Most New York cocktail destinations make you choose between an easy round after work and a serious sit-down with a master bartender. Sip & Guzzle refuses the choice. One narrow address on Cornelia Street holds two complete bars, stacked one above the other, and both are worth the trip.
The numbers settle any argument about pedigree. Sip & Guzzle landed at No. 39 on the 2025 World's 50 Best Bars list, then went one better at home, topping the inaugural North America's 50 Best Bars ranking in 2026 (theworlds50best.com). For a bar that opened in late 2023, that is a fast climb in a city that does not hand out praise cheaply.
The ground floor is Guzzle, and it reads as a New York pub with Tokyo discipline. Steve Schneider runs the room with Japanese highballs, draft beer, and classics poured at speed. Descend the staircase and the register changes completely. Sip is Shingo Gokan's basement, an intimate space styled on 1860s Edo, the old name for Tokyo, where the drinks slow down and the focus tightens.
The two menus stay distinct. Upstairs, the Super Lychee Martini mixes The SG Shochu Kome with lychee, vodka, raspberry, grapefruit, and rose, while the Whiskey Cosmo leans on high-proof bourbon, shochu, Cointreau, and a cranberry cordial. Downstairs the work gets stranger and sharper: the Doctor Green carbonates tequila with tomatillo, green apple, shiso, and horseradish, and the Negroni In The Shade folds melon, kiwi, and gyokuro tea into a white Negroni (menus listed at sipandguzzlenyc.com).
What to order depends on which floor you are on. At Guzzle, start with the Super Lychee Martini and a highball chaser. At Sip, put yourself in the bartender's hands and ask for the Doctor Green. If you want one drink that explains the whole project, the Negroni In The Shade is the house thesis in a glass.
Who is this for. Guzzle suits the after-work crowd and anyone who wants a great drink without ceremony, which makes it one of the more reliable picks among the best cocktail bars in New York. Sip rewards the pilgrim, the drinker who books ahead and treats the basement as a destination. The split personality is the point, and few rooms in the global cocktail bar guide pull it off this cleanly.
Best time to go. Guzzle takes walk-ins and fills early on weeknights, so arrive before 7pm if you want a stool without a wait. Sip is small and reservation-led, so book the basement through Resy several days out, especially for Thursday through Saturday. A quiet Tuesday remains the connoisseur's move on both floors.
The partnership explains the ambition. Shingo Gokan built an international name with the SG Group, whose Tokyo and Shanghai bars sit near the top of every Asian ranking, and Sip is his first permanent New York room. Steve Schneider, profiled in the documentary Hey Bartender, brings the Manhattan service polish that keeps Guzzle moving on a packed Friday. Few openings arrive with this much craft on both floors.
The building itself is narrow and easy to miss, which suits the project. Guzzle's ground floor stays loud and social, while the descent to Sip works as a deliberate reset, quieter with every step. Plan the order of the night accordingly: drinks up top, then down, not the reverse.
For more of the city's defining rooms, our guide to the best cocktail bars in New York sets the wider scene, and serious mixers will want to compare notes at Attaboy and Katana Kitten, two more of the addresses that keep New York at the front of the cocktail world.
