eight bars against their own menus and websites the week this went up — which is how we know six things the big guides still have wrong.
The short version
- Best in the citySip & Guzzle — No.1 bar in North America, 2026. No happy hour, no published prices.
- Most decorated nowBar Snack — Best U.S. Cocktail Bar 2026. Happy hour 2–6pm Sun–Thu; they publish the window, not the prices.
- Best-value cocktailDante — $10 Negroni Sessions, eleven drinks, 3–5pm daily.
- Cheapest real martiniLamonte — $10 vodka or gin, stirred and up, all day Sun–Thu.
- Know before you goMaison Premiere’s oyster happy hour is not currently offered, whatever the listicles say. Overstory holds a $75pp minimum and Bemelmans charges $20–$35pp from 5:30pm.
The pick cheapest real martini Featured partner On now
Lamonte
557 Driggs Ave, WilliamsburgBistro room and a proper bar, five steps from the Bedford Avenue L
Every other martini in this guide starts at $16 and runs to $43 at Bemelmans before you have paid the cover. Lamonte charges $10 for house vodka or gin, stirred properly and served up with a twist or an olive — a real martini, not a well pour in a rocks glass. Bubbles are $10 alongside it, and oysters and shrimp cocktail are $2.50 apiece.
The local move: Sunday through Thursday it runs all day, so a 2pm Wednesday martini costs the same as a 7pm one. Friday and Saturday it stops at 7pm, which is the quiet hour between the post-work rush and the dinner crowd — the right time to take two seats at the bar. After 11pm on Friday and Saturday the kitchen reopens for 12-inch pies until 1am.
The honest caveat: state law means food has to be ordered with the drinks during happy hour, oysters come in sixes and shrimp in fives, and the room is 21-and-over after 5pm. Off the deal the house cocktails are $14 at brunch and $16 at dinner, with classics at $15.
Full profile on Happy Hour NYCWilliamsburg happy hour guideSee it in the full list
At a glance
Every deal below is taken from the bar’s own published menu. Not published means exactly that — we found no first-party source, so we are not printing a number.
| Bar | The deal | Days | Window | $ |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sip & Guzzle | No happy hour published | Daily | From 4pm (Sip 5pm) | $$$ |
| Bar Snack | Happy hour window published, no prices | Sun–Thu | 2–6pm | $$$ |
| Schmuck | No happy hour — venue publishes no prices at all | Tue–Sun | from 4pm | $$$ |
| Superbueno | La Buena Hora — $16.50 cocktails, $5.50 tacos | Mon–Fri | 4–7pm (Fri from 2pm) | $$$ |
| Clemente Bar | No happy hour — cocktails average about $26 | Daily | 5pm–1am | $$$ |
| Martiny’s | No happy hour published | Daily | 6pm–1am | $$$ |
| Angel’s Share | No happy hour — walk-in only, max 4, no standing | Tue–Sat | from 5pm | $$$ |
| Overstory | No happy hour — $75pp minimum on reservations | Daily | From 4pm (Mon–Wed 5pm) | $$$ |
| Double Chicken Please | No happy hour published | Tue–Sun | From 5pm | $$$ |
| Bar Madonna | No happy hour — and no published prices at all | Daily | from 5pm (3pm Sat–Sun) | $$$ |
| Attaboy | No happy hour published | Daily | 5pm–3am | $$$ |
| Maison Premiere | Oyster happy hour not currently offered — oysters $2.25–$5.50 | Daily | from noon (10am wknd) | $$$ |
| Employees Only | No happy hour — classics $21, open till 4am | Daily | 6pm–4am | $$$ |
| Lamonte | $10 martini (vodka or gin), $10 bubbles, $2.50 oysters and shrimp | Daily | All day Sun–Thu · till 7pm Fri–Sat | $$$ |
| Dante | Negroni Sessions — 11 negronis at $10 | Daily | 3–5pm | $$$ |
| Nobody Told Me | $12 cocktails, $2 oysters (4 min), $7 drafts, $10 wine | Daily | 3–6pm | $$$ |
| Roxy Bar | $10 mini martini, $2 oysters, $10 wine, $5 draft | Daily | 4–6pm (Mon all night) | $$$ |
| Katana Kitten | $12 spritz and highballs, $15 peach julep, $8 snacks | Mon–Fri | 4–6pm | $$$ |
| Bathtub Gin | Golden Hour — all 8 G&Ts $14 (from $18), $2 oysters | Sun–Thu | 5–7pm | $$$ |
| Clover Club | $15 cocktails, half-price oysters, $14 wine, $7 lager | Mon–Fri | 4–6pm | $$$ |
| Porchlight | $14 cocktails, $8 beer, $12 wine, $6–$14 bites | Daily | 3–7pm (all day Sun) | $$$ |
| Jungle Bird | Early Bird — $14 cocktails, $5 beer, $10 wine | Tue–Fri | Open till 7pm | $$$ |
| The Dead Rabbit | Shuck & Stout — $2 oysters, $8 Guinness, free Split the G pint | Mon–Fri | 3–6pm | $$$ |
| Death & Co | No happy hour published | Daily | From 6pm | $$$ |
| Bemelmans Bar | No happy hour — $20–$35pp cover from 5:30pm | Daily | From noon | $$$ |
| Sunken Harbor Club | No happy hour — walk-in only, 21+ after 7pm | Daily | From 5pm | $$$ |
| Monkey Thief | No happy hour — Den cocktails $21–$25, satay $5 | Tue–Sun | from 5pm | $$$ |
| Barlume Downstairs | No happy hour — cocktails $22–$25, dress code enforced | Tue–Sat | from 6pm | $$$ |
Map: where these 28 bars are
Manhattan below 80th, plus three in Brooklyn. Pin numbers match the table above.
Tap any pin for the deal and directions. Gold pin is our featured partner.
The 2026 award winners
All thirteen New York bars on North America’s 50 Best Bars 2026, announced 24 April, in list order — with what each one actually charges, which an award never tells you. Two of them won again at the Spirited Awards in July: Bar Snack took Best U.S. Cocktail Bar and Schmuck Best New U.S. Cocktail Bar. Only two of the thirteen run a happy hour of any kind, and one of those will not publish the prices.
Sip & Guzzle
The best cocktail bar in New York right now, by the only measure anyone outside the industry uses: in April 2026 it was named No.1 in North America. Two rooms at one address — Guzzle upstairs from 4pm, a Japanese-inflected corner bar with a Saketini and a tavern burger; Sip downstairs from 5pm, darker, tighter, more serious.
The honest caveat: there is no happy hour and there are no published cocktail prices anywhere on their site. Assume $20-plus and you’ll be about right.
The local move: reservations open ten days ahead at midnight through SevenRooms and go instantly, but they hold tables in both rooms for walk-ins, and after 10:30pm the late-night menu is walk-in only. Turn up late rather than refreshing a booking page.
sipandguzzlenyc.com West Village happy hours best wine bars in NYC
Bar Snack On now
The most decorated bar in New York right now, and it only opened in late 2024. Bar Snack took Best U.S. Cocktail Bar at the 2026 Spirited Awards in July, sits at No.3 in North America, and Time Out named it the best bar in the city back in January. The room is small and panelled in seventies wood, the bar is an L, the stools are glittery orange. The drink it is named for is the snaquiri — a daiquiri the size of a shot. The local move: the happy hour runs 2–6pm Sunday to Thursday, and it is also the only stretch of the day you will get a seat. The honest caveat: they publish the window and no prices for it. Walk-in only, no groups over six on Friday or Saturday, and after dark you are standing.
Schmuck
No.4 in North America and Best New U.S. Cocktail Bar at the 2026 Spirited Awards, from the Two Schmucks team out of Barcelona. Two rooms, two different nights out: a leather-and-steel lounge at the front that takes Resy bookings up to five, and a back room called the Kitchen Table — one communal slab styled like somebody’s kitchen at 2am, walk-in only, with its own separate cocktail list. The verdict: the back room is the reason to come, and it is the one you cannot book. The honest caveat: Schmuck publishes nothing. No address, no hours, no menu, no prices on its own site — every hour and price you will read anywhere, ours included, is second-hand. Also: the bar is @schmuck.ny. The handle its own site links is the founder’s personal account.
Superbueno On now
The ninth-best bar in North America runs an actual happy hour, which is rare at this level. La Buena Hora is Monday to Thursday 4 to 7pm and Friday from 2pm: cocktails at $16.50 — the Adobada-Bam-Bam, Fresca Tonic, Tepache Highball — tacos and tostadas at $5.50 each, esquites $5.50, a Modelito chelada $13.50.
The why: off the deal those same cocktails are $22.50 and the Mole Negroni that made the bar’s name is $22.50 too. Three hours at $16.50 in a top-ten room is the best straight discount in this guide.
The honest caveat: the deal is weekdays only — no Saturday, no Sunday, whatever the listicles tell you. And it dropped from No.2 in North America to No.9 this year, which is a fall from a height most bars never reach. It’s still No.12 in the world.
superbuenonyc.com East Village happy hours best speakeasies in NYC
Clemente Bar
No.15 in North America, and the only bar here where the art is the reason to book: three 17-foot murals Francesco Clemente painted on site, plus a fresco over the entrance stairwell, in a 38-seat lounge one floor above Eleven Madison Park. Cocktails average about $26. The Clemente Martini is fat-washed with green curry and garnished with Indian-spiced olives. The local move: roughly a fifth of the room is held back for walk-ins, so turn up at 5pm when the doors open, or after 9pm. The honest caveat: cancel a lounge booking inside 48 hours and it is $25 a head, and the lounge is 21-and-over only. The nine-seat Studio next door is not the cocktail tasting most guides still describe — see below.
Martiny’s
The best martini in New York is made here, and this year the industry said so out loud: Takuma Watanabe won US Bartender of the Year at the 2026 Spirited Awards in July. The bar is a Gramercy carriage house over two floors, No.23 in North America, and the drink to ask for is the Grand Martiny — gin, sherry, port, cognac, elderflower.
The honest caveat: they publish no menu and no prices, anywhere. Nothing on the site, nothing on the door. You are ordering blind at a top-25 bar, so budget accordingly.
The local move: Resy, with limited walk-ins, daily 6pm to 1am. And ignore their own site’s awards list — it still shows 2024 and 2025 placings and still calls Watanabe a nominee. He won.
Angel’s Share
No.31 in North America and the strictest door in this guide. The venue’s own site sets the terms in capitals: no reservations, walk-in only, no group larger than four, no standing, no split parties. When the seats go, you wait on Grove Street. The local move: be there at 5pm when it opens or write off the weekend. What you get for the trouble is a small, low-lit basement counter with the jazz sitting under the conversation instead of on top of it — one of the few rooms on this page where you can talk at a normal volume. The cherub mural, the door and the chandelier all came over from the original. The honest caveat: it is not in the East Village any more, whatever TripAdvisor still says. See below.
angelssharenyc.com Full profile West Village happy hour guide
Overstory
The view is genuinely the best on this list and the arithmetic is the worst. Overstory publishes a $75 per person food and beverage minimum on every reservation — a couple is committing to $150 before anyone has looked at a menu. There are no published cocktail prices to plan against.
Go here instead, or go smart: the minimum is written to apply to reservations, not walk-ins. Walk-ins are welcome subject to space, parties of six maximum. Turn up early on a weeknight, take two seats, order what you actually want.
What changed: Harrison Ginsberg, who ran the drinks here for eight years, left in August 2026. And the bar fell from No.6 in North America to No.33 in a single year — a 27-place drop, the steepest of any New York bar. Dress code: no tank tops, no flip flops, no athletic wear. 21-plus.
Double Chicken Please
Cocktails that taste like food and are not a novelty: the Cold Pizza at $21, Mango Sticky Rice at $20, Key Lime Pie at $22. The bar has been rebuilt into two rooms, FREE RANGE with a gamified menu and The Coop with the mid-century fit-out, so older write-ups describing a sandwich shop out front are describing a place that no longer exists.
The honest caveat: two of them. It is closed Mondays, which catches people out constantly. And a Resy booking carries a $2.50 per person fee that is not refunded if you change or cancel — the only bar on this page that charges you to reserve.
The local move: skip the booking fee. Over 70% of The Coop is first-come, with a text waitlist at peak. Put your name down, walk to The Dead Rabbit… no, walk to Allen Street, get a beer, come back.
doublechickenplease.com Lower East Side happy hours best pizza in NYC
Bar Madonna
No.36 in North America and the only bar in this guide that publishes no prices at all — the menu on its own site is a single flat image. What you get for the mystery is about a thousand square feet of loft: a KidSuper canvas over the long bar, dark green banquettes, exposed brick, candles and R&B. Opened in 2024 by bartender Eric Madonna and a former Carbone manager. Order Nonna’s Half & Half, a vodka-and-gin martini, or the clarified limoncello milk punch. The local move: Resy takes parties up to six thirty days out, but every bar and counter seat is first-come, and the venue’s own advice is to come early. The honest caveat: 50 Best files it under “New York”, which has sent people to Manhattan. It is Williamsburg, off Metropolitan.
Attaboy
No menu, no sign, no prices — you tell the bartender what you’re in the mood for and they build it. It’s the room that gave the world the Paper Plane and the Penicillin, and it re-entered the North America list at No.37 this year after a season off it.
What changed: Attaboy took no reservations for its entire life. It now publishes limited bookings on OpenTable, parties of six and under only. If you read somewhere that it’s walk-in or nothing, that’s out of date — though most seats still go first-come.
The honest caveat: open 5pm to 3am seven days, 21-plus, and they want a physical government ID — a photo on your phone won’t get you in. No happy hour, and there never will be.
Full profile attaboy.us Lower East Side happy hours best speakeasies in NYC
Maison Premiere
No.40 in North America, a James Beard Outstanding Bar Program, and the most misreported happy hour in New York. Skip the listicles: Maison Premiere’s own menus page says in capitals that the oyster happy hour is not currently offered. Guides all over the internet are still printing $1 and $1.50 oysters, and you will find out at the bar. What is actually true: oysters run $2.25 to $5.50 apiece, cocktails $21 to $24, absinthe drips $19 to $24, and the room — marble horseshoe bar, ceiling fans, a garden out back — is worth full freight. The local move: the bar opens at noon on weekdays and 10am at weekends, which is an absurd and excellent thing for a top-50 cocktail bar, and it is always walk-in.
Employees Only
No.45 in North America, twenty years old, and still one of the few serious cocktail bars in the city that will make you a proper drink at 3am — it runs 6pm to 4am, seven nights. Classics are $21, the fancier list $24, a spirit-free drink $18, half a dozen oysters $28. The honest caveat, and it catches people every week: you cannot book a bar seat here. Reservations are dining-room only, 6pm to 11pm, and their own site spells it out — every cocktail and appetiser request is seated on a walk-in basis. After 11pm the whole room goes first-come anyway. The local move: treat it as a late bar, not an after-work one. At 6:30 you are competing with dinner. At midnight you are not.
employeesonlynyc.com Full profile West Village happy hour guide
Where a great cocktail is actually cheap
Ten bars where a properly made drink costs a fraction of what the award winners charge, for a couple of hours a day. Every price and window below comes from the bar’s own menu, checked the week this went up — not from the listicles that copy each other. More by neighbourhood in our West Village guide and across the river in Williamsburg.
Lamonte On now
The cheapest real martini in New York, and it isn’t close. Ten dollars gets you house vodka or gin, stirred properly, served up with a twist or an olive — not a well pour in a rocks glass. Every other martini on this page starts at $16 and tops out at $43. Oysters and shrimp cocktail are $2.50 apiece alongside it.
The local move: go Sunday through Thursday, when the deal runs all day and you can walk in at 2pm on a Wednesday and still pay ten dollars. Friday and Saturday it stops at 7pm.
The honest caveat: New York law means food has to be ordered with the drinks during happy hour, oysters come in sixes and shrimp in fives, and after 5pm the room is 21-and-over. Off the deal, the house list is $14 at brunch and $16 at dinner, classics $15 — still under what midtown charges. Friday and Saturday after 11pm the kitchen reopens for 12-inch pies until 1am.
Book a table →
Full profile lamontenyc.com Williamsburg happy hour guide best pizza in NYC
Dante On now
The best-value great cocktail in the city, and it has been for years. Negroni Sessions runs $10 every day from 3 to 5pm and covers eleven drinks, not one: negroni on tap, Americano 2.0, Enzoni, chocolate negroni, mezcalito, negroni bianco, caffè negroni, cardinale, boulevardier, Old Pal. Two hours, any day, no catch.
The honest caveat: three things are carved out and the menu says so — the Golden Sbagliato, the Vintage Negroni and the Classic Negroni Flight all stay full price. And the deal is specific to the MacDougal Street café.
The local move: if you want the martini version, walk to Dante West Village at 551 Hudson, where Martini Hour puts seven martinis at $10 between 3 and 5pm. Same price, different drink, different address — and they don’t publish which days it runs, so call first.
Full profile dante-nyc.com Greenwich Village happy hours West Village guide
Nobody Told Me On now
The most food you get for the money on this list. Twelve dollars flat for a cocktail — Aperol spritz, white negroni, carbonated cosmo, espresso martini — plus $2 oysters, $7 drafts, $10 wine and $5 snacks, every single day from 3 to 6pm. On the Upper West Side, where the default is a $19 cocktail in a beige room.
The honest caveat: the oysters carry a four-piece minimum, so it’s $8 to start, not $2.
The local move: they open at noon Monday to Friday and 11am on weekends, so the 3pm start is genuinely early rather than a bar unlocking its doors for you. Get there at 3 on a Saturday, take the window, and you’re two drinks and a dozen oysters deep for under $40 before the room fills.
Full profile nobodytoldme.nyc Upper West Side happy hours $1 and $2 oyster happy hours
Roxy Bar On now
The most useful happy hour in Tribeca, hiding in a hotel lobby. Four to six daily gets you a Mini Roxy Martini for $10 — vodka or gin, actually a martini, just smaller — $2 East Coast oysters, $10 wine by the glass and $5 select drafts. That is a $10 martini and a half dozen oysters for $22 in a room with a live jazz program.
The local move: Mondays the specials run all night, not just the two-hour window. It’s the single best Monday in downtown Manhattan and the room is quiet enough to talk.
The honest caveat: it is a hotel bar and it looks like one at 4pm on a Tuesday. Come for the jazz sets and the calculation changes completely. Compare it with the rest of the neighborhood in our SoHo happy hour guide.
Full profile roxybarnyc.com SoHo happy hours oyster happy hours
Katana Kitten On now
A real happy hour at a bar that has no obligation to run one, and almost nobody mentions it. Monday to Friday, 4 to 6pm: $12 for the Japerol spritz, the Lychee 3-2-1 or the Bamboo soda, $15 for the peach julep, $8 for edamame, takoyaki or the mini teriyaki BLT. Off the deal, the Hinoki martini is $23 and the Toki highball $19.50, so the two-hour window is doing real work.
The verdict: the best-value hour in the West Village, in a corner room that still feels like a neighborhood bar rather than a destination.
The honest caveat: they publish no reservations policy at all — no booking page, no walk-in statement. Turn up and see. Ranked No.52 in North America this year, down from No.42, which tells you the room is less fashionable than it was and more pleasant for it.
Full profile katanakitten.com West Village happy hours NYC speakeasies
Bathtub Gin On now
The most honest happy hour menu in New York: Bathtub Gin prints the regular price next to the deal price, $18 struck through to $14, on all eight gin and tonics. Nobody else does this. Add $2 oysters, $8 goat cheese toast and $10 jamón with melon, Sunday to Thursday from 5 to 7pm.
The verdict: worth it — four dollars off a proper G&T in a room with a copper bathtub in it, and the food is priced like a bar rather than a restaurant.
The honest caveat: the deal stops on Friday, which is exactly when everyone wants it. Go Sunday. The front door is still a working coffee shop on Ninth Avenue, so if you walk past it twice that’s normal. More Chelsea options in our Chelsea happy hour guide.
Full profile bathtubginnyc.com Chelsea happy hours best speakeasies in NYC
Clover Club On now
Brooklyn’s classic cocktail bar, and the price has moved — happy hour cocktails are $15, not the $12 that half the internet still prints. Monday to Friday, 4 to 6pm: the Siesta, the Bad Apple, a Boulevardier and Smoke and Mirrors, plus $14 wine, $7 Brooklyn Lager, $5 bar snacks and half-price oysters.
The verdict: still worth it. Fifteen dollars for a drink built by Julie Reiner’s bar team, in a Victorian front room with a working fireplace, is a fair trade — and the half-price oysters are the real value on the sheet.
The local move: four of the cocktails are on the deal, not the whole menu. Ask which four before you order, sit in the front room rather than the back, and stay for late-night food on Friday and Saturday from 11pm.
Full profile cloverclubny.com Carroll Gardens happy hours oyster happy hours
Porchlight On now
Four hours, every day, and all day Sunday — the longest happy hour on this page by a distance. Fourteen dollars for a Dirty Martini, a Tommy’s Margarita, a Porn Star Martini or a Salty Dog, $8 beers, $12 wine, and bar food from $6. It’s a Danny Meyer bar, so the drinks are made properly and the service doesn’t sag at 4pm.
The local move: Sunday. The deal runs open to close, the block is empty, and you will get a seat without waiting — which is not true of anywhere else on this list.
The honest caveat: their own info page still advertises $12 cocktails and $7 beers. The happy hour menu is the current one and it says $14 and $8. Go by the menu. And 271 Eleventh Avenue is a genuinely dead stretch, so this is a destination, not a walk-past.
Full profile porchlightbar.com Chelsea happy hours Saturday happy hours
Jungle Bird On now
Tiki drinks without the theme-park treatment, at $14 during the Early Bird. Cocktails like the Severance Gimlet and Love Island Punch come down to $14, Heineken and Truly are $5 a can or $20 for a bucket of five, wine is $10 and the munchies run $5 to $12. The deal covers everything from open until 7pm.
The verdict: the best-value cocktail in Chelsea before 7, in a room full of plants that manages not to be a gimmick.
The honest caveat: their happy hour menu says Monday to Friday, but their own contact page says the bar is closed Mondays. We’ve written it as Tuesday to Friday to be safe — call before you plan a Monday around it. Three blocks from Bathtub Gin if you want to make an evening of it.
Full profile junglebirdnyc.com Chelsea happy hours best rooftop bars
The Dead Rabbit On now
Two dollar oysters and eight dollar Guinness, Monday to Friday 3 to 6pm, in the bar that spent a decade being called the best in the world. The deal is called Shuck & Stout and the oysters go by the half dozen, so it’s $12 a plate.
The local move: the same window runs Split the G — land a perfect split on your first mouthful and the next pint is free, one per person. It is the only free drink on this page.
The honest caveat: they don’t say which floor, but the arithmetic does: the upstairs Parlor is shut Mondays and doesn’t open until 5, so a Monday-to-Friday 3pm deal can only be the ground-floor Taproom. That’s the sawdust room with the long bar, not the cocktail parlor — which is fine, because at these prices you’re here for oysters and stout. See the rest of the neighborhood in our FiDi happy hour guide.
Full profile thedeadrabbit.com FiDi happy hours best Guinness in NYC
Great rooms, no trophy
Bars that won nothing in 2026 and are still worth the night — plus the two Google puts in its local pack for this search, which between them send a lot of people to the wrong address. None of these publishes a happy hour. If you want a cheaper night out, go back to the deals above or try our best dive bars guide.
Death & Co
The bar that taught a generation of American bartenders how to write a menu, and it is no longer on any ranked list — not the World’s 50 Best 2025, not North America’s top 100 for 2026. That isn’t a knock. It means the room stands on what it does rather than on a plaque, and the drinks are still excellent: $18 to $26, organized by mood rather than by spirit.
The honest caveat: three house rules people don’t expect. Doors at 6pm, so there is no early drink here. No standing room — if there’s no seat, there’s no you. And every visit is capped at two hours.
The local move: they hold most of the room for walk-ins and take parties of up to eight. Arrive at 6 on a Sunday or a Monday and you’ll get a seat; arrive at 8 on a Friday and you’ll get a wait.
Full profile deathandcompany.com East Village happy hours best speakeasies in NYC
Bemelmans Bar
The most famous bar room in New York, and the numbers being quoted about it are wrong. The cover is not $10. Rosewood publishes $20 to $25 per person at the bar and $25 to $35 at a table, depending on the performer, and it starts at 5:30pm with the pianist — not at 9 when the jazz trio comes on. Martinis run $31 for Madeline’s Vesper to $43 for the Gibson. A half dozen oysters is $42.
Worth it? Once, yes — the murals, the piano and the service are the whole point and nothing else in the city does it. Twice, only if money is not the question.
The local move: get there before 5:30 and you’re inside the room with no cover at all. That is the entire trick, and it costs nothing but going early.
Full profile rosewoodhotels.com Upper East Side happy hours all of Manhattan
Sunken Harbor Club
The best tiki bar in the city and the easiest good bar in New York to actually get into — it’s walk-in only, first-come for every seat and table, no booking page to lose. Upstairs at Gage & Tollner in Downtown Brooklyn, rum-forward, with a menu that runs In the Shallows to The Abyss depending on how the night is going.
The order: the Mai Tai at $20. If there are three or four of you, the communal bowls are the value play — $70 for the H.M.S. Albatross across three, $100 for King Pinky across four.
The honest caveat: 21-plus after 7pm, published on their own site and missed by almost every guide. Sunday to Thursday it closes at 11, so this is an early-evening bar despite the lighting. Ignore the “50 Best” badge you’ll see attached to it — that’s a directory listing, not a ranking.
Full profile sunkenharbor.club Carroll Gardens happy hours all of Brooklyn
Monkey Thief
Google’s local pack puts Monkey Thief in the top three for this search, which is how most people find it — and a fair number go to the wrong address. Go here, not where the old guides send you: it opened on West 47th in 2024, lost the room in June 2025 over a liquor licence renewal, and reopened at 754 Ninth Avenue. Anything still printing 401 W 47th St is pointing you at Same Same, the same team’s wine bar. What is here: a pan-Asian bar with a separate back room called the Den, chicken satay at $5 a skewer — the cheapest decent bar snack in this guide — and Den cocktails from $21 to $25. The honest caveat: the main bar’s cocktail menu prints no prices at all, and it is closed Mondays.
Barlume Downstairs
The third bar in Google’s local pack for this search, and the one most likely to surprise you: it is a basement club under a Flatiron restaurant, not a cocktail den. Drinks run $22 to $25, there is a $42 martini flight, and the kitchen upstairs sends down a $32 burger and a $41 dozen oysters. DJs play Wednesday through Saturday. The local move: Tuesday is the only night it opens without a DJ, and the only night you will hold a conversation. The honest caveat: there is a published dress code — no athletic wear, shorts, hoodies or heavily distressed denim — and entry is at management’s discretion. It is also not its own address: it is the downstairs room at Barlume, and it does not open until 6pm even though upstairs serves lunch.
What the other guides get wrong
We check every bar on this page against its own website and menus before we publish anything. Here is what that turned up in August 2026 — six things that are wrong on major sites right now, and what is actually true. If we are the ones who are wrong, tell us and we will fix it.
| The claim | Where it’s still published | What’s actually true |
|---|---|---|
| Maison Premiere runs a $1 oyster happy hour | Repeated across NYC roundups and aggregator listings | The venue’s own menus page states in capitals that the oyster happy hour is not currently offered. Oysters are $2.25–$5.50 each. |
| Angel’s Share is at 8 Stuyvesant St | TripAdvisor; the header of Time Out’s own page | It moved. The bar has been at 45 Grove Street in the West Village since June 2023. The Stuyvesant Street room closed in March 2022. |
| Angel’s Share pours $8 drinks | Time Out’s listing data field | Cocktails average about $23. |
| Monkey Thief is at 401 W 47th St | Guides still running their 2024 reviews | It reopened at 754 Ninth Avenue. 401 W 47th is now Same Same, a different bar from the same team. |
| Clemente Bar’s Studio is a five-course cocktail tasting | 50 Best’s own profile; Resy’s guide | The Studio is hosting chef Eiji Ichimura’s sushi omakase through the end of 2026. |
| Bar Snack opens at noon | Time Out | Its own site says 2pm, every day. |
Checked 27 August 2026 against each venue’s own website and published menus.
Best cocktail bars in NYC: FAQ
What is the best cocktail bar in NYC?
Sip & Guzzle in the West Village was named the best bar in North America in April 2026. Bar Snack in the East Village won Best U.S. Cocktail Bar at the Spirited Awards in July 2026 and was Time Out’s No.1 bar in New York in January. Neither publishes happy hour prices. If you want a great cocktail at a price you can plan around, Dante’s $10 Negroni Sessions (daily 3–5pm) and Lamonte’s $10 martini in Williamsburg are the two best-value drinks in the city.
Which NYC bars made North America’s 50 Best Bars 2026?
Thirteen: Sip & Guzzle (No.1), Bar Snack (3), Schmuck (4), Superbueno (9), Clemente Bar (15), Martiny’s (23), Angel’s Share (31), Overstory (33), Double Chicken Please (35), Bar Madonna (36), Attaboy (37), Maison Premiere (40) and Employees Only (45). Only two of the thirteen run a happy hour of any kind.
Which NYC cocktail bar has the best happy hour?
Dante in Greenwich Village. The Negroni Sessions list puts eleven negroni riffs at $10 each, daily 3–5pm. For food alongside the drinks, Nobody Told Me on the Upper West Side runs $12 cocktails and $2 oysters 3–6pm every day. Lamonte in Williamsburg has the cheapest properly made martini in the city at $10, all day Sunday to Thursday.
Where can I get a $10 cocktail in NYC?
Dante (negroni riffs, daily 3–5pm), Lamonte (martini or bubbles, all day Sun–Thu and until 7pm Fri–Sat), and Roxy Bar in Tribeca ($10 mini martini, daily 4–6pm and all night Monday). Under $10 in a serious cocktail bar has essentially disappeared in 2026.
Which NYC bar has the best martini?
It depends what you are willing to pay. Martiny’s in Gramercy, where Takuma Watanabe won US Bartender of the Year at the 2026 Spirited Awards, and Clemente Bar’s green-curry-washed Clemente Martini are the two to drink if money is not the question. Bemelmans charges $31–$43 plus a $20–$35 per-person cover from 5:30pm. Lamonte charges $10.
Do you need a reservation at NYC cocktail bars, or can you walk in?
Most of the best rooms are walk-in. Attaboy, Angel’s Share, Bar Snack and Sunken Harbor Club take no bookings at all, and Angel’s Share caps parties at four and does not allow standing. At Employees Only you cannot book a bar seat at any time — reservations there are for the dining room only, 6pm to 11pm. Schmuck, Clemente Bar, Bar Madonna and Maison Premiere take Resy but hold bar seats for walk-ins.
What are the best cocktail bars in Brooklyn?
Maison Premiere and Bar Madonna, both in Williamsburg, made North America’s 50 Best 2026 at 40 and 36. Sunken Harbor Club, upstairs at Gage & Tollner in Downtown Brooklyn, is the best rum bar in the city. For value, Clover Club in Carroll Gardens ($15 cocktails and half-price oysters, Mon–Fri 4–6pm) and Lamonte in Williamsburg ($10 martini, all day Sun–Thu).
Last updated: August 2026. Every price, window and address here was checked against the bar’s own website the week this went up. Deals change — confirm before you travel for one. Spot something out of date? Tell us.
