The Lab at Patent Pending

On our lists of the best speakeasies and cocktail bars in New York.

Reached through a hidden door inside Patent Pending's own coffee-shop entrance on West 27th Street, The Lab is a second, smaller speakeasy tucked behind the first: a cavern linked to the main room by a natural stone arch. Ryan McKenzie opened it in 2021, three years after Patent Pending itself, inside the old Gerlach Hotel, whose penny-tile floor survives under a small dance floor. Five bar stools and two banquettes, seating ten and twelve, share Patent Pending's cocktail list. The whole room can also be booked outright for a private party.