If I've gleaned anything from a lifetime of drinking in bars about what makes the great ones great, it's that every detail matters: the pictures on the walls, the range of spirits offered, how customers are greeted, the volume at which music is played. And then there's that metaphysical quality that's hardest to capture and impossible to fabricate: something like what Romans called genius loci, the spirit of the place. It doesn't really matter what kind of bar we're dealing with: It either has it or not.
I consider the bars here to be exemplars of their kinds. Exemplary doesn't mean newest, oldest or even best, since every great bar offers something uniquely its own, and to rank them is contrary to a true appreciation of them. These are great bars that I return to again and again, because they do what they do consistently well. Across the whole vast and slippery taxonomy of bars — cocktail, dive, neighborhood, restaurant, hotel — they are each invested with a strong, unshakable sense of place.
HOTEL BAR
Peacock Alley, Waldorf-Astoria, Midtown Manhattan
A hotel bar needs to confer decadent anonymity. Peacock Alley's leather club chairs feel appropriately opulent. With 15 stools at a 28-foot bar, you are close enough to lean into your companion to talk, but far enough apart that your time at the bar feels like yours alone. And knowing that people were having power breakfasts here earlier, before the lighting was dimmed and coffee gave way to manhattans, adds to the sense that what occurs in this room is important but fleeting, with all traces wiped from the record.
COCKTAIL BAR
Dutch Kills, Long Island City, Queens
The best cocktail bars unabashedly nerd out on the details. For some, that means 16 flavors of bitters or garnishes worthy of a display case at MoMA. At Dutch Kills, on a film-noirish stretch of Jackson Avenue, painstaking attention is paid to ice. There are many kinds here, among them hand-carved rocks for drinks served in Old-Fashioned glasses, Collins spears for drinks served in tall glasses, plus cracked for smashes and martinis and crushed for juleps and cobblers. Bartenders learn to chip shapes from giant blocks.
NEIGHBORHOOD BAR
Freddy's, South Slope, Brooklyn
Everyone talks to one another at Freddy's, and it's not because they all happen to be friendly people. The bar itself plays host. The many oddball touches, like a looping video of one owner's deceased cat, serve as easy conversation starters, and the swiveling bar stools facilitate discussion. Bartenders design playlists meant to spark commentary. (Good taste in music is "a prerequisite" for getting hired, says Matt Kimmett, an owner.) And live music in the back makes the best nights feel like a really good New York party from 25 years ago.
DIVE BAR
Milano's, East Houston Street, Manhattan
A dive bar should feel historic and maybe a little dangerous. It helps to be 133 years old and long and dark enough that you can't see what's happening in the back. The other dive-bar requisite is price — and here, you can still get a beer and a (very generous) shot for $6. Newer dives would have a hard time manufacturing a comparable grandpa-drank-here vibe or generating a culture that only improves with age: crusty old punks, working stiffs and incognito rock stars all get equal treatment here.
RESTAURANT BAR
The Odeon, TriBeCa, Manhattan
Restaurant bars shouldn't feel like holding pens for customers waiting for tables but like destinations themselves. Unlike a neighborhood bar, which should facilitate socializing among solo drinkers, a great restaurant bar is set up to let you luxuriate in your aloneness — to take yourself and your book out for a steak and martini without having to engage with anyone (unless you want to). The Odeon has the wine selection and menu for a nice date for one and lighting that's bright enough to read by but dim enough that you're not on display.
Rosie Schaap writes the Drink column for the magazine.
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