Opera House

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

5 Doyers Street once held a 19th-century Chinese theater, the site of a 1903 benefit for pogrom victims in Kishinev, and the basement bar underneath Chinese Tuxedo keeps the high ceilings that set it apart from the rest of the block. The back bar is built like a stage, with the room's lighting and layout aimed at the bartenders working it. Beverage director Beau Bradley named twelve cocktails after Chinese operas, working in ingredients like salted-egg-chestnut syrup and Sichuan-peppercorn tincture. Food runs to dumplings and char siu sent down from the restaurant upstairs, plus mala-spiced chickpeas made just for the bar.