The Parlour Room

The Parlour Room sits at 70 West 36th Street, a block off Herald Square in the stretch of Midtown most people walk through rather than stop in. That is the surprise. Behind the door is a plush, low-lit room built around a whiskey collection that runs to roughly 450 bottles, drawn from Ireland, Scotland, Japan, the United States and Canada. ABC7 New York featured it as a spot that specializes in whiskey and whimsy, and the description fits: this is a serious back bar wrapped in a theatrical, slightly literary mood.

Who will love it: the whiskey drinker who wants range without a members-only pretense, and the after-work crowd that needs somewhere to actually hear each other. Who might not: anyone hunting a loud, late scene. The room is designed for conversation, with the seating spaced to keep the volume down.

The Room

Plush seating, intimate table layouts and sound levels tuned for talking, per the venue's own framing of the space. It reads more drawing room than bar floor, which is the point of the name. The back bar of bottles is the visual centerpiece, and it is the first thing regulars on Yelp, where the room holds close to 300 reviews, tend to photograph.

The Drinks

Start with the whiskey list. With around 450 pours on hand, the move is to tell the staff a flavor you like and let them steer you toward a bottle you would not have ordered yourself. On the cocktail side the menu leans literary: each drink is tied to a writer or a work. The signature is The Raven, a spirit-forward American whiskey cocktail built as a theatrical nod to Edgar Allan Poe. Expect cocktails in the high-teens to low-twenties. If you came for whiskey, skip the showier builds and drink something neat with a single large cube.

The Crowd

Expect a Midtown after-work mix early, with couples and small groups settling in later. It fills from the end of the workday and stays steady rather than spiking. Best on a weeknight, when a seat at the bar comes with the bartender's full attention and a longer detour through the whiskey list.

Who It's For

• The whiskey drinker who wants 450 options and a guide to narrow them.
• An after-work group near Herald Square that needs to hear itself.
• Skip it if you came for a loud, high-volume late night; this room is built quieter than that.

Getting There and When to Go

West 36th Street puts you a short walk from the Herald Square hub on the B/D/F/M and N/Q/R/W lines, with the 7 at Fifth Avenue close by. Early evening is the sweet spot for a relaxed seat at the bar; it tightens as the after-work crowd lands.

For more whiskey, The Flatiron Room in New York runs one of the city's deepest back bars a few blocks south. For a classic Midtown hotel-bar nightcap, King Cole Bar in New York at the St. Regis is the benchmark, and Bemelmans Bar in New York adds live piano uptown. Browse the full New York whiskey bars guide or the wider New York bar guide for more.