The NYC bar scene can err on the side of being loud, crowded and a little too eager to hand you a $24 espresso martini. But if you know where to look – down unmarked staircases, behind anonymous doors, past neon distractions – the city still rewards discretion.
These aren’t the gimmicky “phone booth” speakeasies on every tourist’s bucket list. In fact, some of these aren’t speakeasies at all, rather, the bars that feel like secret societies in a hidden, insiders-only world.
Presenting the Paris-meets-Tokyo sanctuaries where the cocktails are art, the bartenders are the curateurs and the people are the kind who’d rather be in on the secret than seen in the scene.