Speakeasies in New York
New York's speakeasies each have their own way in. At PDT, open since 2007, you step into the phone booth inside Crif Dogs in the East Village, announce yourself into the phone and wait for the wall to open. Employees Only on Hudson Street sits past a psychic's chair in the front window and hands out free soup at closing. Attaboy's metal door on Eldridge Street says only "Please Wait To Be Greeted"; ring the buzzer and wait. Thyme Bar fills a 1920s speakeasy and gambling cellar under Patisserie Chanson. Sip & Guzzle, from the bartender Shingo Gokan, holds tables for walk-ins every night. These are the five we would start with.
★ TOP 1050 BESTSpeakeasySip & 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. This is the most ambitious new opening the city has produced in years. It was No. 5 on North America's 50 Best Bars 2025 and holds No. 1 on North America's 50 Best Bars 2026.
29 Cornelia Street, New York, NY 10014Mon-Tue 4pm-1am, Wed-Sat 4pm-2am, Sun 4pm-1amFull profile
★ TOP 1050 BESTSpeakeasyAttaboy
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 51-100 list 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.
134 Eldridge St, New York, NY 10002Daily 5pm-3amFull profile
50 BESTSpeakeasyEmployees Only
Twenty years after Dushan Zaric and his four co-founders opened this Hudson Street speakeasy as an after-hours spot for hospitality workers, Employees Only still closes at 4 a.m. and still draws a crowd that skews industry. White-jacketed bartenders, many with eleven-year tenures, pour classics alongside restaurant-quality food in a room that refuses to update its aesthetic because the aesthetic never needed updating. Ranked No. 78 on The 50 Best Bars 51-100 list in 2026, after No. 95 on the 51-100 list in 2025, EO endures not through reinvention but through stubborn, uncompromising consistency. New York's cocktail trajectory bends toward ambition without apology, bigger concepts, bolder imports, bartenders who treat their careers as creative practices. The competition across its five boroughs has never been fiercer, and the beneficiary, as always, is anyone holding a glass. Book the trip. It sits at No. 45 on North America's 50 Best Bars 2026.
510 Hudson St, New York, NY 10014Daily 6pm-4amFull profile- PDT50 BESTSpeakeasy
PDT
Jim Meehan's East Village speakeasy, entered through the phone booth inside hot-dog joint Crif Dogs, pick up the payphone and a secret door opens onto a taxidermy-strewn den. PDT topped the World's 50 Best Bars in 2011 and still treats the mystery of entry as part of the appeal, with innovative yet unpretentious drinks. Reservations via Resy; phone lines open at 3pm.
113 Saint Marks Place, New York, NY 10009Full profile 
PINNACLESpeakeasyThyme Bar
An underground speakeasy-style cocktail lounge set in a historic pre-war cellar beneath 23rd Street in the Flatiron District. The program emphasizes sustainable, cyclical, low-waste cocktails.
20 West 23rd St, Cellar, New York, NY 10010Tue 5pm–1am, Wed–Sat 5pm–2amFull profile- Little Branch50 BESTSpeakeasy
Little Branch
A basement speakeasy in the West Village from the Milk & Honey family of the late Sasha Petraske, serving classic cocktails made to exacting standards since the mid-2000s. Candlelit booth seating and live jazz trios define the room; the bar maintains no official website.
20 7th Avenue South, New York, NY 10014Full profile
More of New York
These are the speakeasies specifically. The full New York guide ranks the best bars of every style, and the directory lists all 88 with a map and filters.
