Drinks in Chelsea

A long-running gay sports bar on Eighth Avenue between 18th and 19th, with pool tables and arcade machines. Games stay on the screens. It is plain inside and the crowd is mostly regulars and the gay sports leagues whose nights it hosts. No cover, no line, and it opens at one in the afternoon on weekends.

Mon to Thu, 4pm to 2am. Fri, 4pm to 4am. Sat, 1pm to 4am. Sun, 1pm to 2am

The ground floor of the Hotel Chelsea, reopened after the long renovation, with the original staircase and the hanging art still in place. Drinks are made carefully and slowly and the bar is open to anybody off West 23rd Street, not just to guests. Only people staying upstairs can book a table, which in practice means the rest of the seating is first come.

Mon to Sun, 11am to 2am

Open since 1936 on the corner of Seventh Avenue and West 19th, and still run by the McManus family, which makes it about the oldest family-held bar in the city. Dark wood, a long bar, booths at the back and a burger the place will argue about. It has shown up in Seinfeld, Radio Days and Law & Order, and none of that has changed anything about walking in.

Mon to Sun, noon to 4am

Three floors and a roof deck on West 28th, the surviving leather bar of the stretch that used to be full of them. A pool table is on the second floor and a DJ plays some nights. The roof opens when the weather allows. Nothing opens before ten except on Sunday, and it runs to four in the morning the rest of the week.

Mon, 10pm to 3am. Tue to Sat, 10pm to 4am. Sun, 5pm to 4am

A basement on West 23rd that has been done out as a trailer park since 2000, with wood panelling, garden gnomes and Christmas lights left up all year. Tater tots, corn dogs and very large frozen margaritas. Nothing about it has been updated since.

Mon to Fri, 4pm to 2:30am. Sat and Sun, from noon, closing about 2:30am

A long bar on West 23rd between Eighth and Ninth, going since 1997, with pool tables at the back and a jukebox somebody is always feeding. Its own site describes the regulars as the point and says they are there every day until four in the morning. Cheap beer, no cover, nobody at the door. It sits on the same block as the 24-hour diner, so the two work as a pair after a late set.

Mon to Sun, until 4am. Opening time varies by day and the operator does not post it