Cheap Bars
in NYC

The best all-round cheap bar in Manhattan, because the deal never really stops. Every drink is half price Monday to Friday from the 2pm open until 7pm. After that there’s a different special every night until 4am — $5 drafts and $14 Bud Light pitchers on Monday, $5 well shots and drinks on Wednesday, a $10 beer-and-a-shot on Friday — and $5 Michelob Ultra, Tecate and Jell-O shots any hour it’s open. Weekends bring $5 cans and bottles from noon. The local move: Monday after 7pm, $1 wings (five minimum, dine-in only) next to a $5 draft. The honest caveat: the weekend $5 cans carry an “exclusions apply” line the menu never explains, so don’t build a Saturday around one particular beer.

Seven hours of half-price drinks with a garden attached, which on the Lower East Side is close to a public service. Monday to Friday from noon to 7pm, all drinks are half off and sliders are $3. The nights keep going: half-price beer and seltzers plus $1 wings on Monday, $5 drafts on Tuesday, half-price cans on Wednesday, $5 bottles on Thursday. Weekend afternoons are $5 drafts from noon to 7pm. The local move: come at noon on a weekday, take a table in the garden and make the $3 sliders lunch. The honest caveat: every special carries “exclusions apply” and the bar doesn’t say what’s excluded, so ask before you order the top shelf at half.

The cheapest serious drinking on the Upper East Side, and the only $3 beer on this page. The whole bar is half price Monday to Friday from the noon open until 7pm. Monday after 7 it’s $3 draft mugs and half-price pitchers; Tuesday $5 wells; Wednesday $5 drafts and well shots; Thursday $6 drafts; and Sunday runs all day and night at $4 Bud cans and $5 drafts. Thirty-two screens and a 34-foot bar, so the game is never the problem. The honest caveat: there’s no posted special after 7pm on Friday or Saturday — on a Friday, the move is to get there before seven.

The only bar in this section that runs happy hour all weekend. The Gin Mill’s specials page puts it plainly — $5 for any beer, well drink or shot from the 11:30am open until 8pm, seven days a week, with $7 top shelf on weekdays and $1 brats on weekends. That’s eight and a half hours at $5, and you never have to ask what’s included. It’s a sports tavern with TVs everywhere you look and nightly specials once the happy hour ends. The local move: Thursday after 8pm is $1 wings, and on weekdays until 3pm a $14.99 entrée comes with a draft. The honest caveat: the homepage banner still says “half price,” but the specials page lists flat prices — budget on $5, and $7 for anything top shelf.

Half off the whole bar, a block from Washington Square Park. Monday to Friday from the 2pm open until 7pm the bar is half price (exclusions apply), and $5 Michelob Ultra and Heineken Silver cans run every day, open to close. Saturday swaps the half-off for the noon–7pm SHEETSHOW: $14 domestic pitchers, $6 Espolon shots and half-price wings until 5. Twenty-four screens if there’s a game on. The local move: Off the Wagon is around the corner on MacDougal and Down the Hatch a few minutes up West 4th — three cheap bars inside a five-minute walk. The honest caveat: “exclusions apply” is the bar’s phrase, not ours, and it doesn’t say which drinks.

The only two-for-one on this page, and it’s in Astoria. Monday to Friday from 5 to 8pm, buy a drink and the second one is free — three hours, every weeknight, at a bar that bills itself as the oldest gay bar in Queens and stays open until 4am. The honest caveat: Albatross doesn’t publish a price list or say which drinks qualify, so ask before you assume the second round matches the first. The local move: if you’d rather pay one flat price than do the math, The Wolfhound’s $6-everything happy hour is on 30th Avenue, one stop down the N/W.

Buy a drink, get a pizza. Still true, and still the best deal in Brooklyn. Order anything at the bar and the bartender hands you a red ticket for a small personal pizza — “a little cheese and sauce,” in the bar’s own words. Yellow tickets at $1 each buy toppings, extra sauce or extra cheese; vegan cheese is $2. There’s no clock to beat: it runs every day the bar is open, 3pm to 4am on weekdays and from 1pm at weekends. The honest caveat: pizzas are on-premises and same-day only, so you can’t bank tickets for tomorrow. The local move: karaoke starts at 10pm Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Sunday, 11pm on Saturday — eat first, decide about the singing later.

A $6 beer-and-a-shot in Hell’s Kitchen, and the hot dog’s on the house. A Rudy’s Blonde draft and a Jim Beam shot is $6 — the bar’s own “All American” special — and every drink comes with a free hot dog. A Monopolio lager and a Sauza Silver shot is $7; a Fireball shot is $4. Fifteen beers on tap, open from 8am Monday to Saturday (noon on Sunday) until 4am, on the same 9th Avenue corner since 1933. The local move: this is the answer to every “$5 shots” sign in Times Square, two avenues east. The honest caveat: the standalone draft prices live on a menu board the website only shows as a picture, so we’re quoting the combos — which are the better deal anyway.

The free lunch, flipped: buy the food and the beer’s on them. Monday to Friday from noon to 5pm, any meal comes with a free draft beer or glass of wine — and the hamburger, with fries or tots, is $11.99. Happy hour runs alongside it, noon to 7pm, at $2 off the entire bar. Weekends run “beat the clock” pitchers: domestic pitchers start at $11 and go up a dollar every hour, Saturday noon–5pm and Sunday noon–7pm. The local move: be there at noon on Saturday — the first pitcher is the cheapest of the day. The honest caveat: $2 off is the smallest discount in this section; the free drink with lunch is the reason to come.

Not free, but a $2 pizza square and a $5 beer is the closest thing to it in Queens. Tuesday to Sunday from 3 to 6pm, The Queensboro sells a cheesy pan pizza square for $2 and a grilled Pat LaFrieda hot dog for $4, next to $5 Sunday Beer lager, Peak Organic IPA or pilsner and Quilmes. Sangria is $6, wine $8, cocktails $10, oysters $3 each. Six days a week, weekends included, which is rarer than it should be. The honest caveat: it’s a restaurant with a bar, not a dive, and the regular menu is priced like one — the deal is the 3-to-6 window. The local move: the weekday daytime room welcomes laptops, so it’s an easy place to land early.

Two mugs of ale for $8, the way it’s been done since 1854. McSorley’s pours exactly one thing — its own ale, light or dark — and two mugs cost $8, or $5 if you only want one. There’s no happy hour because there has never been a reason for one. A cheese plate is $5 and a liverwurst sandwich $7, and the room is the same sawdust-floored saloon it has been for generations. The honest caveat: it’s cash only, and weekends draw a line — come on a weekday afternoon. The local move: always order by the pair. The single is a dollar tax on indecision.

A $6 beer-and-a-shot, seven days a week. From the 2pm open until 7pm every day, beers are a dollar off — so PBR, Miller, Miller Lite and Genesee drop from $5 to $4 — any liquor drink is $2 off, and a well shot with any beer is $2. That’s six dollars for a beer and a shot, weekends included. The kitchen is the other surprise: empanadas are $4 (two for $7), dumplings and Cajun popcorn $5. The honest caveat: the $2 shot is a happy-hour add-on; after 7 a well shot is $5. The local move: it opens at 2pm every day and stays open until 4am, so the happy hour is simply the first five hours of the bar’s day.

A $4 Tecate on Avenue B, four hours a day. Monday to Friday from the 4pm open until 8pm: $4 Tecate, $5 Coors Light and Bud Light, $7 wells and any glass of wine, a $9 beer-and-a-shot, $7 green tea shots and a dollar off every draft. It’s an Irish sports bar that bills itself as the Eagles’ landing spot in the East Village, so plan around football Sundays. The local move: the window runs until 8, an hour later than most, which is the difference between making it after work and not. The honest caveat: there’s no weekend happy hour.

$5 drafts every day, plus a second happy hour for whoever is still out at 2am. Niagara runs its happy hour from the open (3pm weekdays, 2pm weekends) until 7pm, seven days: $5 draft beer, $5 wine, $8 well drinks, with a $10 PBR-and-a-shot every day. Then it does it again from 2 to 4am, Sunday to Wednesday. The honest caveat: the late window is early-week only, so it won’t save you on a Saturday. The local move: Area 140 First is a block west on First Avenue and McSorley’s a few minutes beyond — a three-bar night where a round never has to cost more than $10.

Cheap without needing a happy hour. The regular prices are the deal: $5 well shots and $7 well drinks — and the wells are call brands like Espolon, Jim Beam and Bombay, per the bar — a $6 PBR, $4 for a half pour, and $9 for a PBR with a well shot, at 4pm or at 3am. There’s a happy hour until 8pm too, but the bar doesn’t publish what it takes off, so ask. Pinball, sci-fi or the game on the TVs, open 4pm to 4am — sometimes earlier for an Ipswich Town game. The honest caveat: the cocktail list runs $10–$15, so the wells are where the value is. The local move: Niagara is a block east and McSorley’s a few minutes west — the middle stop of an easy three-bar East Village crawl.

Cheap beer that starts when everyone else’s happy hour is a memory. Sunday to Thursday from 10pm to 4am, Barfly pours $5 beers and $11 cocktails — six hours of late-night pricing on Third Avenue. The day shift is long too: Monday to Friday 11am–7pm, $2 off all beers, wines and well drinks, plus a $12 weekday lunch menu. The honest caveat: the late window skips Friday and Saturday, the two nights you’re most likely to be out at 1am. The local move: it’s the Sunday-night answer when a late game runs long.

Eight hours of $5 drinks, every day, Saturday and Sunday included. From 11am to 7pm daily, select drafts, mixed drinks and house wines are all $5 — one flat price, and one of the longest windows we found anywhere. Twenty-four draft lines, live music, an enclosed back patio, and an Irish sports-bar room that has been on Queens Boulevard since 2000. The local move: book the back patio for a party and you can bring your own food — they’ll fire up the grill. The honest caveat: “select” drafts means not every tap is in the $5 deal, so ask which ones are.

One price, no menu-reading: everything is $6. Monday to Friday from the 3pm open until 7pm, draught beer, mixed drinks and wine are all $6, at a modern Irish pub on 30th Avenue that pours a lot of Guinness and stays open until 4am. A pint, a mixed drink or a glass of wine for the same six dollars is a combination that has mostly disappeared from Manhattan. The local move: the pub runs trivia and trad nights — check the calendar and stay past seven for one. The honest caveat: weekends open at noon, but there’s no weekend happy hour.

The cheapest beer-and-a-shot on this page: $5, six hours a day. Monday to Friday from 2 to 8pm, a Narragansett draft, a Lionshead or Tecate can, or a Budweiser bottle comes with a shot of house booze for $5. Well drinks are $5 too; house wine, mimosas and the house punch are $6; and every draft is $2 off. The bar calls itself an extension of your living room — window benches, board games, Tuesday trivia. The honest caveat: the $5 combo is house booze, not your call brand — that’s how it stays $5. The local move: the window runs to 8, so there’s time for a board game before full price kicks in.

A beer and a basket of fries for $9 in Fort Greene. Monday to Friday from 2 to 6pm: $5 house lager, $4 seasoned fries, $8 house wine, $10 margaritas or old fashioneds, and $12 nachos. Margaritas and old fashioneds are $13 the rest of the time, so that cut is real — and High Life, Tecate, Bud and Bud Light cans are $5 on the regular menu at any hour. The honest caveat: the happy hour closes at 6, which rules out most people with an office job. The local move: Brooklyn Public House is a seven-minute walk away and its happy hour runs to 7 — start here, finish there.

The straightforward Fort Greene round: $6 drafts, $7 house liquor, weekdays until 7. Brooklyn Public House runs its happy hour Monday to Friday from 3 to 7pm with $6 house drafts, a $6 can, $7 house liquor and $8 house wine — no exclusions line, no fine print on the menu. It opens at 11am on weekdays, so it works as a daytime stop too. The local move: pair it with FancyFree, seven minutes away, whose $5 lager window closes at 6. The honest caveat: the deal covers the house pours only; order off that list and you pay full price.

Any draft for $6 — any, not “select” — and a dinner-and-a-beer deal every night of the week. Monday to Friday from 5 to 7pm every tap is $6. The daily combos do the rest: wings and a draft for $16 on Monday, tacos and a draft on Tuesday, mac ’n’ cheese and a draft on Wednesday, a burger and a draft for $20 on Thursday, fish and chips and a draft for $25 on Friday, and a pitcher with a pretzel or nachos for $35 at the weekend. The honest caveat: the happy hour itself is only two hours. The local move: come on a Monday, when the $6 taps and the $16 wings-and-a-draft land on the same night.

An eight-hour weekday happy hour in the Bronx, and a $10 burger to go with it. Monday to Friday from 11am to 7pm, drafts are $2 off and the $10 bites menu covers a quarter-pound burger with fries, fish strips and fries, or wings with mac. At the weekend it flips: order any brunch item, Saturday or Sunday from 11am to 3pm, and a brunch cocktail or draft beer comes free. The bar is open until 2am Sunday to Thursday and 4am on Friday and Saturday. The honest caveat: $2 off is a modest cut — the food is the reason to come. The local move: the weekend free drink with brunch is the best value on the menu.