Travelogue: NYC Bars
All the places we visited on our December 2023 visit
Rhead and I were in New York City in early December, seeing friends and doing touristy stuff like going to see the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree (above), the 34th Street Macy’s, and a Broadway show (it was Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, if you’re wondering, and it was excellent).
We also, of course, did our fair share of eating and drinking in the fine establishments that NYC has to offer. We didn’t go to any of the famous NYC cocktail bars, primarily because a lot of them are in the East Village, and we were staying in Chelsea (which is basically in Midtown). It was too much of a schlep to get down to the Village, and it was cold.
Also, a lot of those famous bars are tiny. I already had an epically bad case of Covid, and I don’t need another one. And lastly, a lot of these places don’t take reservations, and I’m too old to stand around (in the cold) on a city sidewalk waiting to get into a bar. Leave that to the 20-somethings.
So these are the places we went and the things we drank (to the extent that my notes/photos tell me what we drank). Also, all of these photos are iPhone photos, and I wasn’t actually intending to make this into a newsletter post; otherwise, I probably would have taken better notes and more photos.
Admittedly, Apotheke might fall into the “famous” NYC cocktail bar category. I wasn’t originally intending to go there, but I listened to their bar manager being interviewed on a podcast on the plane ride out, and I was intrigued. It helps that they have a second location (NoMad—North of Madison Square Park) that was literally around the corner from our hotel. (The original location is in Chinatown.)
We had no reservation, but we lucked out because it was a Thursday. There’s a downstairs and an upstairs at Apotheke. I’ve never been to the downstairs, but by coincidence, my friend Maria was there earlier the same night and was downstairs. After seeing my photos from upstairs, she declared it to be the superior location. It helps that we had a view of the Empire State Building from our table.
Rhead had the All That Gas, which contains Bourbon with Masala Chai, Amaro Montenegro, Agave Nectar, APO Immunity Bitters (made in-house), a Flamed Absinthe Rinse, and an Orange Peel Garnish.
I ordered the Rise Over Run: Tequila, Aperol, Cactus Pear, Grapefruit, Lime, Epazote (I don’t even know what that is, lol), APO Immunity, Sea Salt, and Habanero.
Both drinks were delicious, if expensive. The menu doesn’t have prices, and I never actually got a receipt because they just bring an iPad over to you to pay, but I believe the drinks were $24 each. Not something I would do on a regular basis, but the atmosphere was lovely, and they do make some really interesting cocktails with a lot of homemade ingredients. I would add it to your list for NYC visits.
Not necessarily known for its cocktails, but we had lunch there with our friend Kate, and we all got cocktails, because it was Friday and none of us was working! I can’t tell you anything about this cocktail other than it had Mezcal in it and it was amazing. We ate at the rooftop restaurant, Serra (which, if you’re ever at an Eataly, is always the poshest dining option), and this drink was a creation of our server. She was really happy that we loved it. It wasn’t even on the menu, but it was part of their holiday cocktail offering.
This is apparently a two Michelin-starred restaurant that’s part of the Museum of Modern Art. We did not know any of that when we decided to go there on the spur of the moment. We had met up with our friend Liz, and we were up by Radio City Music Hall. Rhead found this place on Google Maps, so we popped by to see if they could take us, which they could!
We sat in the Bar Room, which as you might have guessed, is the bar. It was a nice atmosphere, but loud. I mean, it was also like 5 pm on a Friday. I’m not 100% sure what we ordered because I didn’t take a photo of the menu, but looking at it online, I’m fairly certain that mine on the right was the Grapefruit (Sotol, Reposado Tequila, Kumquat, Lime, Cardamom Agave). I remember being intrigued by the combination of Sotol and Tequila. It was very good, but I think using Mezcal would make it better.
Rhead’s drink on the left was probably the Honeyed, with Calvados, Armagnac, Dry Orange Curaçao, Tuaca, and Honey Harvested from MoMA’s Sculpture Garden. So that’s pretty cool.
Cocktails are $20. Which, considering that this place is also a two Michelin-starred restaurant in NYC, is pretty reasonable.
Amazingly, after drinks at lunch and before dinner, we managed to sneak in one more bar after dinner. (We had dinner with a sober friend, so we took a breather from drinking over dinner.) The Ace Hotel was around the corner from our hotel, so we popped into their lobby bar, which is actually called the Lobby Bar. Go figure.
Rhead, never one to turn down an interesting OF riff, got the Black Cherry Old-Fashioned: Bourbon, Black cherry Demerara Syrup, Cognac, and Walnut Bitters.
I opted for the Oaxacanite: Mezcal, Tequila, Honey, Lime, and Grapefruit. Until just now typing these out, I totally didn’t realize that I ordered agave spirit drinks all day long!
Cocktail prices ranged from $17-19.
This place was legitimately speakeasy-esque. We had spent most of the day down at Hudson Yards, and I had scoped out some restaurants and bars to potentially hit up. Spygold was listed as being “at” Hudson Yards, but that’s using the word loosely. Apparently there’s the main Hudson Yards mall-type structure, and then there’s a diffuse web of outlier buildings that are decidedly not “at” Hudson Yards. Spygold is the latter.
First, you have to leave Hudson Yards proper and walk a few blocks. Also, it doesn’t have its own entrance. You have to go to the restaurant Greywind and check in at their host station, where they then escort you downstairs to Spygold. It’s a minor miracle we found this place at all.
The drink menu was tightly curated, but interesting. I was with Rhead and three friends. I think they all enjoyed their drinks more than I did. I ordered a clarified margarita, because I never bother to clarify anything at home. (For those who don’t know, “clarification” means combining a liquid with milk and letting the milk bind to the solids—like the pulp in citrus juice, for example—and then straining the substance through a coffee filter multiple times until you’re left with a very clear end product.)
I felt like the clarification took most of the flavor with it. I wasn’t impressed. But like I said, everyone else really enjoyed their drinks. They were priced in the $20 range.
This is another hotel bar, and the hotel is SWANK. (It’s the Fifth Avenue Hotel, in case you’re wondering. Way outside our price range. Way.)
It was also around the corner from our hotel, and we attempted to go there on Friday night, before we ended up at the Ace Hotel Lobby Bar. Portrait Bar couldn’t seat us Friday night, so we made a reservation for Saturday night.
I really liked the vibe of Friday night more. It was chill and pretty quiet when we stopped in. But Saturday, it was bumpin’. Like, had to shout to make yourself heard, bumpin’. Not my scene.
But it has such a cool interior decor—lots of soft seating and cool artwork. I would definitely go here again on a future trip to NYC, but maybe mid-week. And with reservations.
They name their cocktails by regions/country. I had the Cognac—France, which was a Brandy Crusta riff. Cognac, Pineau des Charentes, Cappelletti, Grapefruit, Orgeat. Rhead had the Kolkata—India: Rum, Sotol, Mango, Coconut, Almond, Orange, Bombay Spice Blend.
Their cocktails are pretty much all $22, except for one epically expensive $65 Vieux Carré.
Bottom line: I would probably go to any one of these places again. My favorites were Apotheke (but it was also the most expensive) and The Modern. I do want to re-visit the Portrait Bar on a quieter night. But there are soooo many great bars and restaurants in NYC, I can see how it would be hard to keep going back to the same place. We only visit NYC once every few years, so who knows what will be available on our next trip!