Midtown East
Happy Hour

The best happy hour in Midtown East, because it never stops. Noon to 7pm, seven days a week, including the weekends when every office bar on Third Ave goes dark. $9 gets you a proper French pour – Bordeaux, Pinot Noir, Sauvignon Blanc – and the $12 cocktail list is the standard four, done straight. Worth it for a Saturday afternoon nobody else in the neighborhood is catering to.

The biggest discount on the strip. The Rosemary’s Spritz is $17 at 8pm and $9 at 5pm; the Negroni drops from $17 to $12. That’s real money, not a dollar off a padded price. Only two hours and only at the bar and wine bar, so be in a seat by 5:30. The honest caveat: this is a drinks deal; don’t come expecting cheap plates.

The longest cheap window in Midtown East, and nobody talks about it. $7 cocktails from 3pm to 10pm, Monday to Saturday – that’s dinner time, not just the commute. The catch: the $7 price covers the mixed-drinks list, not everything on the menu, and Sunday gets no happy hour at all. The local move: come at 8pm, after the Third Ave bars have gone back to full price.

For beer drinkers, this is the one. $6 lager and $7 craft from 11am to 7pm, which covers lunch, the 3pm slump and the commute without a gap. Bites only kick in at 5. Worth it – the most useful weekday window in the neighborhood.

The steakhouse move, done right. $1.75 Blue Points and a $12 martini at a steakhouse bar is the oldest Midtown happy hour there is, and Ben & Jack’s still prices it like it means it. Bar only, two hours,. Six oysters and a martini comes to $22.50 before tip. Worth it.

Same eight-hour window as The Stag’s Head, half a block away, and the cheaper of the two for a group: $7 bar snacks run the whole window, not just after 5. It’s a sports bar with the volume to match. Worth it for a team lunch that turns into an afternoon.

The only bar on the strip that runs the deal twice: 3–7pm and again from 10pm to close, every day. The late window is the reason to know it. The local move: skip the 5pm crowd and come for the 10pm round.

A $7 half-litre is the best beer-per-dollar in Midtown East, full stop. The catch: it’s bar-only, Monday to Thursday, and they mean it – sit at the long communal tables and you pay full price. Get there before 5 or stand.

Half off drinks, Tuesday to Friday 5–8pm, which makes it the cheapest round on this page if you’re singing anyway. The bar says some drinks are excluded and doesn’t say which, so check before you order the top shelf. Worth it for an office night out that would otherwise cost a fortune in rooms and rounds.

Two very specific windows: $1 Bud Light on Wednesday from 7 to 9, and a midnight-to-3am happy hour on Thursday and Friday with $5–6 drafts. The bar also posts a 4–7pm happy hour with half-price appetizers but doesn’t say which days, so we haven’t counted it. The local move: Wednesday, 7pm, and don’t plan on a sharp Thursday.

The only happy hour here that runs all day Sunday. Kirin drops from $7 to $5.25 and the happy hour plates start under $6. Worth it with a group of four and a grill to share.

Monday is the night. The $9 glasses that cost $14–16 the rest of the week run until close, so it’s the one place in Midtown East where a happy hour can be the whole evening. The rest of the week it’s every day until 7pm.

One price for everything: $9 a glass, $9 a spritz, $9 a sangria. Five grapes to pick from, which is more choice than most happy hours give you. A quieter room than anything on Second Ave, and somewhere you can actually talk.

$12 for a classic made properly. The menu says 2–7pm, but the bar doesn’t open until 4pm on Monday and Tuesday, so the long version is Wednesday to Friday. A tidy, unfussy option when Rosemary’s bar is full.

A lunch happy hour, and it ends at 5pm, exactly when everyone else’s starts. Prosecco drops from $14 to $10. Worth it for a long lunch or a meeting you’d rather have over a glass.

The best oyster selection on the strip, every day of the week, and $1 shucker’s choice on Mondays. The local move: be there at 5; the window is only 90 minutes.

The best rooftop happy hour in Midtown East. Golden Hour gets you a $10 glass of wine on a rooftop, which is the cheapest view in the neighborhood by a distance. Three small plates for $30 turns it into dinner.

Lucky Hour is the only way into TAO that doesn’t hurt: $11 cocktails and $1 Peking wings in a room built for $30 drinks. Bar and lounge only; the dining room doesn’t get it. Worth it once, for the room.

$8 off a $23 cocktail is the steepest cut on a serious drink in the neighborhood, and it runs Saturday too. $15 is still $15, so this is a nice-drink happy hour, not a cheap one. Five minutes from Grand Central.

The view over the East River is the deal; the prices are a modest step down from a very expensive list. Skip it for value, worth it for a date or a client you want to impress before 7pm.