Drinks in Upper East Side

Ludwig Bemelmans, who wrote Madeline, painted these walls in 1947 and took payment as a year and a half of accommodation for his family rather than a fee. It is the only Bemelmans commission left that the public can walk into. The ceiling was leafed in gold during a 2002 restoration.

Sunday and Monday noon to midnight, Tuesday to Thursday to 12:30am, Friday and Saturday to 1am

A piano bar in a narrow 84th Street storefront that has worked the same way since 1979. The staff sing, the piano starts at 9:30 every night, and there is no cover, only a two drink minimum. The front bar is standing. People who came in for one drink tend to still be there an hour later. It runs until four in the morning seven nights a week.

Daily, 4pm to 4am. Piano from 9:30pm

James Dorrian opened this on Second Avenue in 1960 and his grandson runs it now. Red checked tablecloths, burgers, a long bar, and the same family name over the door for sixty-six years. It has had more written about it than most bars on this avenue and the inside has not changed much for any of it. Open until just before four in the morning every day.

Daily, 11am to 3:45am

An Irish pub that has been on the corner of First and 73rd since 1972, two doors and a crosswalk from Bohemian National Hall. Pints come across a long bar facing televisions with whatever is on. The kitchen does pub food. It is open until four in the morning every night of the week, which makes it the honest answer for anything that lets out late up here. The building was sold and a demolition clause sits in the lease, so it is worth checking the door is still there.

Daily, 11am to 4am

A cash-only tavern on the corner of Third and 74th, serving the same burger on the same checkered tablecloths since 1972. The bar runs most of the length of the front and is where you should aim if the tables have a wait, because they often do and there is no list to get on. Order the burger and the cottage fries. The kitchen shuts well before the bar does.

Mon to Sat, 11:30am to 3am. Sun, 11:30am to 1am. The kitchen closes earlier

An English pub on 76th between First and York, named for the wood that covered this part of Manhattan before the grid reached it. Fish and chips or a pie go with cask-style ales. The back garden opens when the weather allows. The front bar takes walk-ins and stays open to midnight after the kitchen has stopped. Quieter on a weekday than almost anything else on this stretch.

Mon to Thu, 4pm to midnight. Fri, noon to midnight. Sat, 10am to midnight. Sun, 10am to 11pm. The kitchen closes at 10pm

Down a few steps on 85th between First and Second is an Irish pub, with a pool table at the back and bowls of free chips on the bar. Guinness poured properly and nothing on the walls that looks like it was bought as a theme. It runs to four in the morning seven nights a week. Quiet enough on a weekday that the pool table is usually free.

Mon to Fri, noon to 4am. Sat and Sun, 11am to 4am

A bar on Second Avenue in the 80s that keeps its kitchen going until 3am and the bar until 4am. Cocktails and beer, burgers and fried chicken sandwiches late, eggs benedict and flapjacks at weekend brunch. There is a patio out back where leashed dogs are welcome. Walk-ins are the norm; only groups of four to ten take a booking.

Mon to Fri, 11:30am to 4am. Sat and Sun, 9:30am to 4am. The kitchen runs to 3am