Employees Only

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

Four bartenders who'd met working under Dale DeGroff opened Employees Only in the West Village in 2004, hidden behind a storefront lit by a neon psychic sign. The idea was to fold everything a night out used to require, strong drinks, good food, a late hour, into one room, with cocktails free-poured and doled out fast rather than fussed over. The drinks still hold up decades later, though the kitchen is best used for the bacon-wrapped lamb chops and steak tartare rather than a full dinner. Dinner reservations run two weeks out; the bar itself is walk-in only.