Best-of list · Cocktail Guides
The 9 best cocktail bars in New York for 2026, from Death & Co and Attaboy to Dante and Clover Club, the city's craft cocktail reference list.
The short answer
10 ranked rooms follow. How we picked is at the end of this guide.
This is the cocktail-bar list for New York, narrower than our overall city ranking and more demanding. Every room below is one where the bartender makes the drink the center of the experience. Death & Co set the modern reference, Bar Goto introduced Tokyo-style precision, and Attaboy carried the Milk and Honey lineage forward. The 9 below are where serious drinkers go.
Death and Co opened on East 6th Street in 2007 and effectively restarted New York's craft-cocktail clock. The room is dark, the seasonal list runs deep, and the team treats each drink like a small build. Expect a wait, with walk-ins and a few reservations only. Go early on a weeknight for a bar seat, and let the bartender steer you toward something stirred and spirit-forward.
Full listing & hours →Katana Kitten brings Tokyo's highball discipline to Hudson Street, and it debuted at No. 14 on the World's 50 Best list in 2019. Masahiro Urushido pours the Toki Highball and a clean Hinoki Martini in a room that nods to both an American dive and a Japanese izakaya. It runs late, to 2am daily. Order a highball and a few bar snacks and settle in.
Full listing & hours →Attaboy keeps the old Milk and Honey address on Eldridge Street with no sign and no menu. Sam Ross and Michael McIlroy build to your taste, the lineage that gave the world the Penicillin and the Paper Plane. Twenty-eight seats, parties capped at six, 21 and over. Go early on a weeknight, name a spirit and a mood, and let the bartender do the rest.
Full listing & hours →Bar Goto is Kenta Goto's small, exact room on Eldridge Street, where the Sakura Martini is the order and the okonomiyaki keeps you there. Goto trained at Pegu Club, and the precision shows in every stir. It is cozy and quiet, best on a weeknight when you can actually get a stool. A Brooklyn sibling, Bar Goto Niban, opened in 2020 for the same crowd.
Full listing & hours →Dante carries the old Caffe Dante address on MacDougal Street and a full page of Negronis. Crowned World's Best Bar in 2019, it runs all day, so the move is an afternoon aperitivo before the night crowd lands. Order the Garibaldi, a fluffy fresh-squeezed Campari, or work through the spritz list. It is social and easy in a way few award-winners manage. Sit outside when the weather holds.
Full listing & hours →Clover Club has held Smith Street in Carroll Gardens since 2008, Julie Reiner's Victorian-saloon ode to classic cocktails. The namesake gin, lemon, raspberry and egg-white sour is the order, though the punches reward a group. Weekend afternoons mean brunch and a slower pace. A spirit-forward sibling, the Saloon at Clover Club, opened next door for a quieter nightcap. Come early on a Saturday before the room fills.
Full listing & hours →Little Branch sits below street level at Seventh Avenue South, the late Sasha Petraske's 2005 follow-up to Milk and Honey. Bartender's choice classics arrive in a dim room with live jazz most nights. There are no reservations, so go early before the line forms on the stairs. Name your mood and let the team build. It remains a cornerstone of the city's cocktail revival, unhurried and serious.
Full listing & hours →PDT, or Please Don't Tell, still hides behind a phone booth inside Crif Dogs on St Marks Place. The 2007 original of the modern speakeasy revival, it pairs precise classics with hot dogs sent in from next door. Book through Resy up to a week ahead, since tables open at 3pm and go fast. Go for the theater of the entrance, then stay for a faultless stirred drink.
Full listing & hours →Amor y Amargo reopened in January 2025 at its original 443 East 6th Street, a tiny bitters-and-amari bar from the Overthrow group. The drinks are stirred, spirit-forward and built around bitterness, with Sother Teague's fingerprints on the list. It is mostly standing room, so go early in the evening. Order something amaro-driven and ask what is open behind the bar. Small, sharp and worth the squeeze.
Full listing & hours →