A note before we begin: the bars on this list are worth visiting entirely on their own merits. The fact that famous people drink there is a consequence of the bars being excellent, not a reason to go. We are listing them here for the same reason we list any bar — because they offer a genuinely good experience. That the table next to you might be occupied by someone you recognise from a film is incidental.

With that said: New York concentrates celebrity life in a handful of neighbourhoods and a handful of bar types. Tribeca remains the most reliably famous neighbourhood in the city for off-duty drinking. Hotel bars in Midtown and the Upper East Side attract touring film and music talent. Members' clubs in SoHo and Meatpacking serve the fashion and media industries. We have identified 11 bars where the formula reliably works.

Tribeca: The Most Celebrity-Dense Neighbourhood for Bars

Tribeca's combination of expensive apartments, excellent restaurants, and low tourist footprint makes it the preferred neighbourhood for celebrities who want to drink without being mobbed. The bars here are quiet by design and expensive by consequence.

Tribeca upscale bar
Locanda Verde Bar
Tribeca, Manhattan · $$$$ · Open daily from 5pm
Robert De Niro's building. The film and entertainment industry has lived in Tribeca for 30 years and this is where they drink. The cocktail programme is excellent. The food backing it is world-class. The room has the quality of somewhere that takes itself seriously without requiring you to. Tuesday and Wednesday evenings are the most likely for industry regulars. One of our top picks for cocktail bars in New York.
Tribeca bar lounge
Tiny's Bar
Tribeca, Manhattan · $$$ · Open Mon–Sat from 6pm
A narrow townhouse bar across three floors. The ground floor bar is the place to be — 8 seats, attentive bartenders, and a cocktail list built around seasonal ingredients. Fashion and media types occupy the room most evenings. No velvet rope, no guest list — just a genuinely good bar that the right people know about. The back room fills up quickly on Friday evenings.

Hotel Bars

Luxury hotel bar New York City

Hotel bars attract touring talent because they are convenient and private. The best ones in New York also happen to be excellent bars in their own right. Our complete guide to the best hotel bars in New York covers the full range, but the following are the ones with the highest consistent celebrity footfall.

Hotel bar dark luxurious
The Bemelmans Bar
The Carlyle, Upper East Side · $$$$ · Open daily from 5pm
The Upper East Side's most reliably excellent bar, inside one of New York's most storied hotels. The walls are covered in Ludwig Bemelmans murals — the creator of Madeline painted them in exchange for a year's rent in 1947. The piano player starts at 9pm. The clientele is old New York wealth mixed with whatever stars are staying at the hotel. A martini here costs $28 and is completely worth it.
Crosby Street Hotel bar
The Crosby Bar
Crosby Street Hotel, SoHo · $$$$ · Open daily from noon
Kit Kemp's New York hotel has a bar that attracts fashion week crowds and the publishing industry throughout the year. The room is styled with the maximalist confidence of all Firmdale hotels — bold fabrics, original art, excellent lighting. The cocktail list is ambitious and seasonally driven. Sunday afternoons here are a reliable celebrity-watching window, when touring talent tends to decompress.
Speakeasy hotel bar
Please Don't Tell (PDT)
East Village, Manhattan · $$$ · Open daily from 6pm
Entered through a phone booth inside a hot dog restaurant on St Mark's Place. One of New York's most famous speakeasies and still one of the best cocktail bars in the city. The reservation system means the room runs at exactly the right capacity. The bar team is among the most technically accomplished in New York. Food and drink industry people consider this essential. This is one of the best hidden gems in New York that is no longer that hidden.

"The bars on this list are worth visiting entirely on their own merits. The fact that famous people drink there is a consequence of the bars being excellent."

Members' Clubs and Private Bars Open to the Public

Soho House bar New York
The Ludlow Bar
Lower East Side, Manhattan · $$ · Open daily from 4pm
The bar inside The Ludlow Hotel has a notably low profile for how consistently excellent it is. The music industry discovered it first — the Lower East Side's proximity to multiple recording studios means producers and artists are regulars. The cocktail list is focused and well-executed. The room is dark enough for privacy, public enough to be interesting. A genuinely good bar in its own right.
Meatpacking district bar
Up and Up
Greenwich Village, Manhattan · $$$ · Open daily from 5pm
A basement cocktail bar on MacDougal Street that has become a fixture for the downtown creative class. The cocktail programme is serious — rotating seasonal menus, house-made ingredients, a bar team that came up through the best programmes in the city. The room holds about 40 people, ensuring a quality of experience that larger bars cannot match. Film and music people are regulars throughout the week.

The Reality of Celebrity Spotting

The bars on this list are genuinely frequented by famous people. But New York has 8.3 million residents and millions more visitors, and the vast majority of evenings you will simply be in an excellent bar drinking very good cocktails. That is the better outcome. Any celebrity sighting is a bonus — go for the bar, not the fame.

The best approach is to visit on midweek evenings (Tuesday through Thursday) when crowds thin and the regulars appear. Avoid major award season weeks and Fashion Week in February and September, when these bars become impossibly crowded with the specifically famous and their specifically famous friends.

For a full guide to New York's top bar scene, see our complete New York bar guide. If you are interested in bars where the emphasis is on the drink rather than who else is in the room, our guide to bars for art lovers in New York and date night bars in New York will serve you better.