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We recently called out this East Village eatery as our number one restaurant in NYC. Inadvertently, we also found our new number one bar in a similar stretch of lower Manhattan.
It isn't too surprising: a stellar number of drinking dens call the East Village home, from a new-ish Caribbean affair where daiquiris reign supreme to an iconic, speakeasy-esque haunt that kickstarted a cocktail renaissance. Our new number one follows the same line of greatness, dishing out matcha and mint frozens, plus salad Negronis, and a glorious snack best enjoyed fresh from the bag. Plus, it is also home to one of the best bathrooms we've seen in sometime. Without further ado: Bar Snack is officially our number one bar in New York right now.
Although it only turned one last November, the East Village bar has already racked up some well-earned recognition: it was a finalist in the “Best New Cocktail Bar” category of the Spirited Awards hosted by the industry-minded festival and expo, Tales of the Cocktail, and it also landed in the number 85 spot on North America's Best Bars ranking.
Hawking “dressed up classics for dressed down people,” the bar earned a top spot on our list for its whiskey sours with smooth toppers of Guinness, bitters-heavy Twisted Tea’s served from the same can and a frozen that drinks like a "limeade popsicle but with a touch of smoke.” And, if it wasn’t clear by the name, the bar also has a killer list of snacks, particularly the Spice Bag that’s sure to soak up any bad behavior, spilling open with buttermilk-fried tendies, steaming hot fries and peppers and a curry sauce to bring it all home. And their bday bag with NOLA's Turkey and The Wolf with sweet potato fries, pickled onions and a mess of "lots of dank herbs"? Let's just say we can only hope for future bag drops in 2026.
Ignacio “Nacho” Jimenez’s Superbueno, a red-lit Mexican American cocktail bar, lands at number two, bolstered by its sweet-and-spicy Green Mango Martini and the effervescent Vodka Y Soda, which “has an underlying but never overwhelming heat…evened out with a cooling guava purée and bubbly soda.”
Downtown Brooklyn’s Sunken Harbor Club takes the number-three spot for its full commitment to the “tiki-bar-in-a-sunken-ship” aesthetic and its “spin on almost every tiki favorite, plus a selection of more novel—but not banana—concoctions.”
And our best cocktail bar for 2025, schmuck., sits comfortably at number five; its “gussied-up lounge” is home to highballs that “burst with tomato sweetness” and “peanutty tipples that hum with a chili-oil-spiked heat.”
Naturally, our list includes more than just cocktail bars. Chinatown’s Sunn’s, the “little place for banchan and wine,” lands at number nine, while Williamsburg’s Sauced—with its menu-less approach—invites an impromptu wine tasting every time you visit. Beer halls and bars are also in the mix, including Talea Beer Co. Taproom and Harlem Hops.
Read on to see who else made our list of the best bars in NYC right now.