What Does It Take to Find Success as a Bar in New York City Right Now? 5 Top Operators Weigh In.
There’s no market like New York City. Across all industries, businesses operate in a distinct landscape that offers both boundless opportunities and challenges. The city is incredibly dense with cultural influence, diverse consumer demographics, and economic power, creating a fertile ground for businesses to flourish.
But with those innumerous possibilities comes many roadblocks. The five boroughs are rife with competition: An up-and-coming chef trying to convert their pop-up series into a brick and mortar must vie with the city’s most prestigious restaurant empires to have a chance at survival. Not to mention the tight streets, small storefronts, high rents, and ever-increasing costs of labor and ingredients. On top of it all, consumers’ penny pinching continues to threaten the stability of the city’s bars and restaurants. Beverage programs were once the lifeline of the hospitality industry, but consumers are now cutting back on how much they spend on booze while dining out, forcing operators to adjust.
Put simply, running a hospitality business in NYC can be a ruthless game. Sure, “if you can make it here, you can make it anywhere” — but actually “making it” can be nearly impossible to accomplish. New Yorkers are notorious for their discerning taste and highly selective dining habits. In a city teeming with options, diners might consider a space’s design and ambiance; the value of its product; and the precision of its point of view.
With endless considerations, which decisions do bar owners think help move the needle toward success? We asked five of the city’s most accomplished operators what it actually takes to run a successful bar right now. Here’s what they said.
Credit: Cole Wilson
Chase Sinzer
Owner, Claud, Penny, and Stars
What brings people in is a combination of the team, the beverage curation, and the room. For Stars, we spent a lot of time curating our tiny space. We wanted the bar to feel inviting, welcoming, and warm. We’re constantly working on the room as a team through various channels while discussing how to make that inviting environment happen.
Our beverage program was designed to appeal to both the most discerning guest and a casual visitor that has never heard of us before. The wine program is the opposite of stagnant. We are working on it day in and out to ensure it has diversity and breadth — and the team behind it is excited to share it and meet guests where they are at.
Our 88 bottles under $88 section has also been a big calling card for Stars. Highlighting affordability is something we rock at the bar. It’s allowed people to feel comfortable in our space and never doubt that we have their back from an economic point of view. That also allows us to offer diversified price points without appearing top-heavy.
Overall, “making it” is maybe all about realizing you haven’t made it. We never believe we are at a plateau or have reached a place of true comfort, though that doesn’t mean that we don’t recognize success or give positive feedback. The key to the most competitive market in the world, though, is being thankful for your success and feeling grateful while always pushing for more through relentless self-critique.
Credit: Evan Sung
Annie Shi
Owner, Lei; partner, King, Jupiter, and Dean’s
Lei is a transportative experience for guests, and I think that’s what people are looking for if they’re going to spend money by going out. They want to feel like they are in someone else’s world and that it’s a complete, immersive experience. Both Lei and Dean’s do that in their own fashion. You feel that in the atmosphere. What’s in your glass — whether a cocktail, perfectly pulled Guinness, or a great glass of wine — obviously matters, but the experience is also in all the details, from the lighting and the music to the service. Going out is very expensive right now, so every facet of a space has to hit.
I have been working in wine for 10 years now, and the price for a bottle of great white Burgundy in 2016 versus 2026 has tripled. Costs are a really tough pill to swallow, and one of our core missions at Lei is to inspire more people to want to become wine drinkers and wine lovers. One very specific pillar of that mission is to convert people who had only ever ordered a glass to have the confidence and the comfort to order a bottle. That transition from glass to bottle is really, really crucial in the journey of what it means to love and understand wine, and that’s why we price our bottles so fairly.
Fostering a space where guests feel comfortable ordering bottles is not just more economical for them, but much more enjoyable. A bottle of wine transforms from the moment you pull the cork to your last sip, and you can experience that when sharing a bottle of wine in a way that you simply don’t get when having a glass. It’s the joy and convivial nature of drinking wine with friends that makes it totally different than having a glass of wine for yourself at home, and that’s something we’ve captured at Lei.
Something that we care a lot about as a wine team is what, exactly, is tasting great, agnostic of region, winemaker, or price. Our wine director Matt Turner is tasting upwards of 50 wines a day, sometimes five days a week. In an environment where the blue-chip regions become more expensive than ever because they’re more in demand than ever, it is our responsibility as wine professionals to think about what value means for our guests. And that comes from tasting, tasting, tasting. That’s how we find up-and-coming regions and producers who are making wine with integrity and with great farming practices that can be sold at reasonable prices. That makes guests think, “I want to come back. Wine is not too expensive nor intimidating for me, and I feel comfortable ordering that bottle on the list.”
The ultimate key to making it in NYC is obviously the quality of your offering. New Yorkers are incredibly discerning. Your selection has to be on point, and you have a real perspective and point of view. As people choose to drink quality over quantity, you must have a great offering in a unique space. The atmosphere, the people watching, the glassware — all of that has to feed into the experience.
Credit: Eric Medsker
Steve Schneider
Bar manager and head bartender, Sip & Guzzle
Luck, timing, experience, and imagination — with location and providing a high-quality product also being important — are the four keys to success in this city. But I take pride in putting hospitality first. I just want to operate a really cool, unique spot and everything else falls in line from there.
Our dedication to hospitality and service aside, the variety of options we provide to all types of drinkers — with the addition of really good, fun food — keeps people coming in.
Environmentally, minimizing waste should be considered standard practice. Economically, the more you can use from one single item, the less expensive that item becomes. For instance, we use super high quality A5 Wagyu in our Royale With Cheese with the trimmings getting ground up to make our Tavern Burger and the fat rendered down to make our Wagyu Old Fashioned. The multiuse of such a high-quality ingredient is essential. Otherwise, it’s hard to use these ingredients at all because of the high price point per ounce.
Credit: Place des Fêtes via Instagram
Piper Kristensen
Beverage director, Redwood Hospitality (Place des Fêtes, Cafe Mado, and Golden Ratio)
The question of success is a tricky one. What are we measuring? Are my employees making enough money? Are we contributing to the community? Are we staying true to our concept and vision? Are we maintaining our values? Are we giving customers what they want? Am I making money? Is everyone, generally, having fun?
These are all markers of success in some way. Many are linked, and some are in direct opposition to one another. You will never get them all at once, and the balance can shift over time.
In my experience, the greatest driver to success is flexibility — specifically, the flexibility to change what you consider success to look like as the business evolves. Across Redwood Hospitality, our projects are all at different stages. Place des Fêtes and Cafe Mado are longer tenured and relatively well established, while Golden Ratio is still in its first year. Each location has different needs, so we can’t measure or manage them in the same ways.
Seasonality is one way that flexibility takes shape across our venues. It is a core value for us and gives us a regular reason to assess our systems. It keeps our food and beverage programs fresh and forces us to keep making edits to what should stay and what should go.
I don’t believe there is one formula for making it in New York. For us it means staying responsive to nature, to the business, to our teams, to the community, and to the customers.
Credit: Joanna Lin
Takuma Watanabe
Owner, Martiny’s, L’Americana, and Midnight Blue
One of the factors that consistently drives customers to Martiny’s is that our cocktail menu is constantly evolving. I don’t like creating cocktails under the pressure of a fixed schedule and am fortunate enough to travel around the world. I try to bring the inspiration I gain from those experiences back to the bar, making small updates to our menu every month.
Another reason might be something very simple: we genuinely enjoy making cocktails, and we take great pride in what we do. I believe our guests can feel that passion.
One of the most important elements to building a successful bar is to attend as many industry events and seminars as possible, so you can build relationships with others in the field and continue to grow within the community. I try to bring as many of my team members as I can to these events because I want them to meet new people and broaden their perspectives. Investing in opportunities for the team to engage with the industry is just as important as investing in their technical skills. The more experience they gain, the more they learn and grow — and they can then bring what they’ve acquired back to our own bar.
At the bar, we meet so many customers every single day. I think the real challenge is how well we can connect with our guests through both our hospitality and the product we offer. At the end of the day, it comes down to a simple question: Can we create an experience that genuinely resonates with people and makes them want to come back? That’s one of the simplest things to understand, but also one of the hardest qualities to consistently achieve.
*Quotes edited for clarity.
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