The hangover guide reaches various complaints about the actual nightlife situation of NYC. Looks as if the Bloomberg administration tries to dry up (at least) Manhattan. Will NYC become a second Tehran? The return of the "speak easy", hypcrisy and corruption? please let us target="_blank">know
New York City Nightlife
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, NoHo,TribeCa
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.
