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Small plates and glasses of wine at a bar.
A spread at Bar Vinazo in Brooklyn.
Bar Vinazo

The Best Places to Drink Wine Right Now

Go-to restaurants and bars for drinking wines by the glass or bottle in New York City

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A spread at Bar Vinazo in Brooklyn.
| Bar Vinazo

New York City has long been considered an epicenter of the global wine scene, and in recent years, it’s taken some interesting turns. Natural wine has taken over lists left and right, and large-format bottles are widely embraced beyond celebratory settings. Restaurant wine lists are more dynamic and experimental than ever, and it’s giving us lots to toast to. Here, find 22 places to drink wine in the city right now in restaurants and bars, from more traditional lists to natural selections from California, France, Italy, Spain, and Eastern Europe.

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Musette Wine Bar

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An offshoot of Pompette Wines, Musette offers an interesting menu of wines by the glass and the bottle — with a handful of the latter around the $50 mark. Try an orange Trebbiano Spoletino, Grechetto; dry Weingut Neiss Riesling; or a fizzy pét-nat from Spain, France, or Slovenia. Happy hour is from 5 to 7 p.m. with a selection of $10 wines by the glass. The food menu includes a handful of seasonal small plates: charcuterie and cheese boards, olives, seafood, and the like.

Vin Sur Vingt Wine Bar

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There’s indoor and outdoor dining at this no-reservations wine bar with an expansive collection and a 5 to 6 p.m. happy hour with $10 glasses as well as a late-night happy hour from 10 p.m. to closing with 25 percent off bottles. Food includes French-leaning options including tartines and charcuterie boards.

A meat board and a glass of read wine.
Charcuterie at Vingt Sur Vingt.
Evan Caplan/Eater

Eli's Table

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Eli’s Table, Eli Zabar’s ambitious American restaurant, is back after a pandemic hiatus. Expect dishes made with greens grown on nearby rooftops (owned by Zabar); white asparagus with egg and a vinaigrette; veal sweetbreads; or tagliatelle with peekytoe crab. The wine list includes selections from one of the largest collections of Old World wines in the city — more than 50,000 bottles in the cellar.

The wine collection at Eli’s Table.
The wine collection at Eli’s Table.
Eli’s Table

Aldo Sohm Wine Bar

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Sibling to the acclaimed Le Bernardin, sommelier Aldo Sohm’s temple to wine is a grand place for a drink — with 40 pours by the glass and 200 by the bottle — and bites such as charcuterie and cheese, grilled avocado, or braised short ribs. Try and make it for the 9 p.m. hour, when Sohm often parades the room with a magnum (or larger bottle) pouring glasses for a very festive group toast.

Aldo Sohm charcuterie
Charcuterie at Aldo Sohm Wine Bar.
Aldo Sohm

Mercado Little Spain

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A bright, colorful, flavorful bite of the world of José Andrés hums inside Hudson Yards in the form of a Spanish food hall. Mercado Little Spain is home to three different restaurants (Leña, Mar, and Spanish Diner) along with a handful of bars and kiosks. All wine lists are Spanish, its expansive cellar a representation of the country’s diverse offerings. Rioja, Catalunya, Galicia, Castilla y Leon, Jerez, Ribeiro, and the islands are just some of the pins on the map here, so for serious Spanish wine lovers — or even those looking to expand their Spanish wine knowledge — this is a place teeming with opportunity.

A dog sitting in front of the street entrance to Mercado Little Spain.
Mercado Little Spain in Hudson Yards.
Alex Staniloff/Eater NY

Koloman

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Koloman is co-owned by chef Markus Glocker who emphasizes pared-down fine dining with dishes like celery root tartare, sweet corn soup with cured scallops, and salmon en croûte for example, along with outstanding pastries. The upstairs bar is stocked with a collection of Austrian schnapps assembled by beverage director Katja Scharnagl, who previously worked with Aldo Sohm at Le Bernardin and the nearby Aldo Sohm wine bar. Hailing from Austria, she has invested in an old-world eclectic wine list with an emphasis on Champagnes.

A bar that’s backlit and designed as a clock.
The bar at Koloman.
Gary He/Eater NY

Moonflower

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The team behind Jersey City restaurant Frankie crossed the water to debut this Bohemian ode to the West Village. If you’re looking for a window into what the trendiest indie producers are right now, Moonflower will give you a kaleidoscopic view that matches the equally colorful interiors. The bar does not take reservations.

Slanted bar shelving at Moonflower.
Moonflower’s colorful bar.
Erik Bernstein/Moonflower

Hidden downstairs in a commercial strip on 10th Street in the East Village, the food is so good it nearly overshadows the wine. The menu is short with around a dozen dishes, the majority of them small plates. Glasses of wine, half of them French, are in the $13 to $32 range and change periodically, boasting a cellar of up to 1000 bottles.

An overhead photograph of hands tugging at bread and scooping vegetables from a bowl on a busy table.
A selection of dishes from Claud.
Teddy Wolff/Claud

Ruffian

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This tight space East Village space packs in plenty of atmosphere. The wine list here traverses but places emphasis on Eastern and Central Europe. These days the menu is vegetarian and sometimes vegan and gluten-free — something harder to find in top-tier wine bars.

The blonde wood bar at Ruffian.
The bar at Ruffian.
Ruffian

Sure you can have a tomato-cucumber srpska, cevapi, or spinach pie, but Kafana is an exciting place to explore wines from Serbia, Croatia, and Slovenia. The selection includes sparkling, whites, orange, reds, and large-format wines: The majority of bottles on the menu are less than $60. There’s also an orange, white, or red liter and half-liter available.

A sidewalk cafe showing a few people relaxing at tables in parking spots in the street.
Kafana in the East Village.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Wildair

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Wildair, from the chefs Jeremiah Stone and Fabián von Hauske Valtierra, helped codify the wine bar genre when it opened years ago on the Lower East Side. If you’re looking for a special occasion night out in the neighborhood, this should be on your list, especially for the desserts.

A passer-by in a mask walks past the exterior of Wildair, whose menu is written on the windows
Wildair on the Lower East Side.
Gary He/Eater NY

Gem Wine

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This sibling to Gem that’s around the corner from the restaurant from Flynn McGarry, the guy who opened a tasting menu spot in 2018, when he was 19, specializes in low-intervention winemakers and small dishes like gouda with pears and lamb tartare with greens. You can go even more minimalist with an order of bread and butter or a larger plate of mackerel with rhubarb ponzu. The wine menu has glasses and bottles that rotate regularly. No reservations.

A young person wearing an apron and chef’s whites, Flynn McGarry, stands in the window of a restaurant.
Chef owner Flynn McGarry at Gem.
Alex Staniloff/Eater NY

Le Dive

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Le Dive, which describes itself as a natural wine bar in the tabac tradition, is anything but a dive. The corner storefront has spawned a lively street scene, though the interior is tiny, with round pedestal tables, little lampshade chandeliers, and a general feeling of being in Paris. With bottles in the $50 to $70 range and glasses around $15, half the wines are from France, and the balance is from Italy, Spain, and Portugal.

A bar exterior with red-trimmed, folding glass doors that are pushed partway back to show the interior of the space.
Le Dive in Two Bridges.
Teddy Wolff/Le Dive

Chambers

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An urbane place to drink wine in Tribeca that holds its own as a solid neighborhood restaurant, Chambers offers “a maze of contrasting styles” of wine, says critic Robert Sietsema, including more tradition-bound vintners as well as a selection of skin-contact-, natural-, and organic wines. Glasses of wine start at $9 each, and seats at the bar and at a communal table are reserved for walk-ins after 6:45 p.m.

A bowl of meat and vegetables in shades or red, brown, and yellow.
Lamb with shelling beans and corn at Chambers in Tribeca.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Parcelle

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When the weather permits, communal tables outside make Parcelle a see-and-be-seen spot. Inside the emerald green door is the dining room, which feels cozy and somewhat secretive, with just a few portholes looking to the outside. Consider the extensive selection of bottles, while a by-the-glass mostly French list runs $15 to $20 a pop.

The inside of Parcelle.
The interior of Parcelle.
Colling Hughes/Parcelle.

The Four Horsemen

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The one thing basically everyone who knows the Michelin-starred Four Horsemen is that yes, it’s backed by LCD Soundsystem frontman James Murphy. But the restaurant is more than just a celebrity’s pet project. It’s one of the best restaurants in the city with a dedicated wine list, with food menus that change frequently. Stop by its next-door night club Night Moves after dinner.

The blonde wood bar at Four Horsemen.
The Four Horsemen is one of the city’s best restaurants and bars.
The Four Horsemen

If Champagne guns shooting $70-plus wine into your mouth underneath a disco ball sounds like your thing, then Sauced could be your nighttime move. The wine list here lacks pretension often synonymous with wine culture in the city, but that doesn’t come at the cost of a well-curated natural wine list that can back up the flirty fun of being here.

The interior of a bar.
The bar at Sauced.
Brianna Balducci/Sauced

The Ten Bells Brooklyn

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The Ten Bells has been successful at being three places at once: a neighborhood bar lit by candlelight, a go-to late-night spot, and a natural wine shrine for those in the know. Look for a daily happy hour until 7 p.m. which includes $5 pours or $15 carafes as well as $1 oysters.

Place des Fêtes

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The team at Oxalis, a Michelin-starred restaurant in Prospect Heights, is behind Place des Fêtes. The Spanish wine bar with a French name serves a full food menu that leans heavily on grilled and raw seafood. The wine list includes a dozen glasses that pull from Spain and the Americas, most priced between $15 and $20.

The naturally lit front dining room of Place des Fêtes, a wine bar opening in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn.
The dining room at Place Des Fetes.
Place des Fêtes

This is not the spot for the same old natural wines or classics of any stripe. Instead, this is where you can find multiple bottles from up-and-coming producers. It would be doing June an injustice to not mention how much fun can be had for under $100. Most of the wine list is below that bottle price.

Franks Wine Bar

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This neighborhood wine bar offers an impressive bottle selection from Spain, France, Italy, and California, and a handful by the glass that run between $14 and $18. Pair a pour with a small plate like a 24-month prosciutto, or a pizza with calamari or zucchini blossoms.

Seafood and snacks at Franks Wine Bar.
Carla Vianna/Eater NY

Bar Vinazo

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Bar Vinazo is focused on the world of Spanish wines, with a list includes 15 wines by the glass — $11 to $16 — and 150 bottles: white, pink, orange, pet nat, and red, using natural and biodynamic organic methods of production. Food includes “pica pica,” conservas, cheeses, cured meats, tapas, and mains like fideuà.

The dining area outside Bar Vinazo.
The backyard at Bar Vinazo.
Liz Clayman/Bar Vinazo

Musette Wine Bar

An offshoot of Pompette Wines, Musette offers an interesting menu of wines by the glass and the bottle — with a handful of the latter around the $50 mark. Try an orange Trebbiano Spoletino, Grechetto; dry Weingut Neiss Riesling; or a fizzy pét-nat from Spain, France, or Slovenia. Happy hour is from 5 to 7 p.m. with a selection of $10 wines by the glass. The food menu includes a handful of seasonal small plates: charcuterie and cheese boards, olives, seafood, and the like.

Vin Sur Vingt Wine Bar

There’s indoor and outdoor dining at this no-reservations wine bar with an expansive collection and a 5 to 6 p.m. happy hour with $10 glasses as well as a late-night happy hour from 10 p.m. to closing with 25 percent off bottles. Food includes French-leaning options including tartines and charcuterie boards.

A meat board and a glass of read wine.
Charcuterie at Vingt Sur Vingt.
Evan Caplan/Eater

Eli's Table

Eli’s Table, Eli Zabar’s ambitious American restaurant, is back after a pandemic hiatus. Expect dishes made with greens grown on nearby rooftops (owned by Zabar); white asparagus with egg and a vinaigrette; veal sweetbreads; or tagliatelle with peekytoe crab. The wine list includes selections from one of the largest collections of Old World wines in the city — more than 50,000 bottles in the cellar.

The wine collection at Eli’s Table.
The wine collection at Eli’s Table.
Eli’s Table

Aldo Sohm Wine Bar

Sibling to the acclaimed Le Bernardin, sommelier Aldo Sohm’s temple to wine is a grand place for a drink — with 40 pours by the glass and 200 by the bottle — and bites such as charcuterie and cheese, grilled avocado, or braised short ribs. Try and make it for the 9 p.m. hour, when Sohm often parades the room with a magnum (or larger bottle) pouring glasses for a very festive group toast.

Aldo Sohm charcuterie
Charcuterie at Aldo Sohm Wine Bar.
Aldo Sohm

Mercado Little Spain

A bright, colorful, flavorful bite of the world of José Andrés hums inside Hudson Yards in the form of a Spanish food hall. Mercado Little Spain is home to three different restaurants (Leña, Mar, and Spanish Diner) along with a handful of bars and kiosks. All wine lists are Spanish, its expansive cellar a representation of the country’s diverse offerings. Rioja, Catalunya, Galicia, Castilla y Leon, Jerez, Ribeiro, and the islands are just some of the pins on the map here, so for serious Spanish wine lovers — or even those looking to expand their Spanish wine knowledge — this is a place teeming with opportunity.

A dog sitting in front of the street entrance to Mercado Little Spain.
Mercado Little Spain in Hudson Yards.
Alex Staniloff/Eater NY

Koloman

Koloman is co-owned by chef Markus Glocker who emphasizes pared-down fine dining with dishes like celery root tartare, sweet corn soup with cured scallops, and salmon en croûte for example, along with outstanding pastries. The upstairs bar is stocked with a collection of Austrian schnapps assembled by beverage director Katja Scharnagl, who previously worked with Aldo Sohm at Le Bernardin and the nearby Aldo Sohm wine bar. Hailing from Austria, she has invested in an old-world eclectic wine list with an emphasis on Champagnes.

A bar that’s backlit and designed as a clock.
The bar at Koloman.
Gary He/Eater NY

Moonflower

The team behind Jersey City restaurant Frankie crossed the water to debut this Bohemian ode to the West Village. If you’re looking for a window into what the trendiest indie producers are right now, Moonflower will give you a kaleidoscopic view that matches the equally colorful interiors. The bar does not take reservations.

Slanted bar shelving at Moonflower.
Moonflower’s colorful bar.
Erik Bernstein/Moonflower

Claud

Hidden downstairs in a commercial strip on 10th Street in the East Village, the food is so good it nearly overshadows the wine. The menu is short with around a dozen dishes, the majority of them small plates. Glasses of wine, half of them French, are in the $13 to $32 range and change periodically, boasting a cellar of up to 1000 bottles.

An overhead photograph of hands tugging at bread and scooping vegetables from a bowl on a busy table.
A selection of dishes from Claud.
Teddy Wolff/Claud

Ruffian

This tight space East Village space packs in plenty of atmosphere. The wine list here traverses but places emphasis on Eastern and Central Europe. These days the menu is vegetarian and sometimes vegan and gluten-free — something harder to find in top-tier wine bars.

The blonde wood bar at Ruffian.
The bar at Ruffian.
Ruffian

Kafana

Sure you can have a tomato-cucumber srpska, cevapi, or spinach pie, but Kafana is an exciting place to explore wines from Serbia, Croatia, and Slovenia. The selection includes sparkling, whites, orange, reds, and large-format wines: The majority of bottles on the menu are less than $60. There’s also an orange, white, or red liter and half-liter available.

A sidewalk cafe showing a few people relaxing at tables in parking spots in the street.
Kafana in the East Village.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Wildair

Wildair, from the chefs Jeremiah Stone and Fabián von Hauske Valtierra, helped codify the wine bar genre when it opened years ago on the Lower East Side. If you’re looking for a special occasion night out in the neighborhood, this should be on your list, especially for the desserts.

A passer-by in a mask walks past the exterior of Wildair, whose menu is written on the windows
Wildair on the Lower East Side.
Gary He/Eater NY

Gem Wine

This sibling to Gem that’s around the corner from the restaurant from Flynn McGarry, the guy who opened a tasting menu spot in 2018, when he was 19, specializes in low-intervention winemakers and small dishes like gouda with pears and lamb tartare with greens. You can go even more minimalist with an order of bread and butter or a larger plate of mackerel with rhubarb ponzu. The wine menu has glasses and bottles that rotate regularly. No reservations.

A young person wearing an apron and chef’s whites, Flynn McGarry, stands in the window of a restaurant.
Chef owner Flynn McGarry at Gem.
Alex Staniloff/Eater NY

Le Dive

Le Dive, which describes itself as a natural wine bar in the tabac tradition, is anything but a dive. The corner storefront has spawned a lively street scene, though the interior is tiny, with round pedestal tables, little lampshade chandeliers, and a general feeling of being in Paris. With bottles in the $50 to $70 range and glasses around $15, half the wines are from France, and the balance is from Italy, Spain, and Portugal.

A bar exterior with red-trimmed, folding glass doors that are pushed partway back to show the interior of the space.
Le Dive in Two Bridges.
Teddy Wolff/Le Dive

Chambers

An urbane place to drink wine in Tribeca that holds its own as a solid neighborhood restaurant, Chambers offers “a maze of contrasting styles” of wine, says critic Robert Sietsema, including more tradition-bound vintners as well as a selection of skin-contact-, natural-, and organic wines. Glasses of wine start at $9 each, and seats at the bar and at a communal table are reserved for walk-ins after 6:45 p.m.

A bowl of meat and vegetables in shades or red, brown, and yellow.
Lamb with shelling beans and corn at Chambers in Tribeca.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Parcelle

When the weather permits, communal tables outside make Parcelle a see-and-be-seen spot. Inside the emerald green door is the dining room, which feels cozy and somewhat secretive, with just a few portholes looking to the outside. Consider the extensive selection of bottles, while a by-the-glass mostly French list runs $15 to $20 a pop.

The inside of Parcelle.
The interior of Parcelle.
Colling Hughes/Parcelle.

Related Maps

The Four Horsemen

The one thing basically everyone who knows the Michelin-starred Four Horsemen is that yes, it’s backed by LCD Soundsystem frontman James Murphy. But the restaurant is more than just a celebrity’s pet project. It’s one of the best restaurants in the city with a dedicated wine list, with food menus that change frequently. Stop by its next-door night club Night Moves after dinner.

The blonde wood bar at Four Horsemen.
The Four Horsemen is one of the city’s best restaurants and bars.
The Four Horsemen

Sauced

If Champagne guns shooting $70-plus wine into your mouth underneath a disco ball sounds like your thing, then Sauced could be your nighttime move. The wine list here lacks pretension often synonymous with wine culture in the city, but that doesn’t come at the cost of a well-curated natural wine list that can back up the flirty fun of being here.

The interior of a bar.
The bar at Sauced.
Brianna Balducci/Sauced

The Ten Bells Brooklyn

The Ten Bells has been successful at being three places at once: a neighborhood bar lit by candlelight, a go-to late-night spot, and a natural wine shrine for those in the know. Look for a daily happy hour until 7 p.m. which includes $5 pours or $15 carafes as well as $1 oysters.

Place des Fêtes

The team at Oxalis, a Michelin-starred restaurant in Prospect Heights, is behind Place des Fêtes. The Spanish wine bar with a French name serves a full food menu that leans heavily on grilled and raw seafood. The wine list includes a dozen glasses that pull from Spain and the Americas, most priced between $15 and $20.

The naturally lit front dining room of Place des Fêtes, a wine bar opening in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn.
The dining room at Place Des Fetes.
Place des Fêtes

June

This is not the spot for the same old natural wines or classics of any stripe. Instead, this is where you can find multiple bottles from up-and-coming producers. It would be doing June an injustice to not mention how much fun can be had for under $100. Most of the wine list is below that bottle price.

Franks Wine Bar

This neighborhood wine bar offers an impressive bottle selection from Spain, France, Italy, and California, and a handful by the glass that run between $14 and $18. Pair a pour with a small plate like a 24-month prosciutto, or a pizza with calamari or zucchini blossoms.

Seafood and snacks at Franks Wine Bar.
Carla Vianna/Eater NY

Bar Vinazo

Bar Vinazo is focused on the world of Spanish wines, with a list includes 15 wines by the glass — $11 to $16 — and 150 bottles: white, pink, orange, pet nat, and red, using natural and biodynamic organic methods of production. Food includes “pica pica,” conservas, cheeses, cured meats, tapas, and mains like fideuà.

The dining area outside Bar Vinazo.
The backyard at Bar Vinazo.
Liz Clayman/Bar Vinazo

Related Maps