Hotel Hot Spots

Some of the city's most stylish bars and lounges are in hotels. These boîtes occasionally require crossing a velvet-roped entrance, but most extend automatic entry to guests of the hotel.

Downtown in the Financial District, the Library Bar on the second floor of Gild Hall looks like the ultimate luxe club room, with tufted leather banquettes, a dartboard, and a surprisingly friendly staff.

Mega-hotelier Ian Schrager's properties are design temples, with chic lounges favored by jet-setters and locals alike. The new "haute Bohemian" Gramercy Park Hotel is Schrager's latest offering, with its popular—and pricey—Rose Bar and Jade Bar. The hotel also features a private members- and guests-only Roof Club. The Ace Hotel is the sweet spot du jour, with one bar in the eclectic lobby and another at the trendy Breslin restaurant, and also an outpost of Stumptown coffee if you need to sober up.

The Standard has a happening bar scene at the Standard Grill. The 18th-floor lounge is a tough row to hoe unless you're a friend of the owner, but downstairs you can also sip suds in the outdoor beer garden, which is more egalitarian, and frankly, a lot more fun—they've even got Ping-Pong tables.

It's also open year-round now. On the Lower East Side, the Lobby Bar in the Bowery Hotel (Lower East Side) is a Wes Anderson movie come to life, with worn velvet furniture, Persian rugs, an assortment of taxidermy, and a back patio that harbors some of the most coveted summertime tables in the neighborhood. Nearby at the Cooper Square (Lower East Side), the Second Floor Bar has a hammered metal bar top and tall glass windows that let the sunlight stream in. It's one of the nicer spots for daytime libation—take it outside to one of the cushioned, low-slung settees if weather permits. In Midtown, the new, Art Deco-designed Chatwal (Midtown West) has a hopping lobby scene with drinks by cocktail guru Sasha Petraske and an elegant second-floor bar decorated with whimsical touches that are a paean to classic New York (look for the shimmering light fixtures shaped like the Chrysler Building).

The Room Mate Grace in Times Square has a bar that's adjacent to its lobby-level pool; you can see all the underwater action through voyeur windows above the bar. Just make sure to pay attention at the end of the evening, or you might be the hotel's next swimming sensation. At the Mandarin Oriental on Columbus Circle (Midtown West), the 35th-floor lounge is a clutch location for soaking in views of Central Park; grab a perch on a cozy leather couch (and ask the concierge to make you a reservation if you're planning ahead—it gets busy on evenings and weekends).