The 13 Best Bars In Soho And Nolita - New York - The Infatuation (2024)

photo credit: Fellini Coffee

Ah, Soho and Nolita. Land of boutique hotels, high-end art galleries, and places that sell faux-leather jackets that cost more than your rent. These neighborhoods aren’t known for their abundance of great bars, but if you know where to look, you can find a few where you'll actually want to hang out.

THE SPOTS

Spring Lounge has been around since the 1920s, and you can tell. It has a tin ceiling and old wooden floors that look like they’ve been walked on by several million people, and sometimes the whole place smells a little like a sock. But it’s a classic spot, and it's your best option for unpretentious drinks in Nolita that won't cost $20. Like every other place in the neighborhood, Spring Lounge is a bit of a scene nowadays. If you want to avoid a crowd, stop by when they open at 8am.

Unlike the original—a takeout window in the West Village—Fellini Coffee’s Soho location has a wine list and some indoor seating in a shoebox-sized space decorated with globe lights and Italian movie posters. Tiny, glamorous, and wood-paneled, it’s perfect for when you want to get a mellow drink with a friend, or need somewhere to camp out while you wait for a table at Roscioli. You can get a bottle of wine for around $60, and you can supplement with some cheese or charcuterie.

Guild Bar is the kind of place that could only exist in Soho (or the Upper East Side, west of Lexington). The entire bar consists of just five seats tucked to the side of a restaurant located in a home goods store where the candlestick prices reach four figures. co*cktails start around $18, and the martini—made with three gins and a few different vermouths—is one of the best in the city. Given the fancy-department-store atmosphere, this place isn’t for everyone, but if your Prada boots are killing you, and you need to sit down for a few, it’s a nice option.

As any longtime Soho resident will tell you, Milady’s used to be a dive. But that was years ago. Now, it’s more of an upscale spot with elaborate co*cktails and fancy bar food like duck liver pâté and crab mac and cheese. The drinks are obviously more expensive these days, but at least they’re inventive and very well made. Bring a few coworkers, or stop by with your roommate when you want to enjoy a martini and can’t handle the scene at Fanelli. If it’s warm outside, grab a table on the sidewalk.

From the folks behind The Tyger (right next door), South Soho Bar is the size of your average bodega, and it’s perfect for when you want to hide out and drink a good Old Fashioned. You can take a seat at the bar and stare at a massive wall of booze, or sit in a booth and eat some fancy chicken nuggets or a burger. The soundtrack is great, and the lights stay dim, so keep this place in mind for first dates.

Beyond the Pale is a slightly confusing but highly useful place. It looks like a mix between an Irish pub and an upscale co*cktail lounge, and it’ll come in handy when you need a spot in Nolita that’s more attractive than Spring Lounge and less hectic than Mother’s Ruin. The room is long and narrow, with hanging globe lights, a few leather booths, and some tables in the back where you can hang out and sip on a $20 martini made with olive oil-washed vodka. Be sure to get a side of curly fries.

Local is a cozy beer-and-wine bar in Soho that manages to be versatile despite its tiny space. There’s a counter where you can have an involved conversation about ciders and sours with the bartender, a quieter room in the back with tables and chairs, a dark nook by the window that’s perfect for dates, and a good amount of outdoor seating as well. A lot of people seem to drop in for a drink on the way to somewhere else, so if there’s nowhere to sit, something will probably open up if you wait a little while. Free popcorn is available upon request.

This casual, always-crowded Nolita bar is cool without being too cool. It's been around for over a decade now, and it's still the first place you should think of when you want to drink a great co*cktail in a space that's slightly nicer than your average dive. There isn’t a ton of table seating, but there's a long bar where you can usually find a stool, and you'll likely find some outdoor seating as well.

In almost any other part of town, Sweet and Vicious wouldn’t be that special. But there aren’t too many semi-divey bars in Nolita where you can drink a margarita with a group of coworkers and also maybe meet the next person you’re going to date. So if that’s what you want to do, come here. It gets extremely busy, but that’s kind of the point.

Across the street from Sweet and Vicious, you'll find The Vig Bar, a generic-looking place with a few high-tops and a back room that you can rent out for parties. Sweet and Vicious is a little more fun, but it's easier to have a conversation here, and you usually have a good chance of finding a seat. So think of this place as your ultimate backup plan. If you stop by on a Saturday night, however, you can expect to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with a bunch of folks who just finished pregaming in their LES apartments.

This is the best wine bar in the area. In addition to a list of natural wines that's long enough to qualify as a novella, La Compagnie has plenty of comfy chairs and banquettes that tend be occupied by people who recently met on Hinge. You can either book a table and get some steak tartare to accompany your wine, or you can hang at the bar and drink a glass of chilled cab franc while you stare at your phone.

Botanica is a dive, and it's the kind of place where you bring a group of friends or coworkers when all you want to do is drink something cheap in a room that gets very little natural light. There's a great Happy Hour until 7pm daily—and seeing as how everyone seems to know this, it can be hard to find a seat here.

The most nondescript, bar-iest bar listed here, Broome Street Bar is a classic spot that checks off all the boxes: lots of space, good beer list, and... yeah, that’s basically it. But don’t underestimate this place. It’s the only bar of its kind in the heart of Soho.