There is a particular kind of New York night that starts with a drink in a hotel. Not because you are staying there, but because the room is the point. The piano player knows the regulars. The bartender has been making the same cocktail for thirty years and has no intention of reinventing it. The walls have seen more first dates, last dates, and quiet deals than any restaurant in the city.
New York's great hotel bars are not amenities. They are institutions — some a century old, some barely two years into their run — and the best of them are harder to get into than the restaurants down the hall. Summer is the season they come alive: out-of-towners in for a long weekend, locals escaping the heat into a dark, cold room, the after-dinner crowd looking for one more.
These are the six worth dressing for right now, what makes each one matter, and the drink to order when you sit down.
TL;DR: New York's best hotel bars are destinations in their own right. For murals and a martini, head to Bemelmans at The Carlyle; for the original Bloody Mary, the King Cole Bar at The St. Regis. The Portrait Bar, Nine Orchard's Swan Room, Aman's Jazz Club, and The Mark Bar round out the list worth crossing town for.
What Makes a Hotel Bar Worth the Trip?
A great hotel bar gives you something a restaurant cannot: a room built to be lingered in, with no table to turn and nowhere you need to be. The best ones pair a serious drinks program with a setting that does half the work — a mural, a marble hall, a piano on a low stage. Order the house signature first. It is on the menu for a reason.
Bemelmans Bar at The Carlyle
Bemelmans is the one every other bar on this list is measured against. The walls of The Carlyle, A Rosewood Hotel on the Upper East Side are wrapped in murals painted by Ludwig Bemelmans — the artist behind the Madeline children's books — in exchange for a year and a half of lodging for his family. They are the only Bemelmans artworks open to the public anywhere, and they have not been touched since.
Under a 24-karat gold-leaf ceiling, a pianist plays from early evening and a jazz trio takes over at nine. A cover charge kicks in at 5:30 p.m. and climbs once the music starts, so come early if you want to nurse a martini under the murals without paying for the band. The room is small, the dress code is enforced, and that is exactly the point. Order a classic martini and let the room do the rest.
King Cole Bar at The St. Regis
The King Cole Bar is where the Bloody Mary was born. In 1934, bartender Fernand Petiot mixed the vodka-and-tomato drink for the Midtown crowd at The St. Regis New York and called it the Red Snapper, because the name everyone uses now was deemed too vulgar for the room. It is still the Red Snapper here, and it is still the thing to order.
Presiding over all of it is Maxfield Parrish's "Old King Cole" mural — commissioned in 1906 by John Jacob Astor for his Knickerbocker Hotel, and installed at the St. Regis in 1932. The bar runs from late afternoon to eleven, the dress code is smart casual, and the pedigree is unmatched. Ask the bartenders about the secret hidden in the painting; they know, and they rarely tell.
The Portrait Bar at The Fifth Avenue Hotel
The newest room on this list has already earned its place. The Portrait Bar opened in late 2023 inside The Fifth Avenue Hotel in NoMad, in a Gilded Age mansion reimagined by designer Martin Brudnizki. Dark wood paneling holds more than fifty portraits — antique and contemporary, serious and slightly absurd — which is where the bar gets its name.
The cocktail list reads like a passport. Bar director Darryl Chan built the program around global travel, reworking classics with spirits and ingredients from a dozen countries. It landed on North America's 50 Best Bars list within its first year, which almost never happens. Go for the room; stay for a drink you have not had anywhere else.
The Swan Room at Nine Orchard
Downtown's answer to the uptown classics sits inside a bank. Nine Orchard occupies the 1912 Jarmulowsky Bank building on the Lower East Side, and the Swan Room is set in the former teller hall — a double-height space with a vaulted ceiling, pink Tennessee marble walls, and deep booths built for a long evening.
The food and drink come from chef Ignacio Mattos of Estela, which means the small plates are as considered as the martinis. By day it reads as a grand living room; by night it turns into one of the best-looking cocktail lounges in the city. The instruction on the website is simply "dress for a night out." Take it seriously.
The Jazz Club at Aman New York
Three floors below Fifth Avenue, with a private entrance on 56th Street, the Jazz Club is the hardest room here to find and the most fun once you do. Aman New York built it as a subterranean speakeasy, and unlike the rest of the hotel's dining — reserved for guests and members — the Jazz Club is open to anyone who books.
Nightly live sets run Tuesday through Saturday from 6:30, followed by a DJ, in a room with acoustics good enough that the music is the reason to come. It is adults-only, the dress code is evening-chic, and reservations are required. Order a wine from the deep list, settle in, and let the night run long.
The Mark Bar at The Mark
The Mark Bar is the Upper East Side's see-and-be-seen room, and it looks the part. Jacques Grange designed the space — those black-and-white striped floors are his — with custom furnishings by Guy de Rougemont and Vladimir Kagan, inside The Mark on Madison at 77th. The kitchen is Jean-Georges, the crowd is half neighborhood, half in from somewhere better.
It runs from breakfast until two in the morning, seating is first-come, and the energy lifts as the night goes on. This is the one for a pre-dinner drink that turns into the whole evening. Order a classic, well made, and watch the room.
Which New York Hotel Bar Should You Book First?
If you only have one night, make it Bemelmans — there is nothing else like the murals, and the piano makes the case on its own. Want the drink with the best story? The King Cole Bar and its Red Snapper. After something newer, the Portrait Bar and the Swan Room are the two rooms the city is talking about right now, downtown and up. And if the night is really about the music, the Jazz Club is the only answer. For more rooms built around the drink, see our guide to the secret hotel bars worth planning a trip around.
What You Actually Want to Know
Do you need to be a hotel guest to drink at these bars? No. All six are open to the public. Bemelmans, the King Cole Bar, and The Mark Bar are walk-in friendly earlier in the evening; the Jazz Club and the Swan Room are best booked ahead.
Which one has the best cocktail? For history, the Red Snapper at the King Cole Bar. For invention, the Portrait Bar's globe-spanning list. For a flawless classic martini, Bemelmans.
Is there a dress code? Yes, at most. Bemelmans enforces one, the Jazz Club asks for evening-chic, and the Swan Room tells you plainly to dress for a night out. Smart attire is the safe call everywhere on this list.
When should I go to avoid the wait? Arrive before 6 p.m. at Bemelmans and the King Cole Bar to beat both the crowd and, at Bemelmans, the music cover charge. For the Jazz Club, book the early set.
The right bar can set the tone for an entire trip — and knowing which room to walk into, and when, is the kind of detail that separates a good New York night from a forgettable one. Noon's advisors plan around exactly these moments. Tell us where you want to go.
By Noon Travel Editors | June 7, 2026
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