[title]
A second cocktail in New York can feel like a major financial decision. But a new report suggests your bar tab could drop considerably if you simply switch neighborhoods.
Bayside, Queens, has the city's lowest median cocktail price at $12, according to the fall 2026 5PM Barometer report. Carroll Gardens in Brooklyn and Throggs Neck in the Bronx follow at $12.50.
The report comes from happy hour guide 5PM NYC, which compiled more than 109,000 listed drink prices from 2,254 bar and restaurant menus across 108 neighborhoods, according to Gothamist. (Its figures exclude tax and tip, so keep a little breathing room in that budget.)
At the other end of the cocktail shaker sits NoMad, where the median quaff costs $19.50—that's a whopping $7.50 more than in Bayside. And citywide, the median cocktail price is $16. Manhattan leads the boroughs at $17, followed by Brooklyn at $15 and the Bronx at $14.45. Queens and Staten Island tie at $14, though the report had significantly less pricing data available for Staten Island and the Bronx.
RECOMMENDED: These 4 NYC bars were the only U.S. spots to make the World’s Best Bars 2026 list
Beer drinkers, meanwhile, have an entirely different map to consult. Hamilton Heights in Manhattan and Woodhaven in Queens share the lowest median draft beer price at $6.50. Chelsea, Midtown and NoMad sit at the expensive end, each with a $10 median. Staten Island has the lowest boroughwide median for drafts at $7.50.
One particularly welcome finding: higher Google ratings didn’t reliably correspond to higher prices, according to 5PM NYC founder Sam Zukin. Your wallet, apparently, isn’t a dependable judge of whether you’ll like the place.
“I would have expected there to be some, but you're seeing some neighborhoods that are charging basically twice as much as others across the city,” Zukin told Gothamist.
Naturally, a neighborhood median doesn’t guarantee that every menu will cooperate. These figures describe prices in the dataset, not a $12 martini at whichever Bayside bar you wander into.
Still, the next time the group chat proposes another round in NoMad, you have a perfectly reasonable counteroffer: Queens. Your friends might argue about the journey, but the cocktail math is considerably clearer.