These are the finest places to sip a cocktail in peace after a dreary nine-to-five, or even just to grab some pints with co-workers, should you find yourself looking for a bar in midtown. 1. Hudson Malone 218 E. 53rd St., nr. Doug Quinn’s bar opened in 2013, but it seems far older. It has little to do with the mahogany trim or all-purpose, dude-skewing nostalgia lining the walls. The thing here is that bartenders know what regulars drink. They offer up legitimate conversation, and that relationship pays dividends over time. The no-fuss classics — an old-fashioned, a Bobby Burns, a Sidecar — are made fast, and with precision. In other words, it creates the ideal environment in which basically anyone can unwind, which is exactly what you want. (Food options, like creamed spinach and an au jus beef sandwich that look like they were beamed in from the Eisenhower era, are a nice bonus, should you want to stay awhile.) 2. Tanner Smith’s 204 W. 55th St., nr. This cavernous bi-level space has all the hallmarks of a place that’s named after a quasi-reformed gangster who was shot in the back in 1919: mounted heads of taxidermied fauna, ancient telephones, and copper teapots — all retrofitted into a sleek space of reclaimed wood and bare brick.

Several booths offer a welcome degree of privacy, the platoon of servers is attentive, and the tap list brims with beer-geek surprises like Rodenbach Grand Cru. The sprawling menu of the usual finger-food suspects (flatbreads, sliders, skewers) is also more polished than it needs to be. Most of all, the place can be really fun: Watch your bartender pump wood smoke into a cocktail of bourbon, maple syrup, and Jerry Thomas bitters. For a moment the plumes will hang in place like an Arthurian fog. red wine gifts ukIt’s a simple enough bit of cocktail artistry, but sufficient to make any spreadsheet wizard feel like a genuine magician after a long day.best french wine names 3. Ardesia 510 W. 52nd St., nr. best food for wine tasting party The fact that a table of four can have a legitimate, shout-free conversation even when the handsome, bottle-lined bar is filled with customers puts Ardesia in a category by itself. top restaurants in wine country ca

Think of it as a veritable decompression chamber, but with solid Riesling choices and decent bar snacks. Wine prices start at $40 for a bottle, and the 30-seat patio is a major draw in warmer months. Cheese and charcuterie pairings are spot-on, and servers seem downright gleeful, not annoyed, around customers who don’t know the first thing about mineral and oaky notes. 4. The Rum House 228 W. 47th St., nr. The drinks are strong, and new options that are thematically tethered to one historic cocktail precedent or another are frequently rotated in. where to buy wine charmsThe extra-long happy “hour” runs from noon to 6 p.m., Monday to Friday, which makes the establishment a good choice for anyone knocking off a little early. best wine for white elephantOtherwise, the after-work crowd tends to descend in force, and there’s a slim chance you’ll nab one of the coveted red-leather banquettes before 7 p.m. at the earliest.

Despite this, the Rum House remains a haven for well-made drinks, such as a stellar non–piña colada piña colada, not to mention ragtime plunked out by a real live piano player. 5. Aldo Sohm Wine Bar 151 W. 51st St., nr. The Le Bernardin team’s megawatt wine bar was engineered to handle the fine-dining spot’s overflow and to provide a less formal setting for its loyal clientele. Two years after opening, though, the crowd has morphed gradually to accommodate a robust after-work contingent — think actuaries who moonlight as pét-nat enthusiasts, or an off-duty diplomat raving about Zalto stemware. Bottle prices range from a bargain $36 Grüner to a $2,600-something Romanée-Conti. By-the-glass options include a budget Zierfandler, a flight of three Portuguese wines for less than $20, and a dry Lambrusco that tastes like strawberries and is nicer than what you’d get for twice the price at neighboring establishments. 6. Jimmy’s Corner 140 W. 44th St., nr. It’s always crowded, usually civil, and is these days the lone Times Square holdout against the forces of Disneyfication and slender new skyscrapers that pierce the clouds.

James Lee Glenn, a former trainer and the bar’s sainted namesake, started off decades ago with the idea of celebrating the boxers whose photos hang on his walls, and to offer a place to catch part of a match. These days, mixed drinks are still undiluted and still $5 or less, and hundreds of signed dollar bills are taped to the back bar, as a lingering sign of patrons both past and present. It still gets crowded, but what Jimmy’s lacks in legroom it makes up for by never having pulled any punches. 7. Crimson & Rye 198 E. 54th St., at Third Ave., 212-687-6692 You can grab after-work drinks out of the office building, but it’s possibly a little more convenient when they’re in the actual lobby. That’s the situation here, with Charlie Palmer’s well-appointed space taking up residence in one corner of the Lipstick Building’s ground floor. There’s a team of crackerjack, leather-suspendered barkeeps with unfurled bags of esoteric cocktail tools and stations stocked with assorted elixirs.

There’s also some welcome experimentation here: Trendy 96-proof baijiu is the star of one cocktail, and a bartender might drop some crushed dried rose petals into another. Order a punch bowl of Lipstick Fizz, which contains Navy-strength gin, lemon juice, soda, and grenadine made in house. It serves five or six and costs $66. Bourbons, single malts, and the establishment’s namesake spirit are also well-represented.By Kurt Wolff and Annie Reuter Everyone knows country music is full of drinking songs. Be it whiskey, beer, a “Little Glass of Wine” or “White Lighting,” booze has been a part of the music’s fabric since the genre got off the ground in the 1920s. Drinking songs held strong during the honky-tonk era of Hank, Lefty, George and Ernest Tubb, and well into the ’80s and ’90s (“Friends in Low Places,” anyone?). And of course drinking songs are still a staple among today’s artists, from barrooms and beer halls to a seemingly endless stream of tailgate parties and red Solo cups.

Related: Which Country Artist First Sang About Tailgate Parties? We could spend days compiling a long list of drinking songs in all shapes and styles. But in honor of St. Patrick’s Day, we chose to focus our list below on songs that are about not just having a drink or two, but where having a few (or more) is the main point. So for instance, Luke Bryan’s “Drink a Beer” doesn’t qualify—it’s a powerful song, but the focus is on the narrator’s grief after losing a friend. However, Bryan’s earlier single “All My Friends Say,” where the narrator can’t remember what he did last night? Of course, we don’t necessarily condone the activities discussed below. But as songs, we do think our choices hold up well and represent some of country music’s finest moments when it comes to tying one on. Related: Country Cliches Unraveled: Drinking Songs Some are happy, some are sad, some don’t exactly remember what or where they are. Either way, crack open your beverage of choice and have a listen.

Long before the world knew the hip-shaking abilities of Luke Bryan, he was singing about his college days, more than a few of which involved a little drinking. Released in 2007, “All My Friends Say” introduced Bryan to the country world, as it was the lead single off his debut album I’ll Stay Me. “All My Friends Say” tells the tale of a guy who wakes up after a night of heavy drinking, and he can’t seem to fit together the missing puzzle pieces of the night before. It all started when he saw an ex with a new guy. “All my friends say I started shooting doubles when you walked in,” he sings. While he doesn’t remember a thing, all his friends tell him, “I was a rock star, party hard, getting over you comeback kid…I was Elvis rocking on the bar.” In the music video for the song, Bryan is playing for a party in a fraternity house, something that seems to forecast his future Spring Break concerts. Bocephus has sung about Jim Beam more than a few times, but it’s this 1979 anthem that stands as his most potent ode to the golden nectar (and popular, too—it was a Top 5 hit).

It’s a classic outlaw-era arrangement, thick bass lines and Southern rock guitar licks, with lyrics about crying to Hank Williams songs…which of course leads to more drinking. “Sure enough about closing time, I’m stoned out of my mind,” he sings. But when he wakes up the next morning, after taking home a stranger, he thinks about his “sweet girl at home,” and then he “needs to get whiskey bent and hell bound” all over again. Who doesn’t like a little day drinking? Little Big Town give the practice a whole new meaning on their playful and fun mandolin-led track. So after that big St. Patrick’s Day parade, heed the band’s advice: “Don’t want to wait ’til the sun’s sinking/ We could be feeling alright/ I know you know what I’m thinking/ Why don’t we do a little day drinking?” You could write books just about George Jones‘ drinking songs, he’s approached the topic from so many directions. “White Lightning” and “Root Beer” are fun and lively early recordings, but in later years, when he gets into more somber, grown-up stuff like “If Drinking Don’t Kill Me (Her Memory Will),” then the tears come out (drinking, after all, got Jones himself into deep, deep trouble more than a few times).

Jones’ 1989 single “The King Is Gone” is a silly song on one hand, with the narrator cracking open “a Jim Beam decanter shaped like Elvis” and pouring its contents into “a Flintstones jelly-bean jar.” But when you realize he’s doing so because a lover walked out on him, then the situation becomes darker. No wonder he’s left sitting on the floor muttering “Yabba dabba doo.” Sometimes, as Lady Antebellum sing, you just need to “chase that disco ball around ’til [you] don’t remember.” Luckily, bartenders can help speed that process up. And if you’re lucky enough to have Tony Hale (Arrested Development) as your bartender, as Lady A were in their music video, the night surely will be an adventure. The perfect track to add some energy to your drink-heavy playlist, go ahead and get lost in the song. “Memories and drinks don’t mix too well,” Merle Haggard sings at the start of one of his best-known recordings, “Misery and Gin.” It’s an old-school song about a guy who, missing his presumably lost love, is left drowning his loneliness in a barroom, listening to the jukebox and “looking at the world through the bottom of a glass” where “all I see is a man who’s fading fast.”

No, this isn’t a song that’ll get you fired up for a night on the town—but damn if it isn’t powerful medicine. Blake Shelton has no problem with drinking. In fact, if you follow him on Twitter you know it’s quite the opposite. He loves to drink. While he didn’t write this song, (David Lee Murphy, Chris DuBois and Dave Turnbull did) he made it his own. When he sings, “Man, if I have one, I have 13. And they can’t get me off the karaoke machine,” you believe him. Also, we’d like an invite to the next karaoke party with Blake Shelton. The fella in Hank Thompson’s 1960 single “Six Pack to Go” isn’t in the best of spots. He’s “done spent [his] whole paycheck honky tonkin’ around” and now “doesn’t have enough to pay [his] rent.” Maybe it’s the booze clouding his brain (“I’ve been drinkin’ all day long/ Takin’ in the town”), but he’s not terribly worried about his situation, because as he sings, he’s got “time for one more round” and can even afford “a six pack to go.”

Like many Thompson songs, the song has a swinging beat that carries it forward despite the straits, financial and likely otherwise, that our hero appears to be in. Related: A Short History of Drinking Songs in Country Music “I’ve been making the bars lots of big money and helping white people dance,” Brad Paisley sings on his 2005 hit, “Alcohol.” If only we listened to the wise words of Paisley more carefully, we wouldn’t wake up the day after St. Patrick’s Day with all the promises to never, ever drink that much again. Can’t say he didn’t warn us. Next to George Jones, Texas honky-tonker Gary Stewart may have cut some of the finest drinking songs on the planet, from “An Empty Glass” to “She’s Acting Single (and I’m Drinking Doubles).” But it’s his 1978 single “Whiskey Trip” that keeps calling us back. Maybe it’s something about the hallucinations the main character has that set up the song. “I can almost see me now in Acapulco,” he sings.

“I can almost feel the breeze that makes the palm trees sway.” But that fantasy of a tropical getaway is just that, a fantasy. The only trip this guy’s on is in his head. “Whiskey, you’re a friend of mine,” he sings, “You can blow away my mind/ To some other place and time.” All it takes is “one more drink and I know I’ll be there.” For us the song is a painful trip, yes, but oh so addicting. From the opening guitar lick, the listener knows Eric Church means business. On this ode to drinking, Church laments his difficult 40-hour work week. By the time Friday comes around, it’s time for an alcoholic liberation. All Church wants is a drink in his hand and we can’t blame him. There may be dancing involved and perhaps some ladies Friday night, but Church lets everyone know he is far from difficult to please. “If you want to impress me, baby here’s my plan. All you gotta do is put a drink in my hand.” Much like Church before him, Kip Moore sings of a long work week and the need to escape.