New York is one helluva drinking town, but it’s not just about the booze. We rely on our bars to set the stage for reunions with friends, sealing that business deal, even falling in love. They’re also a reason to explore a new neighborhood: Why else trek to Greenpoint but for a mezcal-heavy Bone Diamond cocktail at Achilles Heel? We cherish our locals, but we’ve got love for all kinds—sophisticated hotel bars to sexy cocktail dens. The bars listed here have been vetted countless times: They’re the classics—or soon-to-be classics—and they all know how to pour a killer drink.
B Bar at the Baccarat Hotel & Residences
There is something about drinking a glass of champagne served in a lead crystal flute that weighs as much as a porterhouse steak that makes you want to be the kind of person who “dresses for dinner” and knows how to give the perfect toast. The Baccarat Hotel, along with the recent-ish openings of the Park Hyatt on 57th Street, The Viceroy, four more new 1000-foot residential towers have signaled a kind of Midtown revival. This is not without its complications, of course: We can thank the influx of largely foreign capital for this building boom, which brings with it a certain homogenization of luxury, the displacement of the beloved Rizzolis of the world, not to mention a possibly deleterious real estate bubble. But there’s nothing homogenous about the Baccarat’s formal French luxury and there is still something seductive about the resurrection of old Manhattan glamor—it has a kind of retro appeal, like dinner at the 21 Club. The sexy bar at the Baccarat with its mix of traditional crystal chandeliers and bohemian salon wall painted in dark red manages to strike that perfect balance between polished and sexy. It represents, in some way, a welcome swinging back of the pendulum from the bearded, distressed-wood, mason-jarred Brooklyn-ization of New York. And, not for nothing, the hotel is small enough that it filters out an escort type that tends to populate so many upscale hotel bars. –Pilar Guzmán
Click here to read the rest of the story.
Need a hotel discount in New York? Click here.
Be sure and sign up for the NonRev Travel News emails. A weekly email with all of the stories and links from the previous week and you can get it at home and or work. Just click here and sign up!