In order to help you figure out which new restaurants you should go to in NYC, we created The Hit List. It’s a guide to the very best of all the new openings we check out across the city. As always, we visit each and every single place highlighted, and write about what to order, when to go, and why we love it.
Now we’re doing the same thing for bars. Yes, we’ve taken on the (very challenging) task of drinking at New York’s newest spots. From bars where you can dance to wine bars and breweries, here are all the recently-opened places where you should grab a drink.
THE SPOTS
Maybe it’s too early to call, but we’re doing it anyway: Frog Wine Bar has the backyard of the summer. A huge tree provides shade for the large outdoor space with one long communal table and bunch of small bistro tables, where people drink solo glasses of natural wine or share bottles with friends. With those bottles priced a bit lower than your typical Brooklyn wine bar, a pool table inside, and no pretentious plates of crudo, Frog feels like a summer house party without the college exes.
Your reward for enduring winter every year is a fresh batch of rooftop bars. ElNico—at the top of the Penny Williamsburg hotel—is high up on our list this summer. A palatial sunroom filled with plants and cacti opens out onto two huge terraces with views of North Brooklyn and Manhattan. We love the unexpected touches in their cocktails and Mexican dishes. Try an Old Fashioned with Sichuan peppers, raw scallops with Pepto-pink galangal sauce, and a veggie-loaded tlayuda with tzatziki that’s almost too pretty to eat.
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The West Village bar scene is impressive, and it’s also a hellscape. You know it, we know it, and all of your friends who can never get seats at Bandits or Katana Kitten know it too. So before the world finds out about Donna, stop by for a drink. Formerly one of the top cocktail bars in Williamsburg, Donna now occupies a pleasant little space on Cornelia street with plaster walls and pink banquettes. This new iteration serves fantastic drinks, and they also have a small food menu with pan-Latin snacks. Order the bean and cheese pupusa, and don’t skip Donna’s signature frozen cocktail, the minty, coconutty Brancolada.
Throw on some shorts and call a few friends who appreciate a good daiquiri. You have a rum bar to get to. From the owner of The Rogers Garden, this Crown Heights spot is set to become a staple of the warm-weather drinking scene. The festive little space is covered in murals, the back patio is breezy and mellow, and the soundtrack is early-2000s R&B. Stop by for a painkiller topped with freshly grated nutmeg, and get a few Caribbean snacks to go along with it. The cocktails are elaborate, impeccable, and mostly rum-based—although they do serve other spirits for anyone who just needs a marg or martini.
This Mexican-American bar on 1st and 1st makes cocktails so tasty and unique, you’ll surrender to being overserved. That’s OK, the party version of yourself will fit right in with the rest of the crowd, and Superbueno’s staff, who all seem to be celebrating something. Yes, there’s a margarita, but it’s creamy and made with huitlacoche. And yes, there’s a martini, but it’s pleasantly sour from green mango. Squeeze in a birria grilled cheese to soak up the alcohol, and end your night with an orange-pink salted plum milk punch—it happens to match the fluorescent sunset lighting.
Hidden behind a wall of graffiti and a little red lamp embossed with “MM," Madeline’s is a grown-up bar in a part of town that isn’t known for grown-up bars. This speakeasy-ish lounge on Avenue C is ideal for a first date, with comfortable seating, candlelight, and over a dozen martinis in classic and more creative styles. Madeline's has limited bar snacks (think shrimp cocktail and caviar sandwich), and its cocktails are bigger than most. You might just be on second-date talk by the second drink.
At the back of Williamsburg’s Super Burrito, there’s a sign that says “cocktails.” Walk through the door beneath that sign, and you’ll find a little '70s-themed bar that feels like a house party. 320 Club has orange vinyl booths, wood panelling, and a soundtrack that leans toward psychedelic rock, and it's a fun place to drink a mai tai and eat a foil-wrapped burrito. Stop by for a casual hang or some late-night antics, and try not to fixate on the fact that the poster for Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home in the corner is technically an anachronism (the movie wasn't released until 1986).
The hottest place to stand awkwardly with a beverage is currently the area around the staircase in the middle of Jac’s on Bond. This Noho bar (in the old Smile space) is from the team behind Ray’s and Pebble Bar, and it’s where you should go to drink a $20 cocktail while you take in a scene. The dark, earth-toned room features a fancy pool table and framed photos of old-school hip hop artists, and there are some small tables you can reserve if you don’t feel like standing. Bring a date, wear an impractical scarf, and try the snacks from the Wildair people. The crab dip is a winner.
The lobby of the Ritz-Carlton in Nomad is a very nice place, but Nubeluz makes it look like a Best Western. Located on the 50th floor of the hotel, this cocktail lounge from José Andrés has plush green carpets, curved velvet couches, and mirrored tables that you can use to check if you have any black truffle stuck in your teeth. The fancy bar food—dates with foie gras, tiny cones topped with salmon roe—is pleasant and pristine, and the cocktails are top-notch. But the biggest selling point is the unmatched view of Lower Manhattan. Even if you’ve lived here several decades, it’s hard not to be impressed.
HiLot is from the team behind Joyface, an Alphabet City bar (right next door) where you can dance under a disco ball until 3am. But this is a different sort of place. There’s no standing room, and the space looks like a fancy home from the 1970s, with plaid carpets, a mirrored ceiling, and fringed lamps perched on top of a winding leather couch. It’s essentially a speakeasy that isn’t hidden, and it’s a great option for when you want to go out in the East Village but don’t necessarily need to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with folks who might spill their espresso martinis on you.
If you think you’re too cool to drink an appletini, you’re wrong. No one’s too cool for an appletini. Also, the version at Bar Americano is fantastic. This little Greenpoint spot was inspired by the aperitivo bars of Spain and Northern Italy, but the menu doesn’t always stay on theme. In addition to anchovies and a variety of European wines, they serve a burger, a house margarita, and the aforementioned appletini (which actually tastes like apples). Bring a date, and spend an hour or two in the candlelit room that features stucco walls, brass accents, and a few leather booths.
Milady’s is back. Sort of. The old Milady’s closed in 2014, and it was one of the few divey places in Soho where you could grab a drink without spending a week’s grocery budget. This updated version, run by the folks behind Clover Club and Leyenda, isn’t remotely divey, but it isn’t too stuffy either. Yes, there’s now a host stand (which feels sacrilegious), and the cocktails are almost $20—but the drinks are great, and you can enjoy some chicken tenders or scallop tartare alongside your fancy appletini.
