The Most Notable NYC Bar Openings this Autumn
These are the new cocktail bars worth checking out.
It’s been a banner season for cocktail-bar openings in New York City.
Although the most highly anticipated (Schmuck) has been postponed (it’s the way it goes in New York; what else is new), plenty of other openings mean several great new spots to check out. These are the ones worth a visit.
Clemente Bar
From the creative minds of the Eleven Madison Park folks comes this sleek, sophisticated, sexy space located upstairs from the main restaurant.
Occupying much of the former PDR space, the new bar is divided into two sections. One is for a la carte food and drinks; the other holds a small tasting counter, although I can’t comment on that experience yet.
Daniel Humm, the Swiss-born chef of EMP, created the bar in collaboration with artist Francesco Clemente. The two were inspired by the bar at Kronenhalle, an art-filled restaurant in Humm’s native Zurich and the shared favorite of the duo, reports Robert Simonson.
Although let me tell you, I’ve been to the bar at Kronenhalle—twice—and the only thing this bar has in common with that one is dim lighting, plenty of wood, and art everywhere. At Kronenhalle, however, the art is by a variety of artists: Picasso, Giacometti, Miro, et al. At Clemente Bar, the art is all by (you guessed it) Clemente.
In fact, it doesn’t even have much in common with EMP’s main bar downstairs, a quiet, gentle space I used to frequent for personal celebrations or when my soul needed soothing. Clemente Bar is a different vibe entirely: darker, louder, svelter, more stylish—a place I wouldn’t be surprised to see in a scene in the Sex and the City series reboot.
The tables are low-slung and fairly tightly packed; the (better lighted) marble bar fits about eight seats. There’s no back bar with bottles, no visual clutter anywhere. The room has been designed.
That’s not to say there’s nothing to look at; there’s almost too much. There’s the art, certainly—a couple of murals that seemed to have been inspired by a mushroom trip, plus framed smaller works around the room; the wood-paneled walls, looking like they were ripped from a Frank Lloyd Wright home; the sconces, supposedly inspired by mushrooms but unmistakably phallic. There are a lot of textures, a lot of surfaces; the visual noise rises nearly to the level of the aural din.
The cocktails, all highly conceptual, are similarly loud; not all of them are as good on the palate as they are on paper, but each is memorable.
The standouts are found in the clarified-cocktails section. The Negroni Colada (exactly what it sounds like; it starts off pina colada-ish and then becomes negroni-like on the palate) is deservedly getting a lot of press love, but my favorite is the Army Brat, a riff on the classic Army & Navy, made with gin, yuzu sake, papaya, and cashew orgeat.
Best for: An early date with a sophisticated someone you really want to impress. I would also have said it’s a great place to take a corporate client, but since it was hard to hear in the space at the usually sedate hour of 6:30pm on a Sunday evening, it’s perhaps not a place to be shouting sensitive information or talking other important business.
Dear Irving on Broadway
Assuming you’ve been to any of the other bars Meaghan Dorman oversees as bar director (which is to say, either of the other Dear Irving or Raines Law Room locations), you’ll have a pretty good idea of what to expect at this one: an elegant, vintage-inspired space with plenty of velvet and marble, broken into several different spaces perfect for intimate conversations.
This location happens to be a vast, sprawling fifth-floor bar in the Theater District, somehow made to feel cozy by interior-design magic. It has space both indoors and out, and both a large bar in the center of the main space, with seating on three sides, and a smaller bar outdoors.
Dorman fans will correctly guess the Gibson cocktail (a savory martini variation featuring a pickled cocktail onion) appears prominently on the menu. You’ll see some old favorites from Dear Irving’s other locations on the menu as well, plus playful riffs on classics and several new creations. Devotees of the lychee martini aren’t likely to ever sip one more sophisticated and carefully considered than the one here. And I love the Hotel Nacional Special, which sees the classic daiquiri riff lengthened with tepache.
Best for: Pre- or post-performance drinks and snacks. The bar’s location at 54th and Broadway puts it within easy strolling distance of Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, and Broadway shows, and as with Dorman’s other bars, it’s a place you’ll feel comfortable rolling into in your evening-out finery.
Experimental Cocktail Club
At first glance, ECC 2.0, a resurrection of the original bar in not just a new space but an entirely different neighborhood, appears to have little in common with its predecessor, which lived on the Lower East Side from 2014 to 2016—an offshoot of the brand that started in Paris and then opened in London before continuing on to NYC.
The bar is now located within and beneath (the similarly second coming of) La Compagnie des Vins Surnaturels, in the Flatiron district. At the doorman’s discretion, you might be led through the “VIP” entrance, which passes through the kitchen, down the stairs, and past the wine cellar to the lower-level space.
Once you’re there, the white piano in the center of the room, near the horseshoe bar, will likely be the first thing to catch your attention. (Yes, it’s played on Wednesdays; a DJ sets up shop on other evenings.) The second thing: your own reflection. Mirrors cover the ceiling and walls, softened by blue-velvet banquettes and Art Nouveau-inspired woodwork. It’s Narcissus’ playground, perfect for appealing to the neighborhood’s more fashionable residents who might otherwise be partying in Montauk or Mykonos.
During my couple of initial visits, the cocktails were all by Nico de Soto—the ECC empire’s original head bartender, back before he became a global brand and the master of the traveling bar takeover. I’m told that soon the menu will transition to drinks created by Nathalie Durrieu, the head bartender of this incarnation.
Before that changing of the cocktail guard occurs, though, you’ll want to try The Alsacien, a gewurtztraminer-based cocktail playing off the varietal’s honeyed notes with verjus, chamomile, honey, and bee pollen, or the Ispahan, named for and tasting of pastry guru Pierre Herme’s signature macaron flavor of rose, lychee, and raspberry, yet still recognizably a negroni.
Or, hell, a bottle of Champagne, if you’re feeling festive.
Best for: Partying late into the night with your hard-to-impress friends. It’s a prime cool-kid hangout, with its secret entrance and private-club vibe.
Bar Contra
While just about everyone was away at Tales this summer (and I was further afield), this project from Jeremiah Stone and Fabian von Hauske (of Wildair and, yes, Contra)—plus, notably, Dave Arnold, the cocktail mad scientist formerly of Booker & Dax and Existing Conditions—opened in the former Contra space on the Lower East Side. (Since it’s no longer “new” by NYC standards, we’ll consider it a bonus inclusion on this list.)
If you’ve missed seeing bartenders nitro-muddle herbs for use in drinks, you’re in luck. Arnold is, delightfully, once again up to many of the tricks for which he’s become known.
Like its predecessor, Bar Contra is a cozy hole-in-the-wall: The L-shaped bar (10 seats, if I remember correctly) seems to take up about half the space, with a few tables in the dark dining room beyond. It’s the sophisticated yet low-key cool neighborhood bar of most New Yorkers’ dreams. (Assuming, that is, you’re fairly nerdy about your food and drinks and have the means to pay not-low prices for them.)
The drink menu is impressively long: 24 cocktails, including the low- and no-alc sections. You won’t want to ignore those; the non-alc Tomato Bullshit (tomato water, cranberry, rhubarb root, grapefruit oleo) is among the most delicious offerings. You’ll also want to try the Firefly Mule (fresh ginger, turmeric, and galangal spirit, gin, lime), which chef von Hauske charmingly noted in a google review of his own spot was his personal favorite.
As you’ll guess, given the chefs, the food is fantastic, too. There are a dozen bar snacks on offer, which are easily combinable into a small-plates meal. (A fellow guest told me he returns weekly just for the scallop; I believe it.)
Best for: A date (or friend date) with anyone who is really into food and/or cocktails to the point of being outright nerdy about it.
I've missed Experimental Cocktail Club, as well as Booker & Dax (and Existing Conditions) and after reading your post, I am even more excited about the latter, less so about the former. I recall the previous ECC as this raucous party place; I can't help but think of how great it was and how much older I am!
As for Clemente, I was intrigued. But I was assuming a quieter, refined place (I was thinking of The Office — remember that place in the Mandarin Oriental?). I already feel priced out by Eleven Madison, so my sense is that I won't be going here unless someone else invites me — and offers to expense it.