Blue Bar at the Algonquin Hotel

The Algonquin Hotel, which first opened in Midtown West in 1902, has so much lore within its walls, it has been designated a New York City Historic Landmark. A favorite of Dorothy Parker, George S. Kaufman and Franklin P. Adams, its street-facing Blue Bar has decades of literary prestige. In the 1920s, it hosted the appropriately named Algonquin Round Table, a group of local journalists and writers dedicated to redefining American literary prose (and, of course, the occasional boozy lunch). Now, the Blue Bar is filled with hotel guests, Midtown executives and literary-minded locals who sip surprisingly expensive cocktails (expect to pay at least $20 per glass) beneath Al Hirschfield drawings and glittering blue lights.