Advice from the old lady:
Nobody is going to publish the best dope places to go on the World Wide Web for general public consumption. Please. There is a decadent club scene in NYC and there always has been. But you’ve got to be in the know to get the 411.
Years ago Studio54 was legendary, in the 1990s it was the Limelight in an old red sandstone cathedral off 6th Ave, then in the 2000s Lotus was cool…. I was too young for Studio54, went to Limelight in 1992 (still have a T-shirt from there that people occasionally comment on when I wear it rarely). Lotus was very cool right when the first W hotels opened in Manhattan as well as Sushi Samba. That was all around 2000 timeframe.
But now the W Hotel is a world wide chain, Sushi Samba is now franchised out to at least Chicago and Vegas, and is no longer geared toward the hip and cool like during its infancy.
In NYC the hottest clubs NEVER have a sign. Once they get a marquee they are already played out as far as the cool crowd is concerned, nightlife patrons are fickle as hell and capricious, and the club du jour is ever changing. Restaurants and bars aren’t like that. You can get a great meal at the bar at many places. Some are well established & still hip, but they are pricey. I like Mercer Kitchen at the (Soho) Grand Hotel, great restaurant and great lounge as an example. That’s in one of the areas noted by others here. There are lots of places that have a residual cool factor to them but the nightclubs are always secret & exclusive & expensive.
So here’s how you find out where to go as a non-local.
1. Know someone who is actively in the scene. If I were to go out in NYC I’d know where to go in one or two texts through my social circles.
2. Pick a hip hot restaurant where the cool people flock, get to chatting with an attractive server & ask. But you gotta have a certain moxy about you for this to work. Service industry people have the inside scoop but they aren’t going to spill the 411 to just anybody. If they get the right vibe from you they’ll share the hot spot. I’ve done this before (but disclaimer I’m a hot chick). It doesn’t hurt to be a hot chick or go out with a hot chick. Beautiful women are who they most want at the exclusive nightclubs and they are most likely to get the intel as an outsider.
3. Use the internet to get the inside track. That option is FAR less effective as you can see just from this thread. You are much better off using the web to find the cool restaurants or hotels and then find out the cool spot by chatting with people there.
I’m not going to give out current tips here just like others. But trust me, I know how to find the cool places
Partied in NYC for years and yes, went to a lot of the cool spots that I still won't mention. However, NYC nightlife works the way it does and is the way it is because locals have seen how the wrong crowds can practically ruin it. Here is how it usually works from my experience.
1. Locals and those rich enough to live in Manhattan find out about a spot and go there, occasionally they'd just go to a spot and it turns into that kind of place overtime. There is a special class to these people, like almost an invisible language. They are usually attractive, educated, not falling victim to the flashy show off culture (Manhattan is like that), and words cannot describe it. Let's just say that these people know how to party but are not like the flashy fake wealthy clout chasers you'd find in Miami.
The thing is that these people are actually very nice people and will socialize with you once you are in. They are far better than the people you'd deal with in the outer boroughs or suburbs.
2. Spot is usually in a very hard to find place. It could be downstairs of a fancy restaurant or upstairs of a given spot. On the outside, it looks very dry and unassuming but once you get in, it is a party. I am talking mad ratios where it is 80 girls to 20 guys type of stuff. Again, almost all of these people are from Manhattan or live there because they can afford to. The guys get to be around hot girls and hot girls get to be around cool classy guys that are well educated and respectful while still having some tight game.
3. Door guys and everyone is picky as heck about who they let in. I can tell you, they hate "Bridge and Tunnel" people and I have seen them turn away hot girls with a Jersey ID. It was hilarious to see some Jersey chick with a big ego shut down and turned away, their reactions are hilarious as that happens. The reasoning for them doing this is because the people in Manhattan know how rowdy, trashy, and irritating people from outer boroughs can get and how things like fights and sleazy creepy guys can happen more in a given venue so they turn them away.
4. For a while, it is that exclusive Manhattan crew full of hot girls and a few privileged guys that just "get it". This is the apex of Manhattan nightlife and you start to realize that these are the people that make Manhattan and New York such a pleasant place to live. I have been blown away by how respectful, classy, and cool a lot of these people are. Almost all of the men are driven and doing something important with their lives. The women are usually from well off families and tend to be from Manhattan or Westchester County's better off towns.
Worldly, educated, and classy are the words I'd use to describe them. It always gets me how these people who have it so good and are at the top of American society are also far more respectful than some snobby suburbanite from Long Island or Jersey. The women in these crowds are also classy and cool even though they are tough to get.
5. Eventually, some of the hot girls will bring their "Bridge and Tunnel" friends, it always happens. So Classy Claire will bring in Clout Chasing Claudia from Long Island. It starts to happen more and more overtime. The reason this happens is because some transplanted guy or girl not from the city will foolishly bring their suburbanite Bridge and Tunnel, roommate, or acquaintance and then things spiral downhill.
6. The "Bridge and Tunnel" friends will then brag about them partying with the Manhattan socialites and in the cool exclusive spots and then word spreads in Jersey, Long Island, and the outer boroughs. Soon, everyone tries to bring their friends and bargain their way into these spots with some driven persistence. Door guys are overwhelmed and the owners as well as the crew inside knows it, the quality party's over. The given spot has been "discovered" by the likes of plain suburbanites, Guido trash, and Clout Chasing Claudias.
7. Eventually, the "Bridge and Tunnel" will get into these places and the vibe will change. The trashier and Guido guys are overwhelmed by good ratios so they start harassing women. Bouncers and door guys need to be more active in kicking people out. Girls are tired of dealing with "creepy" guys. Guys are tired of having to deal with a compensating Guido trying to show off his game and proceed to creep out everyone in the venue. If that wasn't enough, the guys are deflated by the fact that the classy dark-haired Irina Shayk lookalike they are used to has now slowly been replaced by Schnookies.
8. Place eventually turns into a "Bridge and Tunnel" spot (translation: trashy) where pickup artists and the "Bridge and Tunnel" crowd not from Manhattan go. All of the quality people that live in Manhattan leave it and as do a lot of the hot girls, only to find another good spot and enjoy it.