Employees Only has run a tarot reader at the entrance of its Hudson Street room since 2004. Bartenders in white coats build pre-Prohibition cocktails at the bar.
Tip: The kitchen serves until 03:30, the latest in the West Village. Free bowl of chicken soup arrives at the end of your tab.
Address: 510 Hudson Street, New York, NY 10014, New York City
The Garret hides above the Bleecker Street Five Guys. Walk to the back of the burger counter, take the discreet stairs up to a 1920s parlor of cocktails and vintage couches.
Tip: Walk-in, no cover. Weeknights before 22:00 are the easiest entry; weekends you wait downstairs in burger order territory.
The Stonewall Inn on Christopher Street is where the 1969 riots launched the modern Pride movement. Now a national monument and still a working bar with nightly drag and karaoke.
Tip: Drag bingo Tuesdays, karaoke Thursdays. Tourist-heavy on summer weekends; weeknights are easier and the regulars come out.
Cubbyhole, a tiny lesbian and queer corner bar on West 12th since 1994, packs a fishnet ceiling of stuffed-animal lanterns and a friendly bartender into one small room.
Tip: No cover, cash-friendly, $2 PBR pours. Get there before 22:00 on weekends or you wait in a line out the door.
Apothéke hides behind an unmarked door on Doyers Street, the curved Chinatown alley once known as Bloody Angle. Bartenders in lab coats build apothecary-style cocktails.
Tip: First-come, first-served only, no reservations. Sundays through Thursdays brings live jazz, burlesque or brass starting around 21:00.
The Back Room on Norfolk Street is one of only two NYC speakeasies that actually ran during Prohibition. Drinks still arrive in teacups; the entrance goes through an alley toy-store front.
Tip: Walk through the iron gate alley off Norfolk between Delancey and Rivington. Reservations help on weekends; cash bar.
Mace, by Nico de Soto and Cocktail Kingdom's Greg Boehm, builds cocktails around a single hand-picked global spice. The room has stayed on the World's 50 Best for six years.
Tip: No reservations, walk in early. The spice-led menu rotates by ingredient, so ask the bartender for their pick of the season.
The Garret hides above the Bleecker Street Five Guys. Walk to the back of the burger counter, take the discreet stairs up to a 1920s parlor of cocktails and vintage couches.
Tip: Walk-in, no cover. Weeknights before 22:00 are the easiest entry; weekends you wait downstairs in burger order territory.
The Stonewall Inn on Christopher Street is where the 1969 riots launched the modern Pride movement. Now a national monument and still a working bar with nightly drag and karaoke.
Tip: Drag bingo Tuesdays, karaoke Thursdays. Tourist-heavy on summer weekends; weeknights are easier and the regulars come out.
Cubbyhole, a tiny lesbian and queer corner bar on West 12th since 1994, packs a fishnet ceiling of stuffed-animal lanterns and a friendly bartender into one small room.
Tip: No cover, cash-friendly, $2 PBR pours. Get there before 22:00 on weekends or you wait in a line out the door.