Best Lounges
in NYC

The best lounge happy hour in the city, and it runs until 10pm. Verlaine has poured its Hanoi lychee martini on Rivington since 2001 — more than 1.5 million of them, by its own count — and its current drink menu prices it at $8 from 5 to 10pm, alongside red and rosé sangria. After 10 the same martini is $16, so the window is a straight half-price cut. The room is the other half of the pitch: 17-foot ceilings, sofas and low tables, built for sitting rather than leaning on the bar. The honest caveat: a 20% gratuity is added to every check, and the menu says so — do the math before you call it $8. Closed Mondays, and table reservations are for groups of 10 or more.

The best-dressed room in Midtown that will still sell you a $14 cocktail. Madame George is a 4,400-square-foot subterranean lounge on West 45th — parrot-green crushed-velvet ceiling panels, silk damask walls, hand-loomed Afghan rugs — with a cocktail list built on New York history at $20 a drink. The way in is the Broadway Happy Hour, 5 to 7pm: three house cocktails at $14, including a melon-forward martini, a clarified bourbon milk punch and a spiced gimlet. The local move: a 5pm drink before a show; the theaters are a few blocks west. The honest caveat: the menu doesn’t name the happy-hour days and the bar is open Monday to Saturday from 5pm, so confirm on a Saturday. Live music runs on its own schedule — check the site.

A proper whiskey lounge with live music every night, and a weekday hour that takes a third off the bill. The Murray Hill room opened in 2017 as the sister to the NoMad original, a few blocks from the Empire State Building. The happy hour runs Monday to Friday, 5 to 7pm, at the bar and lounge: $14 cocktails including the hickory-smoked old fashioned, $12 house wine, $10 for a 16oz beer, $16 for a half-dozen oysters and a $15 dram of the moment. Off the clock, the signature cocktails run $21 to $23. The local move: the $25 burger-and-beer pairing turns the hour into dinner. The same menu runs at 37 W 26th St; more bottles in our whiskey bars guide.

The cheapest way into a TAO room, and the window is three hours long. Lucky Hour runs Monday to Friday, 5 to 8pm, in the bar and lounge only — never the dining room — with $11 cocktails (the Ruby Red Dragon, a lychee martini, the TAO-tini), $9 wine, $8 beer and $9 small plates like spicy tuna on crispy rice and chili-crunch guacamole. Walk-ins are fine. The local move: the Peking chicken wing bucket at $1 a wing, seven-wing minimum — the best $7 snack in this part of Chelsea. The honest caveat: this is a scene, built for volume, and at 8pm the prices go back to TAO prices. Come early in the window and leave before the switch.

The only lounge on this list with a second happy hour at 10pm. STK sells itself as a steakhouse with a high-energy, DJ-driven lounge, and the $3 | $6 | $9 menu is the reason to treat it as a bar: $9 happy-hour cocktails and wine by the glass, $6 Modelo, $3 oysters and crab-and-corn fritters, and a $9 cheeseburger. It runs Monday to Friday 2:30 to 6:30pm and weekends 2:30 to 5:30pm, in the bar, lounge and patio only, then again from 10pm to close, Sunday to Thursday. The local move: the late window lines up with Broadway letting out, a few minutes’ walk west. The honest caveat: close is 11pm on most of those nights and midnight on Thursday, so the late hour is literally an hour.

The best-value lounge happy hour in Brooklyn, and it runs every day. Therapy has been pouring wine, cognac and cocktails on Malcolm X Boulevard since 2009, and the deal is simple: $8.25 house cocktails, $8.25 bites (lemon hummus, buffalo chicken rolls, mozzarella sticks) and a $25 bottle of the day, from noon to 7pm, in-house only. The bar opens at 4pm on weekdays and noon at the weekend, so in practice that’s three hours Monday to Friday and seven on Saturday and Sunday. The local move: go at the weekend — brunch runs noon to 4pm, and the happy hour covers all of it. The honest caveat: parties of six or more get a 20% gratuity added, and the menu warns that some prices have gone up.

The lounge every other lounge in New York is trying to be, and the dress code is in writing. Ludwig Bemelmans’ murals cover the walls, a pianist opens at 5:30pm and a jazz trio takes over from 9. The Carlyle asks guests to dress for the occasion — no hoodies, sweatpants, shorts, tank tops, baseball caps or athletic sneakers — and says it may suggest you change or come back another time. The local move: the cover starts with the 5:30 set and the bar opens at noon, so a late-afternoon martini costs only the martini. The honest caveat: no happy hour, Carlyle prices. We cover it properly in our hotel bars guide; it’s here because no list of NYC lounges is honest without it.

A velvet piano lounge off Madison that means it about the dress code. The Avra group’s room, half a block from Central Park, runs on velvet drapery, rich wood, hand-painted animal murals and Italian glass, with resident pianist Tim Young on Wednesdays and a DJ late. The posted rule is proper dinner attire — no hats, hoodies, sweatpants, jerseys, tank tops or sleeveless shirts — and management can refuse entry regardless of your reservation. Cocktails run $24 to $28. The local move: go on a Wednesday for the piano, book on Resy, and treat the first drink as the cover. The honest caveat: no happy hour and no early window; doors are 7pm Tuesday to Saturday, closing at 1am early in the week and 2am Thursday to Saturday.

The most storied lobby in New York, open to anyone until 2am. The Hotel Chelsea’s bar is the rare hotel lounge built for neighbors as much as guests, and the hotel says so. The order is the 1884 Martini — gin, cedro lemon, vetiver and Spanish olive oil — or the tribute to Arnaud’s French 75, with small plates alongside. It’s open every day from 11am to 2am, which makes it one of the best late, seated drinks on 23rd Street. The honest caveat: the hotel publishes no happy hour and no prices, so budget for hotel-bar pricing and don’t expect a deal. For the deals nearby, see our Chelsea happy hour guide.

Brooklyn’s most theatrical lounge, and it opens two nights a week. Le Boudoir sits inside Chez Moi on Atlantic Avenue, decorated after Marie Antoinette’s private chambers — the Times called it a hideaway lounge — with seasonal craft cocktails and burlesque shows at 9:30 and 11:30pm. It’s open Fridays and Saturdays from 7pm; book on Resy, and email ahead for a large group. The local move: take the early show and keep the rest of the night for the room. The honest caveat: no happy hour, and the only menu on its site is a PDF from 2024, so we’re not quoting prices. If the show is the point, our burlesque guide has the rest.

The original Chelsea gay lounge, back under its old name. G opened in late 1996, styled after a high-end hotel cocktail lounge — couches, ottomans, cocktail tables and a DJ from happy hour to close — and it became the room people brought co-workers to after work, and their parents to when they came out. Today it opens at 4pm Tuesday to Sunday and runs to midnight early in the week and 2am Thursday to Saturday, with Friday-night drag casts and ticketed events through Dice. The house dress code is no dress code: “casual but fun,” with costume suggestions on theme nights. The honest caveat: the bar doesn’t post a happy hour on its own site, so we’re not quoting one — ask at the bar.

The lounge for after the show, and after the after-show. A room dressed like a traditional Russian home — wood, artwork, chandeliers — with house-infused vodkas, live piano and jazz, and a full Russian kitchen: borscht, stroganoff with kasha, blini with red caviar. Happy hour runs every day from 4 to 7pm, as the doors open, and the bar stays open until 2am Sunday to Wednesday and 4am Thursday to Saturday. The local move: an infusion at 6 before the curtain, then back after it; Broadway is half a block away. The honest caveat: the venue posts the window, not the prices, so ask the bartender what’s included before you start a round.

Harlem’s late lounge, and the happy hour starts when the door opens. Harlem Nights sits on Adam Clayton Powell at 138th Street, with a house cocktail list that changes every few months, a sidewalk deck in summer and hours that run to 2am on weeknights and 4am at the weekend. Its own site gives the happy hour as daily, 5 to 7pm; a July 2026 uptown roundup had it running later, so ask if you arrive after 7. The honest caveat: the bar doesn’t post prices, and its site reads as if it hasn’t been touched in a while — live music was on pause the last time it was — so check before you go for a set. More uptown in our Harlem happy hour guide.

The rooftop lounge that still works in November. Twelve floors up on the Empire Hotel, across from Lincoln Center, with east and west terraces, the old Hotel Empire sign glowing overhead and indoor fireplaces that keep it open in any weather. Sunset Hour runs every weekday, 4 to 7pm, with special pricing on spritzes, cocktails, wine, beer and light bites, and rotating DJs play Friday 8:30pm to midnight and Saturday 9pm to 12:30am. The local move: a 6pm spritz before a Lincoln Center curtain, across the street. The honest caveat: the hotel doesn’t publish the Sunset Hour prices, so ask when you order.

The best view you can buy for $15 on the East Side. Ophelia runs its Social Hour at the bar, Monday to Friday, 5 to 7pm: a $15 French 75 or Manhattan, $14 select wine, $10 bites — caviar potato bites, mini lobster tacos, tuna tartare spoons — and a $30 flight of three mini cocktails. On Friday and Saturday it turns into a DJ room from 10pm, with the kitchen open until 1am. The local move: the Social Hour is bar-only, so get there at 5 for a seat. The honest caveat: $15 is the discounted price. It’s on our rooftop bars list too; here it’s the lounge pick for anyone working near the UN.

The after-work lounge with the Empire State Building in the window, and only on weekdays. The Skylark sits 30 floors above Seventh Avenue with views of the Empire State Building, Hudson Yards and Times Square, and it’s open to the public Monday to Friday from 5pm. Signature and seasonal cocktails are $22 — the fall list has a pear spritz and a pomegranate sangria — and the frozen dirty martini is $16. The honest caveat: it’s closed to the public on Saturday and Sunday, and the site says the roof deck opens when a private event takes over the main lounge, weather permitting. Still the best Midtown view for a weekday round.

The best lounge happy hour in Queens is a two-for-one, every night. Moon Bar has the main lounge on the 8th floor and the rooftop on the 9th, above Northern Boulevard, with Manhattan skyline views, signature cocktails and late-night dancing. From 5 to 8pm every evening, cocktails are buy-one-get-one. It opens at 5pm daily and runs to 1am Sunday to Thursday and 2am Friday and Saturday. The local move: bring a second person and split the BOGO. The honest caveat: it’s 21+ with a physical ID at the door, and the site doesn’t list cocktail prices, so you’re halving a number you’ll only learn at the bar.