Winter is slowly approaching, so instead of avoiding all human contact until April of 2017, strap on your Canada Goose and hole up in these cozy New York dive bars.
1. Barcelona Bar (923 8th Avenue in Midtown West)
Barcelona Bar isn’t for the faint of heart. This shot-centric bar in Midtown West features over 100 different shots of varying degrees of daubetchery. You can keep it easy with a shot and a beer, or go big with the Bear Fight (an Irish car bomb immediately followed by a Jäger bomb) or the above pictured Harry Potter shot, complete with fire and a Hogwarts clad bartender.
2. Rudy’s Bar and Grill (627 9th Avenue in Hells Kitchen)
For a holistic dive bar experience, it’s hard to beat the stimulus package being offered up at Rudy’s. For just $5, you can get your hands on a beer and a shot, and when you check in on Yelp, you’ll score a free hot dog to boot. It’s one of Paul McCartney’s favorite bars, so if it’s good enough for the second best Beatle, it’s good enough for us.
3. The Library (7 Avenue A in Alphabet City)
For the professional drinker, there’s Library Bar. It’s almost always happy hour here – from noon to 8:00pm to be exact – and you’ll save some cash to toss towards your 401K with 2-for-1 drinks during that seemingly all day happy hour.
4. Point Break (12 W. 45th Street in Midtown West)
I mean, if the warm vibes of Keanu Reeves and Patrick Swayze can’t heat you up, you might be cold blooded. This bar is a tongue-in-cheek homage to a cult classic where a wheel of shots often determines the fate of your morning after hangover.
5. Otto’s Shrunken Head (538 E. 14th Street in East Village)
When a tiki bar meets a dark, divey music venue, the hours just seem to melt away. Jump into any number of their Polynesian cocktails – both single and group formatted – and it’ll be baseball season again before you know it.
6. Two-Bits Retro Arcade (153 Essex Street in LES)
Play the best games from the late ’80s and early ’90s, like Donkey Kong and pinball, while drinking 40-ounce bottles of Colt 45. This could either be the best or worst decision you make all winter long.
7. Duff’s Brooklyn (168 Marcy Avenue)
If running into Kerry King of Slayer is something that’s on your bucket list, you should do a lot more drinking at Duff’s.
8. The Duck (2171 2nd Avenue in Harlem)
If there was anything such as a dive bar speakeasy, I suppose you could lump The Duck in Spanish Harlem to that short list. This sneaky dive masquerades as an arcade in the front, with a sticky-floored dive tucked away at the back right through a narrow hallway.
Need more suggestions? Fire up the Yelp app.
