by Telegraph Travel experts, The Telegraph, February 16, 2018
An expert guide to the best hotel bars in New York, featuring the best places to go for signature cocktails, fine wines, historic connections and panoramic views.
The Carlyle New York, United States
8Telegraph expert rating
This handsome, 35-storey Thirties Beaux Arts building is a wonderful merging of old world elegance and contemporary style, with recent updates to its Art Deco interiors including a lavish restyling of the black and gold hued marble lobby, now hung with oil paintings that call to mind a Renaissance museum. Bemelmans Bar, just off the lobby, named after Ludwig Bemelmans whose handiwork adorns every inch of the walls, remains one of the finest cocktail bars in the world. Opposite is Café Carlyle, where you can dine, drink and listen to great jazz, including Woody Allen on clarinet every Monday night. Read expert review. From £311per night. Check availability. Rates provided byBooking.com.
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The St. Regis New York New York, United States
9Telegraph expert rating
Founded more than a century ago by John Jacob Astor IV, The St. Regis New York recreates the glamour of a bygone era at Manhattan’s finest address. Uptown sophistication meets downtown chic at the treasured King Cole Bar & Salon, Manhattan’s most storied meeting place. The menu is tailored for New York’s social elite and a new generation of luxury travellers. Don’t miss the Bloody Mary, invented here by Fernand Petiot in 1934. Read expert review. From £436per night. Check availability. Rates provided by Booking.com.
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Baccarat Hotel and Residences New York, United States
8Telegraph expert rating
The Baccarat is the first hotel from France’s eponymous, centuries-old crystal brand, and a sophisticated and refreshingly modish alternative to Midtown Manhattan’s more venerable high-end retreats. Features include a basement swimming pool, upper-floor bar and some 2000 glittering crystal pieces dotted throughout. The barrel-vaulted hotel bar takes its visual cue from an eclectic mix of Thirties New York, French hotel ballrooms and, interestingly enough, the royal stables at Versailles. All beverages, whether wine or cocktail, are served in vessels of Baccarat crystal. Read expert review. From £529per night. Check availability. Rates provided by Booking.com.
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The Mark New York, United States
8Telegraph expert rating
Bold geometric shapes and splashy interiors helped reinvent this once-stuffy Upper East Side classic. The 100 guest rooms and 40 suites combine elegance with hi-tech gadgetry, while Jean-Georges Vongerichten’s French-American Mark Restaurant & Bar is a happening spot, drawing tycoons, Park Avenue heiresses and glamorous staff from nearby galleries and auction houses. The French-American dishes include Vongerichten specialties such as grilled black sea bass with fennel and a sensational tuna tartare. Take a seat on the funky cowhide chairs in the adjacent bar and shout up inventive signatures like the kumquat mojito. Read expert review. From £443per night. Check availability. Rates provided by Booking.com.
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The NoMad Hotel New York, United States
8Telegraph expert rating
Chef Humm and restaurateur Will Guidara of three Michelin-starred Eleven Madison Park oversee the food and beverage programme at this bohemian-chic hotel in NYC's Flatiron District, and there are multiple locations in the hotel to sample it, from the sumptuous book-lined bi-level Library, to dark and decadent cocktail emporium Elephant Bar, with its 24ft-long mahogany counter. The highlight though is Nomad Bar, a classic New York-style space with olive green booth seats, where Humm presents more casual and accessible versions of his legendary EMP fare. Read expert review. From £208per night. Check availability. Rates provided by Booking.com.
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The Plaza New York, United States
7Telegraph expert rating
There’s no more historic hotel in New York than The Plaza, and a Gilded Age opulence still abounds. This is particularly evident in the famous Palm Court, resplendent with tropical plantlife, marble columns and high arching windows. It’s rightly famous for its sumptuous afternoon tea, but be sure to come in the evening for splendid cocktails and people watching: a fascinating line-up of bejeweled regulars hark back in glamorous fashion to the height of the Roaring Twenties. There's also a Champagne Bar and the swanky Rose Club. Read expert review. From £412per night. Check availability. Rates provided by Booking.com.
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The Standard, High Line New York, United States
7Telegraph expert rating
Andre Balazs’s hotel hot spot sits in the centre of Manhattan’s ultra-trendy Meatpacking District, on the banks of the Hudson and straddling the High Line, the coolest public park in the city. With its velvet-roped bistro, ground-floor beer garden and two ultra-hip rooftop club lounges, its aesthetic is LA flash meets New York glamour. Rooftop club Top of the Standard is a glittering supper lounge with live jazz, a small plates menu, and designer cocktails, open from brunch until late. Read expert review. From £197per night. Check availability. Rates provided by Booking.com.
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The Whitby New York, United States
9Telegraph expert rating
The Whitby is such a riot of rich, tactile fabrics, elaborately printed wallpapers, crockery hung like portraits, giant murals and sculptures as to be deemed a gallery in its own right. The buzzing Whitby Bar serves breakfast, lunch, dinner and afternoon tea to a mixture of hotel guests and business and fashion sorts from the neighbourhood, who fill up the space particularly at cocktail hour, taking a perch at the long pewter bar or at one of the tables, with armchairs, sofas and banquettes. Plus, in a three-block radius alone, you’ll find restaurants such as Nobu, Ma Peche, The Modern and Benihana. Read expert review. From £459per night. Check availability. Rates provided by Booking.com.
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Contributions by Douglas Rogers, Jane Mulkerrins, Heidi Mitchell and John O'Ceallaigh.
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