New York Cocktail bars
New York, that bustling metropolis, has a vast number of cocktail bars that are there to entice your thirst, as well as your dollars. Unfortunately, this city isn't any less immune to the proliferation of second rate bartenders, serving third rate drinks. I try to get out to New York on a periodic basis to visit some of my friends out there, and will try to provide reviews of any of the great bars that I encounter. Here are what I have written up so far:
Of course, that is nowhere near being even a representative sample of some of the great bars that you can find in this town (if you look hard enough), and so below you will find a list of bars that I have either been to, and plan on writing up soon, or ones which some of my friends in the New York area have recommended to me.
Alfama
551 Hudson St.
NY, NY 10014
Phone: (212) 645-2500
http://www.alfamarestaurant.com/
Dale DeGroff: Tarcisio the manager is a frustrated bartender and he made the cocktail menus employing lots of elements from Portugal...white port, Port, Madeira, a kind of Portuguese grappa, and Portuguese brandy...
Angel's Share
8 Stuyvesant St
New York, NY 10003
Phone: (212) 777-5415
Bemelmans Bar
The Carlyle Hotel
35 E 76th St
New York, NY 10021
Phone: (212) 744-1600
http://www.thecarlyle.com/
Blue Smoke
116 East 27th Street
New York, NY 10010
Phone: (212) 447-7733
http://www.bluesmoke.com
Bubble Lounge
228 W Broadway
New York, NY 10013
Phone: (212) 431-3433
Fax: (212) 431-4572
http://bubblelounge.citysearch.com/
Dylan Prime
62 Laight St
New York, NY 10013
Phone: (212) 334-4783
Fax: (212) 334-2276
http://www.dylanprime.com/
East Side Company
49 Essex St
New York, NY 10002
Flatiron Lounge
37 W 19th St
New York, NY 10011
Phone: (212) 727-7741
Dale DeGroff: Julie Reiner although young and still growing is doing wonderful things like her flights of cocktails tastings ...new set each day. She errs occasionally on the side of sweet, which is par for young bartenders, but she uses fresh juices and is always reaching and growing...I expect great things from her.
Grace Restaurant
114 Franklin St
New York, NY 10013
Phone: (212) 343-4200
Fax: (212) 343-4279
http://grace.citysearch.com/
Grange Hall
50 Commerce St
New York, NY 10014-5758
Phone: (212) 924-5246
Fax: (212) 255-2117
Dale DeGroff: also in the village there is an inspired bartender named Dell Pedro who David Wondrich has raved about in the past...made and incredible drink with the most unlikely ingredients called the Star Cocktail...equal parts of Gin Carpano Formula Antico vermouth, orange juice and Benedictine...sort of a gin version of the Blood and Sand.
Little Branch
20 7th Ave
New York, NY 10011
(212) 929-4360
Lupa
170 Thompson St
New York, NY 10012
Phone: (212) 982-5089
http://luparestaurant.com
Layla
211 W Broadway
New York, NY 10013
Phone: (212) 431-0700
Fax: (212) 431-0920
Milk and Honey
Lower East Side
Phone: Not listed
Pegu Club
77 W Houston St
New York, NY 10012
(212) 473-7348
http://www.PeguClub.com
Schiller's Liquor Bar
131 Rivington St
New York, NY 10002
Phone: (212) 260-4555
Dale DeGroff: Suba on Ludlow below Rivington on the lower east side and Verlaine on Rivington at Ludlow have been joined by another new property called Schillers, by Keith McNally of Pravda, Pastis, and Bathazar fame ...like all his other locations I trained the bartenders in technique and recipe so I have high hopes for the program there...So many bars and so little time.
Suba
109 Ludlow St
New York, NY 10002
Phone: (212) 982-5714
http://www.subanyc.com/
Taj
48 W 21st St
New York, NY 10010
Phone: (212) 620-3033
http://www.tajlounge.com/
Dale DeGroff: Taj was not so interesting until they hired a very talented women named Jeri Banks and now they rank with the most interesting bars in NYC because of Jeri's innovations she is working a lot with exotic teas and fruit and flower infusions...and in line with traditional Indian elements even working with liquid yogurt. She is on a roll.
Wallse
344 West 11th Street
NY, NY 10014
Phone: (212) 352-2300
http://www.wallserestaurant.com/
Dale DeGroff: Austrian cuisine, and Kurt the chef prepares wonderful things for the bar like homemade elderberry syrup and elderflower syrup as well as tomato water for the bartenders to experiment with...I had an Elderberry Gimlet that was marvelous
