Experimental Cocktail Club

On our lists of the best cocktail bars and live music venues in New York.

Below La Compagnie, the wine bar at street level on West 24th Street, a bouncer at the stairs makes a reservation close to mandatory for the room underneath. Red fabric and art-deco touches set an after-hours mood that a live pianist keeps going most nights before a DJ takes over later on. The cocktail list leans on techniques like clarification and lacto-fermentation to rework classics such as the Old Cuban into something less sweet than the original. It's open nightly from 5pm, later on weekends.