This is my list of favorite wine bars in New York City. It includes wine bars that I know and have visited and will go back to. It also includes wine bars I have not yet visited, but I have heard about them and would like to visit them.
It includes wine bars in the pure sense, where the focus is on the wine and the food is on the back burner. It also includes restaurants that have a nice bar area, where they serve interesting wine.
It also includes some places that do not impress me because of the wine, but because of other factors. Sardi’s – the icon in the Theater District – is an example.
At the end of the article, there are links to useful web sites.
Harlem
Red Rooster
310 Lenox Avenue (125th Street)
The racial and ethnic variety in the vast bar and loft-like dining room are virtually unrivaled in New York. The restaurant may not be the best to open in New York City last year. The scene is amazing: a pulsing, cheerful and virtually always-packed bar that gives way to a crowded and sleek dining room beyond it, decorated with the work of local artists. In the seats: Harlem itself, along with many visitors from downtown and afar, everyone playing a role in the restaurant’s grand vision.
Manhattan
Upper West Side
Bar Boulud
1900 Broadway
Bar Boulud is Daniel Boulud’s wine bar and bistro located across from Manhattan’s Lincoln Center. Daniel Boulud is a star and plays almost in the same league as Alain Ducasse. He is a chef, owns now a little restaurant imperium across the globe and just got his third star Michelin. In contrast to Alain Ducasse, however, he is not at all established in his home country, France.
See also:
New York Manhattan Wine Bars -- Bar Boulud, The Ten Bells, Terroir and Clo.
Upper East Side
Rouge Tomate
Michelin-starred restaurant with a nice bar and lounge area. A trendsetter in terms of sustainable food.
10 East 6oth Street
Theater District
Sardi’s
In the Theater district. A famous restaurant for pre-show and after show dinners. Has also two bars, one next to the entrance and one on the first floor where Sardi’s serves decent wine. Nothing special.
234 West 44th Street
Morek Wine Bar and Café
Wine store plus small wine bar (a 14-seat curved black granite bar make for a cozy atmosphere) plus large sidewalk area. More than two thousand bottles are available from their extensive list, with fifty wines by the glass.
West 49th Street, between 5th and 6th Avenue, Rockefeller Center
Aldo Sohm Wine Bar (to be opened)
To be opened later in 2013, next to Le Bernardin. It will be run and co-owned? by the famous Le Bernardin sommelier Aldo Sohm (from Austria).
155 W 51 Street
Clinton - Hell’s Kitchen
Xai Xai
75 South African Wines.
369 West 51 Street
Midtown East
Grand Central Station Oyster Bar
This is the best place in town for New England Chowder and of course oysters, in a beautiful space under the world’s most famous station. The wine list is also impressive.
89 E. 42nd St. at Vanderbilt Ave.
Murray Hill
Terroir Murray Hill
439 3rd Avenue
Vanguard Wine Bar (new)
Lettie Teague praises Vanguard Wine Bar, which just opened. 5pm to 2 am.
530 2nd Avenue, between 29th and 30th
Chelsea
The Lobster Place
Not a wine bar. One of the best, if not the best, resource(s) for fresh seafood in New York, in the Chelsea Market.
75 9th Avenue, between 15th and 16th.
Veloce
One of New York’s best known Italian wine bars. The Seventh Avenue digs of this congenial Italian wine bar are roomier than its East Village original, but the prices remain unchanged: Most small plates cost less than $8. Only one bartender caters to the after-work, wine-swigging crowd. Has two other locations in New York plus one in Bejing.
176 7th Avenue between 20th and 21st Street
Trestle on Tenth
A neighborhood favorite and a citywide destination that focuses on small growers, winemakers and vintners from around the world who have a hands-on relationship with the natural wines they produce. An AAWE Rheinhessen Riesling Tasting with Stuart Pigott in 2012 took place there.
242 10th Avenue (West 24th Street)
Gramercy
Bar Jamon
This tiny wine bar from Mario Batali and Chef Andrew Nusser sits adjacent to Casa Mono, their Spanish eatery. Find a space along one of the communal tables before selecting from the impressive Spanish wine list and tapas menu.
125 East 17th Street (at Irving Pl)
Gramercy Tavern
Gramercy Tavern has one of the best wine lists in town, including a large list of wines by the glass. The selection of Riesling speaks for itself: Perhaps 20 Riesling wines - mostly from the Mosel Valley, with 3 dry wines.
42 East 20th Street
Eataly
A huge Italian food and wine marketplace in the Flatiron District. into New York City’s premier culinary mecca. Eataly offers 7 sit down restaurants with both table and bar seats. Each restaurant is positioned next to the market area that provides its ingredients.
200 5th Avenue
Meatpacking District
Pastis
Not a winebar, a French brasserie - I like to have breakfast there.
9th Avenue Corner Little West 12th Street
West Village
LeLa Bar
33 seats arranged around an intimate oval bar make this a favorite for locales. There are more than 150 wines on the list with 20 available by the glass.Very much a neighborhood hang-out.
422 Hudson at Leroy Street
Uphostery Store
Chef Kurt Gutenbrunner is the king of a little Austrian empire in New York City, comprising 5 very special restaurants and wine bars. One of them is the Upholstery Store - an intimate wine bar serving a variety of wines by the glass and by the bottle and offering a selection of charcuterie and cheeses. Just around the corner of his Wallse restaurant.
344 West 11th Street
Vin sur Vingt
Small wine bar with French-only wine list. Comes highly recommended, but did not convince me.
201 West 11th Street
Terroir at the Porch on the High Line
From May through November, this alfresco café functions as the park’s only sit-down restaurant.
High Line at West 15th Street
Blue Ribbon Downing Street Bar
Flagship winebar of the Bruce and Eric Bromberg’s Blue Ribbon group. The tiny space’s white-marble-topped bar offers an ideal spot for sipping vino while digging into small plates such as warm, thick toast with luxurious smoked sturgeon.
34 Downing Street (between Bedford and Varick Sts)
Greenwich Village
Gotham Bar and Grill
A truly quintessential New York restaurant, with a classic bar.
12 East 12th Street
Corkbuzz Wine Studio
Corkbuzz – a new place - is many things: a wine bar, a wine-centric restaurant and a place for wine education that offers classes. A Terry Theise recommendation.
13 East 13th Street (b/t 5th Ave. and University)
Otto Enoteca Pizzeria
Large, stand-up bar area, massive Italian wine list. Every region represented with options across a range of prices. Tasty food as well.
5th Avenue/8th Street
East Village
Bourgeois Pig
Large French wine selection. Comes highly recommended, but it did not appeal to me.
111 East 7th Street
Bahr Che
A new contemporary wine bar featuring a dramatic wine wall displaying 1500 bottles of the best wines from all over the world, located on the ground floor in the Gwathmey Siegel apartment building in Manhattan at 26 Astor Place (entrance on cooper square) serving cheeses, charcuterie, foie gras and an assortment of delectable deserts and chocolates – pretty empty when I checked it out.
26 Astor Place/ East 8th Street
Terroir East Village
This is the initial Terroir, with 24 seats, just next to Heath Restaurant.
E 12th St, (between First Ave and Ave A)
Hearth Restaurant
403 East 12th Street
Momofuku Ssam Bar
At some point on the San Pellegrino list of the 50 Best Restaurants in the World.
Second Avenue East 13th Street
Katz’s Delicatessen
Not at all a wine bar: Pastrami! Major institution.
205 East Houston Street
SoHo
Balthazar
Major institution open for breakfast and all day, into the morning hours. Sit at the beautiful pressed metal bar and have a steak frites and order a glass of Hermitage.
80 Spring Street b/w Broadway and Crosby Streets
Lower East Side
'inoteca
A bustling trattoria for small plates and wine. The frequently updated list features only Italian wine. Wine and small plates are served at the bar where you can watch the chef slice paper-thin prosciutto on a racecar-red hand-cranked slicer
98 Rivington Street
Schiller’s
French brasserie. Like it because of the name.
131 Rivington Street
The Ten Bells
My #1 wine bar in New York City. Be sure to check out the oyster happy-hour special from 5 to 7 p.m.—you can eat your fill for only $1 each. Closes at 2:00 am in the morning.
247 Broome St.
See also:
New York Manhattan Wine Bars -- Bar Boulud, The Ten Bells, Terroir and Clo.
In the Glass: 2007 Riesling trocken from Wuertz Rheinhessen with Oysters at the Ten Bells in the Lower East Side in Manhattan
Tre
Trendy Italian restaurant with organic Italian wines, mostly from small producers. Pull up a stool at the (small) bar.
173 Ludlow St.
Taverna di Bacco
Italian trattoria, not so much a wine bar.
175 Ludlow St.
Tribeca
Terroir Tribeca
24 Harrison Street
See also:
Terroir(s) Wine Bars in London, New York and San Francisco– Wines with a Sense of Place versus Natural Wines
Brooklyn
Oak Wine Bar
Comes highly recommended but in my view not worth the trip.
361 Graham Avenue near Graham Metro
Roberta’s Pizza
A mix between a pizzeria, an organic farm, a creative kitchen, a craft beer garden and a serious Italian oenoteca. This fascinating place is located in Bushwick, an up and coming neighborhood in Brooklyn that is a bit further away than Williamsburg coming from Manhattan, but nevertheless quickly reachable with the L line. Artist and students are settling down here and their craving for good food is only satisfied by a few places. One of those is Roberta's.
261 Moore St Brooklyn,NY
Subway: L line, Morgan Ave
Reynard
Hotel Bar of Wythe Hotel. The all-French list is comprised of “all-natural” wines made “without intervention” by small producers.
80 Wythe Avenue
Roman’s
Italian sibling of Reynard.
243 Dekalb Avenue
G train to Clinton Washington or C train to Lafayette
Terroir.Park.Slope
284 5th Avenue
Chris Lucas
New York, New York! Restaurateur Chris Lucas Shares his Favorites
Alex Haller Tips (blindtaster)
Momofuku Ssäm Bar (David Chang), New York Apr 2010
WD-50* (Wylie Dufresne), New York, Nov 2007
Degustation (Wesley Genovart), New York Apr 2010
JLOB – Jack’s Luxury Oyster Bar, New York May 2010 Dec 2008
Roberta’s Pizza (Carlo Mirachi), Brooklyn Apr 2010
Sushi Yasuda, New York Apr 2010
Wine Enthusiast
America's 100 Best Wine Restaurants: Wine Enthusiast 2012
America's 100 Best Wine Restaurants: The Northeast - Wine Enthusiast 2013
Tim Atkin Blog
See Tim Atkin Blog: Best Wine Bars in New York City
Eater
The 38 Essential New York Restaurants (July 2013)
Schiller’s Favorite Jazz Clubs
Village Vanguard
178 7th Avenue
A top club. No food.
Blue Note
Aged megastars.
131 West Third Street
Birdland
315 West 44th Street
A top club. Used to be in 104th Street and moved to Times Square.
Arthur’s Tavern
57 Grove Street
No entry fee. One of the oldest Jazz Clubs in New York (since 1937)
Schiller’ Favorites
This posting is part of the Schiller’s favorites series. Here is a full list of all Schiller’s favorites postings so far.
Schiller’s Favorite Wine Bars in New York City, USA
Schiller’s Favorite Wine Bars in Seattle, USA
Schiller's Favorite Wine Bars in Washington DC, USA
Schiller’s Favorite Restaurants, Brasseries, Bistros, Cafes and Wine Bars in Paris, France
Schiller’s Favorite Crab Houses in the Washington DC Region, USA
Schiller’s Favorites at the 2013 Riesling and Co Tasting in New York City, USA
Union des Grands Crus de Bordeaux (UGCB) on North America Tour in Washington DC - Schiller’s Favorites
Schiller’s Favorites from the VDP Grosses Gewaechs – Grand Cru – Presentation at Kloster Eberbach, 2012, Germany
Schiller’s Favorite Wine Bars in Frankfurt am Main, Germany
Schiller’s Favorite Wine Bars in New York City, USA
Schiller’s Favorite Wine Bars in Charleston, South Carolina, USA
Schiller’s Favorite Wine Bars in London, UK
Schiller’s Favorite Wine Bars and Other Wine Spots in Vienna, Austria
Schiller’s Favorite Wine Bars in San Francisco, USA
Schiller's Favorite Wine Bars in Bordeaux (City), France
Schiller's Favorite Wine Bars in Budapest, Hungary
Schiller’s 12 Favorite Restaurants of Antananarivo, the Capital of Madagascar
Schiller's Favorite Apple Wine Taverns in Frankfurt am Main, Germany
Schiller’s Favorite Wine Taverns in Mainz, Germany
Schiller's Favorite Wine Bars and Other Places Where You Can Have a Glass of Wine in Healdsburg, California
schiller-wine: Related Postings
New York Manhattan Wine Bars -- Bar Boulud, The Ten Bells, Terroir and Clo.
Artisanal Fromagerie, Bistro and Wine Bar in New York City
Wine bar: Paris, Berlin, New York City, London
Breakfast with Doreen Winkler at Balthazar– An European (German) Sommelier in New York City, USA
In the Glass: 2007 Riesling trocken from Wuertz Rheinhessen with Oysters at the Ten Bells in the Lower East Side in Manhattan
Terroir(s) Wine Bars in London, New York and San Francisco– Wines with a Sense of Place versus Natural Wines
The 31-Days-of-German-Riesling Concert Cruise Around New York Harbor with the German Wine Queen Julia Bertram and the 3 Wine Amazones Tina Huff, Eva Vollmer and Mirjam Schneider from Mainz, Germany
The Mainz Wine Amazones - Christine Huff, Mirjam Schneider and Eva Vollmer - in New York City, USA