New York City / Martinis
Best Martini Bars
in NYC
The city average is $21.41. Here are the eight rooms where it is under $15, and the ones worth $22 anyway.
Eight martini deals run in this city — The Smith from 3pm, Roxy and Katana from 4, Emmett’s and Crane Club from 5.
- 18 verified rooms
- 8 real deals
- from $9
- city average $21.41
The best martini bars in NYC right now are Temple Bar, The Long Island Bar and Gage & Tollner for the classics, and Emmett’s on Grove if you would rather pay $9 than $21 for the same drink. Here is the number this page is built around: $21.41. That is the average price of a New York martini in 2026, from a bracket that priced thirty-two of them — with Manhattan’s floor at about $22 and Brooklyn averaging $18. So the first section is the eight rooms running a real martini deal, with exact days, times and prices, because a $9 martini and a $26 martini are frequently the same drink. After that: the classic rooms, the dirty and the variations worth crossing town for, and the espresso martinis. Every price below came off the bar’s own menu in August 2026 — and where a famous room publishes no prices at all, which several do, we say so.
The short version
- CheapestEmmett’s on Grove — $9 at the bar, Mon–Fri 5–6:30pm. Normally $21.
- Best valueRay’s in Greenpoint — burger and a martini for $20, which prices the martini at about $7.
- Widest windowThe Smith — $12 martinis weekdays 3–6pm and every night from 10pm.
- Most interestingBonnie’s MSG Martini, $19 — Shaoxing wine where the vermouth should be.
- Most expensiveBemelmans — $31–$43, plus a $20–$35 music charge from 5:30pm. Not $10, whatever you have read.
At a glance
What the martini costs and when it is cheaper. Tap a number on the map to place it.
| Bar | The martini | Days | Window | $ |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Emmett’s on Grove | $9 martini; $6 draft; $11 wine | Mon–Fri | 5–6:30pm | $$$ |
| Roxy Bar | $10 martini, $2 oysters, $5 draft | Daily | 4–6pm | $$$ |
| Lamonte | $10 martini all day; $2.50 oysters | Sun–Thu | all day | $$$ |
| Crane Club | $10 all martinis (one hour a week) | Fri | 5–6pm | $$$ |
| The Smith | $12 martinis; $20 martini + 3 oysters | Daily | 3–6pm, 10pm–close | $$$ |
| Ray’s | $20 burger + martini; $14 martinis | Sun–Tue | all day | $$$ |
| Rosevale Cocktail Room | $23 martini flight; $16 single | Sun–Thu | 7–9pm | $$$ |
| Temple Bar | Eight martinis; Salt & Pepper is the one | Daily | evenings | $$$ |
| The Long Island Bar | House martini; walk-in only | Tue–Sun | from 5pm | $$$ |
| Hawksmoor NYC | House martini, poured very cold | Daily | from 12pm | $$$ |
| Keens Steakhouse | Martini at the Pub Room bar | Daily | all day | $$$ |
| Bemelmans Bar | Martinis $31–$43 + music charge | Daily | from 5:30pm | $$$ |
| The Campbell | Spicy Dirty Martini $26 | Daily | all day | $$$ |
| Gage & Tollner | Turf Martini with a sidecar | Daily | dinner | $$$ |
| Bonnie’s | MSG Martini $19 | Daily | dinner | $$$ |
| Balthazar | Classic cocktails $22; martini $23 | Daily | all day | $$$ |
| Clover Club | Martinis $18; happy hour 4–6pm | Mon–Fri | 4–6pm | $$$ |
| Katana Kitten | Hinoki Martini $23; HH excludes it | Mon–Fri | 4–6pm | $$$ |
Map: where these 18 spots are
The deals cluster downtown and in north Brooklyn; the expensive classics are uptown and in Midtown.
Pins are numbered to match the table above – tap any pin for the detail and directions.
Where a martini is under $15
Eight verified windows, all confirmed on the bars’ own menus. More early-evening value in our best cocktail bars in NYC guide.
Emmett’s on Grove On now
The deepest martini discount in New York, and it is not close. The martini is $21 on the list and $9 during Happy Hour & a Half — a 57% cut — and you get a real choice of spirit, ALB Vodka or Letherbee Gin, not a well pour. Same window: $11 select wines, $6 draft, tavern snacks $6–$12. The honest caveat, and it is the whole plan: bar only. Sit at a table and you pay $21. It runs ninety minutes, weekdays, and this is a small room — those stools are gone by about 5:15. Turn up at 6 and you are standing or paying full price.
emmettsongrove.com · See our West Village happy hours
Roxy Bar On now
A $10 martini and $2 East Coast oysters means six oysters and a martini for $22, which in Tribeca is close to a clerical error. Vodka or gin. Also $10 wines by the glass and $5 select draft. The window runs every day of the week, weekends included, and on Mondays it runs all night rather than stopping at 6. The honest caveat is in the name: “Mini” is doing real work — this is a short pour, not a full coupe. And it is a hotel lobby bar, so expect tourists. The local move: Monday night, when the deal runs late and the room belongs to the neighbourhood again.
Lamonte On now
The longest cheap-martini window we could verify anywhere in the city: $10 in house vodka or gin, all day Sunday through Thursday, and until 7pm on Friday and Saturday. Add $2.50 oysters (six minimum, so a $15 floor) and $2.50 shrimp cocktail. The honest caveat, and it is a New York State rule they state plainly on their own page: food must be ordered alongside alcoholic drinks during happy hour, so the $10 martini is really a $25 sitting once the oyster minimum lands. Still the best sustained value in Brooklyn. 21+ after 5pm, and they publish no opening time — arrive after 5 and you are safe.
Crane Club On now
One hour a week, and in that hour every martini on the list is $10 — classic, dirty, dry, espresso, roseata, golden gibson, all the same price. They arrive as a carafe for the table rather than a single coupe, which is the right way to drink them at that price. You do not have to buy the caviar, and you should not: Classic Osetra is $158 for two ounces. The honest caveat: Fridays, 5 to 6pm, and that is it. Miss the window and you are in a Tao Group dining room paying Tao Group prices. Set an alarm, arrive at 4:55, order two.
taogroup.com · See our Chelsea happy hours
The Smith On now
Nobody else in New York runs a $12 martini seven nights a week from 10pm. Martini Hour is weekdays 3–6pm and late every single night, weekends included, at four builds: Salt + Vinegar (mignonette, amontillado, pickled onion), Dirty Blue Olive, an Italian and an Espresso. The best raw-bar value on this page: $20 gets the Salt + Vinegar plus three oysters. The honest caveat: it is a small chain, and the room is loud and bright — this is not a hushed martini bar and it is not pretending to be. But at midnight on a Sunday when everywhere good is charging $22, that is not the point.
Ray’s On now
Do the arithmetic and this is the best deal on the page. Twenty dollars buys a burger and a martini, with a genuine spirit choice of Ford’s Gin or Absolut. The burger alone is $13 on the regular menu, which puts the martini at about $7. Martinis are $14 on their own in the window, house cocktails also $14, $5 High Life, $10 High Life and a shot. All day Sunday, Monday and Tuesday; Wednesday to Saturday it runs until 8pm. The honest caveat: they publish no opening time for the Greenpoint room, so “all day” has no verified start — after 5pm you are safe.
raysbarnyc.com · See our Greenpoint happy hours
Rosevale Cocktail Room On now
The only verified martini deal in this city that starts in the evening rather than ending there: 7 to 9pm, Sunday through Thursday, which makes it the rare post-dinner option. Take the flight, not the single. A single is $16 — not cheap for a happy hour — but three for $23 works out at about $7.67 a glass and is the actual deal. Live jazz Thursday through Sunday, open to 2am Thursday to Saturday. The honest caveat: it is on the second floor of a Theater District hotel, so you get a pre-show rush at 7 and a near-empty room by 8:15. The empty room is the better one.
The classic martini rooms
No deals here, and no apologies for it. See also best speakeasies in NYC.
Temple Bar
Eight martinis on the list, and the one to order is the Salt & Pepper, made with Piment d’Espelette. The Dirty Bleu and the Dirty Vodka arrive with blue cheese olives and brine; the Temple House Gibson and an Olive Oil Martini round it out. Roughly seventy vodkas, shelved by country. Open-door walk-in policy, no reservation requirement published. The honest caveat: they publish no drink prices anywhere a reader can reach — the only number on the whole site is an $18 caviar bump. Budget Manhattan market rate, which in 2026 means north of $22.
The Long Island Bar
Not a straight gin martini, and that is the point: the house build runs gin, sake, white vermouth and a bergamot-and-pomelo tincture. Co-owner Toby Cecchini is the bartender credited with inventing the modern Cosmopolitan, so the deviation is deliberate rather than decorative. The room is 1950s Formica and neon, reopened in 2013 after decades as a Puerto Rican diner. The honest caveat: walk-in only, no reservations, closed Mondays — and a corner room on Atlantic Avenue fills fast. The local move: 5pm on a Tuesday, or a Sunday afternoon when it opens at 2 and you can have the bar.
Hawksmoor NYC
The bar publishes its own martini standard, and it is refreshingly free of theatre: ice cold, properly made, poured with confidence, the right glass at the right temperature. In practice that means a martini chilled to about 10°F and poured from an insulated flask, which is a genuine point of difference rather than a garnish. Variations run to lemon oil, an olive-leaf vermouth and a yogurt-washed tequila build. The local move: the kitchen splits service, closing between 3 and 5, so mid-afternoon the bar is the quiet room in Gramercy. The honest caveat: no published prices and no happy hour.
Keens Steakhouse
You are not here for a deal and there is not one. You are here because the ceiling holds roughly 50,000 clay churchwarden pipes left by members including Babe Ruth and Teddy Roosevelt, and because it has been open since 1885 and is open every day of the year except Christmas. The local move: the Pub Room bar takes walk-ins — it is the dining rooms that need booking, and those are by phone or email only. The honest caveat: Keens publishes no cocktail prices at all and runs no happy hour. Order the martini, then read the ceiling. The house bar signature is actually a balsamic Bloody Mary, if you want the local answer.
Bemelmans Bar
The ceiling of this page, in both senses. Martinis run $31 to $43 — and that is before the music charge, which Rosewood publishes at $20–$25 per person at the bar and $25–$35 at tables, varying by artist. Correcting a figure the internet keeps repeating: the widely-cited “$10 cover” is simply wrong, and the charge starts at 5:30pm when the pianist begins, not at 9pm with the jazz trio. Two martinis and one cover each puts two people past $100 before tip. The local move: go in the afternoon, before 5:30, and you can see the Bemelmans murals without paying to hear anything.
Dirty martinis and the good variations
Brine, blue cheese olives, and one made with Shaoxing wine. More rooms like these in best wine bars in NYC.
The Campbell
The clearest single illustration of what has happened to martini pricing: $26 for a vodka dirty martini, in a train station. It is a good one — Absolut with a house-made spicy olive brine — and for context on the same list the Manhattan is $24 and the Old Fashioned $23, with the full range running $10 to $28. What you are actually paying for is the room: Campbell’s own 1920s office, the original hand-painted ceiling, the leaded-glass window. The honest caveat: no happy hour at any hour, and the 6pm commuter crush is real. Worth doing once, deliberately, at 3pm on a weekday.
Gage & Tollner
One of the very few genuine sidecar services left in New York. The Turf Martini — gin, dry vermouth, maraschino, absinthe, orange twist — arrives in a frosted glass with a sidecar alongside to hold what does not fit, which is how this used to be done everywhere and now is almost nowhere. The 1879 dining room is a designated interior landmark, restored and reopened in 2021 after the space had cycled through a TGI Friday’s and an Arby’s. The local move: Sunken Harbor Club, the tiki bar upstairs, is walk-in only and 21+ after 7pm — two completely different bars, one staircase.
Bonnie’s
The most interesting martini in Brooklyn, and it is not a gimmick. The MSG Martini is $19 — Grey Goose or Bombay Sapphire Premier Cru, olive brine, Shaoxing wine and MSG — and the Shaoxing does the structural job vermouth usually does, which is why it works rather than just being funny. You pick vodka or gin at the same price. At $19 it sits below the $22 Manhattan floor and right at the Brooklyn average. The honest caveat: no happy hour, the room is small and heavily booked, and the bar is your realistic way in. Do not come expecting a classic — that is not what is on offer.
bonniesbrooklyn.com · See our Williamsburg happy hours
Balthazar
Classic cocktails, which is where a straight martini sits, are $22 flat; the Pomegranate Martini (Ketel One, Pama, Cointreau, lemon) is $23. Aperitifs run $21–$30 and spirit pours $17–$95. The local move, and it is the useful thing to know about this restaurant: the zinc bar takes walk-ins even when the dining room is booked solid. That is the reliable way into a room that otherwise requires planning. The honest caveat: $22 is the SoHo tax, there is no happy hour, and the bar is three deep by 7pm. Go at 4:30 and it is one of the best rooms in New York to drink alone in.
Espresso martinis and modern builds
The one everyone orders at 10pm, done properly. See also best coffee in NYC.
Clover Club On now
The martini section is $18 flat — the Gin Blossom with apricot eau de vie, the Gowanus Gibson with house onions, Tom’s Perfect Martini for anyone who finds modern martinis too dry. Order the Express Yourself, the espresso martini at $19: vodka, cacao rum, coffee liqueur, cold brew and cardamom, which is what stops it being a dessert. The 4–6pm weekday happy hour is unusual in that it includes a martini — the 50/50, a genuinely wet build — alongside half-price oysters, $12 wine, $6 beer and $5 snacks. The honest caveat: weekdays only, ends at 6 sharp, and the discounted cocktail price is published inconsistently — ask at the bar.
Katana Kitten
The Hinoki Martini is $23 and is barely a martini: Grey Goose and Spring 44 gin cut with fino sherry, junmai daiginjo sake and hinoki — Japanese cypress — essence. It tastes like a forest and it is very good. Read the happy hour carefully, because this is the trap: there is one, Monday to Friday 4–6pm, but the martini is not in it. The discounted list is a $12 Japerol Spritz, Lychee 3-2-1 and Bamboo Soda, plus a $15 Peach Julep and $8 snacks. Go anyway, order differently: highballs are $19.50, the katsu sando is $16, and it runs to 2am six nights a week.
NYC martinis: FAQ
How much does a martini cost in NYC?
The 2026 average is $21.41, from a bracket that priced thirty-two martinis across the city. Manhattan’s floor is about $22 and Brooklyn averages $18. The verified range on this page runs from $9 at Emmett’s on Grove during happy hour to $31-$43 at Bemelmans Bar. A $26 spicy dirty martini at The Campbell and a $9 one at Emmett’s are, functionally, the same drink.
Where can I get a cheap martini in NYC?
Eight verified deals. Emmett’s on Grove is $9 at the bar Monday to Friday 5-6:30pm. Roxy Bar, Lamonte and Crane Club all do $10 – Roxy daily 4-6pm and all night Mondays, Lamonte all day Sunday to Thursday, Crane Club only Fridays 5-6pm. The Smith is $12 weekdays 3-6pm and every night from 10pm. Ray’s in Greenpoint does a burger and a martini for $20, which works out at about $7 for the martini.
Which NYC bars serve a martini with a sidecar?
Genuine sidecar service is rarer than the internet suggests. Gage and Tollner serves the Turf Martini in a frosted glass with a sidecar alongside. Crane Club serves its martinis as a carafe for the table rather than a single coupe. Most bars advertising a sidecar are simply pouring a full glass.
Is there a cover charge at Bemelmans Bar?
There is a music charge, and it is much higher than the figure usually quoted. Rosewood publishes $20-$25 per person at the bar and $25-$35 per person at tables, varying by artist, and it begins at 5:30pm when the pianist starts – not at 9pm with the jazz trio. The widely republished ’$10 cover’ is wrong. With martinis at $31-$43, two people are past $100 before tip.
Where is the best espresso martini in NYC?
Clover Club’s Express Yourself at $19 is the one to beat – vodka, cacao rum, coffee liqueur, cold brew and cardamom, which keeps it from tasting like dessert. If price matters more, The Smith puts an espresso martini in its $12 Martini Hour, and Crane Club drops every martini including the espresso to $10 on Fridays from 5 to 6pm.
Last updated: August 2026. Prices and hours change – confirm with the venue before you go. Spot something out of date? Let us know.
