The 12 Best Cocktail Bars in New York

Superbueno

Head Bartender Ignacio "Nacho" Jimenez built this neon-lit Mexican-American bar on First Avenue into the No. 2 spot on North America's 50 Best and No. 12 globally in just two years. The cocktail program bridges Mexico City street flavors with high-specification technique, try the Green Mango Martini, inspired by NYC subway fruit carts, or the Roasted Corn Sour dusted with charred corn powder. The 2025 Spirited Awards handed Superbueno Best U.S. Bar Team (East), and a James Beard nod for Outstanding Cocktail Service sealed the year. Superbueno won Best New U.S. Cocktail Bar at the 2024 Tales of the Cocktail Spirited Awards. Lucha Libre murals, relentless energy, and drinks that hit harder than they have any right to. It sits at No. 9 on North America's 50 Best Bars 2026.

Sip & Guzzle

Steve Schneider and Shingo Gokan, two bartenders who spent a decade rewriting the rules in Asia, reunited on Cornelia Street to build a two-story concept that won Best New U.S. Cocktail Bar at the 2025 Spirited Awards. Upstairs, Schneider runs Guzzle, an 1860s saloon revival. Downstairs, Gokan operates Sip, a subterranean speakeasy honoring the seventy-seven samurai of the Kanrin Maru. Chef Mike Bagale, an Alinea veteran, handles the izakaya-inspired food program. At No. 5 on North America's 50 Best Bars, this is the most ambitious new opening the city has produced in years. The bar holds No. 1 on North America's 50 Best Bars 2026.

Overstory

Bar Director Harrison Ginsberg runs a cocktail program on the 64th floor of 70 Pine Street that treats the Manhattan skyline as a design element rather than a crutch. Staff in pastel pink suits pour Garibaldis and Sazeracs built around New York terroir, local honey, Hudson Valley fruit, rooftop herbs, while a wraparound terrace and a glittering disco ball set a tone that is celebratory without tipping into nightclub territory. Ranked No. 6 on North America's 50 Best, Overstory proves that a bar with a view can also be a bar with a point. It was a Top 4 finalist for Best U.S. Cocktail Bar at the 2025 Tales of the Cocktail Spirited Awards. The bar holds No. 33 on North America's 50 Best Bars 2026.

Bar Snack

Time Out named it the No. 1 bar in New York City for January 2026, and the program explains why: matcha frozens, salad Negronis built with nectarine and basil, a Phish Food Old Fashioned, and every cocktail priced under eighteen dollars. The menu organizes drinks into One & Somes, Crushers, and Big Licks, categories that move from sessionable to spirit-forward without losing the irreverent tone. At No. 85 on North America's 50 Best, Bar Snack delivers serious drinking disguised as a neighborhood hangout. It won Best U.S. Cocktail Bar at the 2026 Tales of the Cocktail Spirited Awards.

Schmuck

Moe Aljaff and Juliette Larrouy exported Two Schmucks from Barcelona's El Raval to Manhattan's First Avenue, and the queue that forms nightly down the block confirms the translation worked. Time Out ranked it among the five best cocktail bars in New York for 2025; the World's 50 Best placed it at No. 59. The program balances playfulness, highballs spiked with tomato sweetness, peanut-forward drinks laced with chili oil, with a service philosophy that refuses to take itself seriously. Schmuck earns its nightly line through warmth as much as technique. It won Best New U.S. Cocktail Bar at the 2026 Tales of the Cocktail Spirited Awards.

Clemente Bar

Chef Daniel Humm and artist Francesco Clemente collaborated on this bar above Eleven Madison Park, and the result feels less like a hotel annex and more like a private gallery that happens to serve exceptional drinks. Deep burgundy tones, walnut panels, and Clemente's murals nod to Zurich's Kronenhalle Bar. The cocktail program matches the restraint of the room, seasonal, plant-based, and precisely composed. At No. 11 on North America's 50 Best Bars with the Newcomer Award in its pocket, Clemente Bar sets an early benchmark for 2026. It was a Top 4 finalist for Best New U.S. Cocktail Bar at the 2025 Tales of the Cocktail Spirited Awards.

Martiny's

Takuma Watanabe spent eight years at Angel's Share before opening this three-floor carriage house on East 17th Street, where Japanese technique meets old New York architecture. Hand-carved ice, hot towels, and a Grand Martini built with gin, sherry, port, and cognac earned Watanabe the Bartender of the Year title at the 2024 Spirits Business Awards and the Best Bartender in North America nod at the Shaker Awards. Ranked No. 15 on North America's 50 Best Bars, Martiny's treats every drink as a ceremony. The formality is the point. The latest lists place it at No. 23 on North America's 50 Best Bars 2026 and No. 75 on the World's 50 Best Bars 2025.

Attaboy

No menu, no signage, and a front-door instruction that reads "Please Wait To Be Greeted." Sam Ross and Michael McIlroy opened this Eldridge Street bar in 2012 as a spiritual successor to Milk & Honey, and it climbed twelve places to No. 72 on the World's 50 Best Bars in 2025. Bartenders build every drink in conversation with the guest, ask for something citrus-forward and spirit-driven, and you might receive the Penicillin that Ross invented here. Attaboy operates seven nights a week until 3 a.m. The consistency across a decade-plus run borders on unreasonable. It currently stands at No. 37 on North America's 50 Best Bars 2026.

Seed Library

Ryan Chetiyawardana, known globally as Mr Lyan, opened this second Seed Library location inside Hotel Park Ave in November 2025, bringing his London formula of ingredient-forward cocktails and radical inclusivity to a NoMad basement with its own street entrance. Seventeen cocktails adapt Seed Library signatures with New York flavors, while the snack program pairs whipped feta with crispy naan. Chetiyawardana's reputation precedes him, but the bar earns its place independently, a subterranean retreat that rewards curiosity over familiarity. The bar holds No. 66 on North America's 50 Best Bars 2026.

Death & Co East Village

Opened on New Year's Eve 2006/07 and swiftly a cocktail institution, the East Village original of what is now a four-city empire (New York, Denver, LA, Washington DC). Exposed brick, low-slung tables, a marble bar, and a menu rebuilt twice a year across six sections running light-and-refreshing to spiritous and zero-proof. Limited reservations, mostly first come first served; two-hour visits, parties of eight max.

Order this: Ghost Machine (Empirical Cilantro, Wray & Nephew, watermelon, Aperol, habanero, lager)

Double Chicken Please

GN Chan and Faye Chen's bar began in 2017 as a mobile cocktail unit in a yellow VW camper van and landed on Allen Street in 2020. Two rooms: FREE RANGE up front, where guests explore an interactive plinko-style menu centered on flavor discovery and experimentation alongside shareable dishes, and The Coop behind, where iconic dishes are rebuilt as drinks, Cold Pizza, Waldorf Salad, French Toast, via the founders' 'design hacking' method. No.2 in the World's 50 Best Bars 2023 and North America's No.1 that year; the hot honey chicken sandwich is mandatory. It was a Top 4 finalist for Best U.S. Cocktail Bar at the 2024 Tales of the Cocktail Spirited Awards. It sits at No. 41 on the World's 50 Best Bars 2025 and No. 35 on North America's 50 Best Bars 2026.

Order this: Cold Pizza (Don Fulano Blanco, Parmigiano Reggiano, burnt toast, tomato, basil, honey, egg white)

Angel's Share

Tony Yoshida's 1993 pioneer of Japanese bartending in New York, reopened in its West Village home on Grove Street in 2024 by his daughter Erina after the original East Village lounge was forced out in 2022, the cherub-studded cloudscape mural made the move too. Just 17 seats, Japanese-influenced cocktails, and famously strict house rules: walk-in only, seated only, parties of four max. The bar holds No. 31 on North America's 50 Best Bars 2026.