In the ’50s & ’60s, this cozy West Village tavern’s original location on MacDougal Street served as a haunt for the Beat Generation; Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, Gregory Corso and Norman Mailer.
On the Road penner, Kerouac a regular at this Village pub. Rumor has it he overstayed his welcome so many times that “Kerouac, go home!” was scrawled above a urinal in the men’s room.
It's most noteworthy drinker remains Dylan Thomas. The Welsh poet slammed his last whiskey here—allegedly his 18th of the night—before passing away a few days later.
Flatiron saloon is one of the most ancient places to imbibe in town: It’s been pouring drinks steadily since 1892—even operating during Prohibition as a speakeasy.
Literary boozers including Frank McCourt (a signed copy of his Angela’s Ashes is displayed above one of the booths), Nick Hornby, Seamus Heaney and Billy Collins—have sidled up to long mahogany bar.
Drinking den is an ideal place to trade bookish barbs. Housed in Algonquin Hotel, where Dorothy Parker, Robert Benchley met daily as part of famed ’20s group the Algonquin Round Table/Vicious Circle.
This magnificent 3,500 expertly curated tomes. Nab a cocktail at the bar and look through two floors’ worth of books, accessible by a spiral staircase. Titles cover medieval history to Audrey Hepburn.
Former commie hangout hosts free readings with budding wordsmiths. Recommend Fantastic Fiction where notables Joyce Carol Oates and Jack Ketchum have appeared, and the weekly Sunday Night Fiction.
Each of the 10 guest room floors devoted to 1 of the categories of the Dewey Decimal System, each of the 60 rooms has a set of books devoted to a topic within that category.
Where the motto is “18 Miles of Books,” and where new and used books are packed into every cranny over three levels, is worth the price of your airfare.
In Chelsea, 192 Books has hardwood floors and a small but brilliantly curated selection of fiction and nonfiction.
The selection here is terrific, and profits support an AIDS charity. Many stylish weddings are held at Housing Works, too
The selection of books is excellent; even better is the display of literary magazines and foreign periodicals. You walk in here and you think: These are my people.
“it really is the closest thing I know of to a writer’s hangout in the old-fashioned sense.”
Is where Eloise ran amok, where Truman Capote held his Black and White Ball in 1966 and where F. Scott Fitzgerald set parts of “The Great Gatsby.”
Tennessee Williams once lived on the top floor of the Hotel Elysée, in Midtown. Just off its lobby is the Monkey Bar, now owned in part by the Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter.
The Chelsea Hotel, where Sid frolicked with Nancy and where everyone from Charles Bukowski to Patti Smith once prowled. Arthur C. Clarke wrote “2001: A Space Odyssey” in the Chelsea Hotel.
It’s a place for looking, not touching. These volumes are dear, and dearly priced. This is where you can ogle a first edition of Milton’s “Paradise Lost” (1669), on sale for $35,000.
Offers an offbeat selection of low-priced remainders, with a focus on things like underground comics and Bob Dylan
