Where to eat, drink and be merry in New York this holiday season? The city’s swankiest new nightlife destinations promise A-list mixologists, decadent interiors, irresistible bites and the most enviable people-watching in Manhattan. Here are six to hit.
Ba53ment | 53 W. 53rd St.
Hidden beneath the Monets, Pollocks and Rauschenbergs in the David Geffen Wing of the MoMA, this boîte oozes moody modern Asian elegance with a hint of Art Deco. Not quite a speakeasy, but certainly a spot for those who already know, it’s literally an underground effort from head bartender Aaron Kim.
Formerly of haute hipster haunts like Chapel Bar at Fotografiska and Pastis, Kim started crafting cocktails here after a soft opening in September. The menu takes inspiration from the Asian fare in the upstairs restaurant 53 NYC. Look for ingredients like yuzu, pandan, toasted rice, Sichuan bitters and even MSG on their deep list of pricey potables ($26 to $36 a pop). Half a dozen designer martinis get their own subsection of the menu. Drink all that in while nibbling on next-level nosh like kaluga caviar, a wagyu quarter-pounder topped with foie gras or a crudo trio of oysters and uni, shrimp and salmon.
Residents of the Jean Nouvel-designed 53W53 — the condo building above, where home prices soar to $64.7 million — get their own entrance to the bar, so keep your peepers peeled, you never know who you’ll see.
One4One | 141 Chrystie St.
Dylan Hales and Ronnie Flynn — the Down Under duo behind New York’s coolest fashion industry and celebrity party spots — fêted the opening of their newest buzz factory with famous friends (like “Bridgerton” actress Simone Ashley, Tame Impala’s Cam Avery and rapper G-Eazy) just before Halloween.
Known for downtown bars like the Flower Shop, Loosie’s and Little Ways, their latest hang is a grown-up “sports club” called One4One, where athletic polyamory is in. You’ll fall in love with whatever’s on here — from Formula 1 and cricket to NBA and NFL — over house cocktails with sports themes. A Bases Covered is a home run with whisky, eucalyptus, lemon and honey, while the food menu serves slam dunks from chicken wings to mozzarella sticks. You’ll find the two-story club hidden behind an avocado supplier’s storefront, with a bar, sunken living room and theater-sized projection screen. Head upstairs to find a second bar with a window looking out at Lion’s Gate Field, as well as a VIP section.
Nostalgic, clubby and casually cool? Now that’s a hat trick.
The Weather Room | 30 Rockefeller Plaza
Foul or fair, there’s always action at the Weather Room at the Top of the Rock. For a year now, 360-degree skyline views have lured people-watching popcorn — a miscellany of awestruck tourists, lounging lovers and Brooks Brothers suits — to this all-day cafe and bar.
Now, creative lightning has struck this cloud-high cocktail club with a new event series descriptively titled “After Dark.” Created by Los Angeles-based event inventors Sister Midnight, these $20-a-ticket events (every Friday and Saturday from 9 p.m. until 1 a.m.) are a sexy storm of DJs, performers, martinis and a menu of snacks by Michelin-starred chef Ryan Farrar. Think: tins of osetra caviar, escargot, shrimp cocktails and classic New York hot dogs. The first After Dark kicked off in October with a cumulonimbus clap of dashing dudes and demoiselles downing dynamic drinks like the Vapour Trail — dark rum, citrus, honey and bubbles.
Recent sightings include Sofía Vergara, Simon Cowell, Terry Crews and Mel B. The talent behind the tables has been equally heavy, with Questlove, Odalys, Kristy Baez and Laura Se Fue fueling atmospheric surges. When it rains, it pours.
Sub-Mission | 7 E. 17th St.
We submit for your approval an intimate cocktail lounge pulsating with Japanese-Peruvian panache. Hidden beneath Nikkei hot spot Mission Ceviche in Union Square, this underground bar opened at the end of September, weighing in at a minute 1,000 square feet. It’s all the better for it.
Exclusive seating at the fluted bar here means that cocktail capitán Oscar Valle — formerly of Mexico City’s beloved Licorería Limantour — and his slick shakers can personally take your drink order. It will boast carefully balanced sweet, sour and savory flavors like tequila, taco mix, pineapple and coriander salt (in the Margarita Al Pastor); gin, vermouth, cherry tomato infusion and basil (in the Sub Martini); and cherry tea-infused gin, nigori sake, lychee and yuzu juice (in the Rinda).
Get here by sneaking past the hostess stand through a discreet door leading down to the bar — but be sure to have a reservation. A stage at the back for live performances means this slim space is always filled out with a pre- and post-supper set.
Peacock Alley | 301 Park Ave.
At the original Waldorf-Astoria hotel on the site of the Empire State Building, Peacock Alley was the 300-foot hyphen that joined the two great hotels into a leviathan of luxury. The passage was where society’s swells puffed their plumes as they strutted betwixt buildings.
At the reborn Waldorf, which opened in July after an eight-year, $2 billion overhaul, Peacock Alley is still very much about flaunting your feathers. The heart of the hotel — connecting Park and Lexington avenues — it’s home to the Waldorf’s flagship lobby bar and iconic 10-foot clock (with a timepiece commissioned by Queen Victoria). Interior designer Pierre-Yves Rochon finished out the bar and lounge with Deco-esque details like black lacquer and Saint Laurent marble. Behind it, you’ll find the work of mixologist Jeff Bell of Please Don’t Tell fame. The White Tie is dressed with gin, vodka, Cocchi Americano and Italicus. The Met Gala is a red-carpet concoction of vodka, blanc vermouth and Vicario olive leaf liqueur. While the Waldorf Cocktail waltzes with Jaywalk rye, Carpano Antica sweet vermouth and absinthe.
Our spies have spotted Demi Lovato, as well as hotel scions Nicky and Paris Hilton sipping there as Cole Porter’s piano played in the backdrop. Finally, a bar worth pressing your trousers for.
LenLen | 40 E. 20th St.
At the end of August, LenLen opened on Manhattan’s hottest restaurant row — E. 20th Street between Fifth and Park avenues — and it’s serving something the city didn’t know it was missing: serious East Asian-inspired cocktails.
Built out like a 1970s Bangkok shophouse, this “newstalgic” concept is by Thailand-born Wanisa Torboonsitikorn and Korean-American chef Peter Ki Suk Tondreau, who operate six Chelsea Market stalls. Hospitality vet Tim Stuyts of Virgin Hotels and Fotografiska is their partner. To superpower their bar program, they tapped Maison Premiere mastermind Robert Lam-Burns.
LenLen means “playful” and that’s precisely the spirit the bar delivers with drinks that could theoretically be plated, like the Pandan Colada (with rum and Kota pandan liqueur), the Papaya Salad (with tequila, green papaya juice and peanut milk), the Shiitake & Tonic (with Scotch and shiitake mushroom brine) and the Five Spice (rye infused with ghee and five-spice). Each is designed as a solitary sip or to be paired with a Thai dinner menu made of fresh farmers market ingredients.
Try something new as you vibe out to a playlist of old-school Thai psychedelic, funk and rock music.
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