New York City: Drinking
You can't walk a block along most Manhattan avenues (and many of the side streets) without passing one or two bars. The bar scene in New York City is a varied one, with a broader range of places to drink than in most American cities, and prices to suit most pockets. Bars generally open from mid-morning (around 10am) to the early hours - 4am at the latest, when they have to close by law. Bar kitchens usually stop operating around midnight or a little before.The best spots are below 14th Street, where the West Village takes in a wide range of taste, budget and purpose, and equally good hunting grounds can be found in the East Village, NoLita, SoHo and the more western reaches of the Lower East Side . There's a decent choice of midtown bars, though bars here tend to be geared to an after-hours office crowd and (with a few notable exceptions) can consequently be pricey and rather dull. The Upper West Side has a small array of bars, some interesting, although most tend to cater to more of a clean-cut and dully yuppie crowd; and the bars of Harlem , while not numerous, offer some of the city's most affordable jazz in a relaxed environment.
While most visitors to New York may not have time or occasion to check out the bar scenes in the outer boroughs, those that venture to Williamsburg, Park Slope, Brooklyn Heights and Fort Greene in Brooklyn or to Astoria in Queens will find both some of the hippest and also most neighborly spots around.
Whether you wind up sipping a martini in a swank lounge or a downing a pint in a seedy dive, you'll be expected to tip; figure about a buck a drink. Remember too that the legal drinking age is 21.
Many bars have happy hours, typically 5-7pm, when drinks might be two for one, or some bar food is available for free .
More about Drinking:
Financial District and South Street Seaport
Tribeca
Soho and Nolita
Lower East Side and Chinatown
West Village
East Village
Union Square, Gramercy Park, Murray Hill and Midtown East
Chelsea, Garment District and Midtown West
Upper West Side
Upper East Side
Harlem
Brooklyn
Queens
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