Lantern's Keep

Cozy place with great drinks.

Lantern's Keep is a tiny, classy cocktail bar, a reliable choice in midtown. These folks are serious about their cocktails: they're inventive and delicious and made with care and attention. The service is good, and the atmosphere is fantastic. Lantern's Keep is far superior, if less storied, than the Algonquin's bar, which is next door.

Why go to a proper bar when you can sit at little marble tables from an outdoor cafe that have been jammed into a little back room of a hotel lobby? Why patronize an establishment that wants your custom when you can be jostled and ignored by overworked waitstaff who'd apprently rather be reading up on latest man-bun hairdos than serving you? I don't know where to begin with the shortcomings of this place. First, there is no bar in sight. Second they don't know the basics about bar etiquette. Yes, I should get a napkin under my cocktail. No, spending 20 minutes making my drink doesn't make it better even if it's served in an oversize cocktail glass with an icecube that never melts. At the $22 price point there are a dozen better bars in the area. Even gave them the benefit of the doubt and went back a few months later.

Speak easy Matt and lyn went to. Inside iroquois hotel.

The two young bartenders knew their stuff—don't let their age fool you. It's a comfort when a you see a bartender taking pride in their trade, and it's always personified with the drink. I'll always come back to this bar when I'm in town.