Best-of list · Deep Dive
The best bars run by legendary bartenders: Sasha Petraske, Audrey Saunders, Tony Conigliaro and more. Our editors' guide to the bars behind the names.
The short answer
10 ranked rooms follow. How we picked is at the end of this guide.
The best bars run by legendary bartenders are not always the obvious ones. Reputation in this industry travels through staff lists and opening night press, not through the day-to-day reality of what lands in your glass on a Tuesday. We have mapped the venues where legendary bartenders are still present, still behind the bar at least part of the week, and still capable of making the drinks they built their names on. These 10 are the ones worth going out of your way for.
New York produced more influential bartenders between 2000 and 2015 than any other city. A surprising number of them are still running bars, still making drinks, and still worth sitting in front of for an evening if you get the chance.
How we picked
Legendary bartenders run legendary bars because they cannot stop caring about the details. The 10 venues on this list are worth visiting not because they trade on a name but because that name represents a standard that shows up in every drink they send out. Go on a weeknight when the bar is not full, sit at the counter, and let the bartender make the decisions. That is what these places are for.
James has sat at more legendary bar counters than he can count and has strong opinions about which of them are worth the wait. He has interviewed Sasha Petraske, Audrey Saunders, and Jim Meehan for various publications and considers the bartender's side of the counter the most interesting vantage point in hospitality.
Last reviewed 2025-12-05 · The editors recheck hours and closures against current local coverage.