Sweet and Vicious has run on Spring Street between Elizabeth and the Bowery since 1999 and is one of the last NoLita bars where the inside still feels like the neighbourhood looked twenty years ago. Exposed brick, reclaimed wood, low candles. Behind the bar there is a covered backyard that runs the depth of the building — string lights, picnic tables, a working fireplace in winter. The drinks programme is built around frozen margaritas and inexpensive beer.
It is the right bar for anyone who wants a $14 frozen margarita and a heated garden seat in a neighbourhood now mostly priced for $20 cocktails. It is the wrong bar for anyone hunting for craft cocktail technique. The Infatuation has called the backyard 'still NoLita's most-recommended outdoor drink' in successive updates.
A long, narrow indoor room with the bar on the left. A door at the back opens into the garden, which is partially covered and heated October through April. Eater New York's NoLita bars guide describes the space as 'the rare downtown bar that has not been renovated into oblivion.'
Order the frozen margarita ($14) — they pour it from the same machine that has been here since the early 2000s. The classic margarita is the better of the two on the rocks. Wine is workable, beer list is wide, cocktails outside the margarita lane are inconsistent. Regulars on r/AskNYC consistently flag the frozen as the only thing you really need to order.
Twenty-somethings and downtown locals on weeknights; bachelorette parties and tourists in the garden on weekends. Time Out's bar guide notes the bar 'fills its backyard within an hour of opening' on warm Saturdays.
Sweet and Vicious's own site and Instagram; The Infatuation; Eater New York; Time Out New York; r/AskNYC; Google Maps reviews (n=2,200+).