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Where are the cheapest drinks in NYC? A new report details the city's average prices.
By
Hannah Frishberg
Published Oct 19, 2026 at 1:31 p.m. ET
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Photo by Dave Kotinsky/Getty Images for CALIROSA
By
Hannah Frishberg
Published Oct 19, 2026 at 1:31 p.m. ET
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Though it is common knowledge that affordability is a relative concept which varies significantly based on geography, the disparity in average drink costs across New York City neighborhoods is still quite vast.
“I would have expected there to be some, but you're seeing some neighborhoods that are charging basically twice as much as others across the city,” said Sam Zukin, who launched the happy hour guide 5PM NYC this February. Zukin works in finance, but wanted a way to share his passion for discount drinks; the site offers a centralized place to find pub specials and a “Plan a Bar Crawl” feature.
“The usership has gotten much, much bigger than I would’ve expected,” he said, with 50,000 visitors per month on average, and many bars utilizing the free bar listing feature to manually share their hours and specials, said Zukin.
The 26-year-old decided to do something with all the information uploaded by bars and, in conjunction with publicly available data, released on Monday the 5PM Barometer Report, or the results of crunching over 109,000 listed prices from 2,254 bar and restaurant menus across 108 NYC neighborhoods. He plans to begin releasing the reports quarterly.
According to his findings (which, Zukin notes, do not account for tax or tip), the dubious crown for neighborhood with the highest median cocktail price goes to NoMad, where you can expect to pay $19.50 for your martini or mojito. The lowest price is $12, in Bayside, near the Long Island border, shortly followed by $12.50 in Carroll Gardens and Throggs Neck. Citywide, the median price is $16.
Median cocktail prices are more disparate between neighborhoods than boroughs, varying just $3 across the city. They are $17 in Manhattan, $15 in Brooklyn, $14.45 in the Bronx and $14 in Queens and Staten Island, the latter of which, along with the Bronx, had significantly less price data available.
The neighborhoods’ cocktail and draft beer prices affordability did not directly correlate. Although NoMad shared a priciest median tap title with Midtown and Chelsea, where it was $10, the lowest price award went to Hamilton Heights and Woodhaven, where the median tap runs patrons $6.50. At $7.50, Staten Island has the lowest median boroughwide draft price.
That may sound cheap in 2026, but once upon a time it was the norm. “One thing that has definitely gone up is average cost of a drink, now $10.78 versus $7.20 in 2000,” states a sobering Zagat survey on NYC nightlife released in 2010.
To Zukin, one of the most interesting aspects of his findings was the lack of correlation between higher Google ratings and higher prices, a fact he believes in part reflects “that bar owners and operators are a little bit disconnected from the data.”
He hopes his new report can help change that.
“It'll be useful for your mom-and-pop shop to understand, what does the city actually look like? What does my neighborhood actually look like?” Zukin said. “There should be a new era where data is democratized and people can get access to what they need.”
Tagged
Existing in New York City
brooklyn
manhattan
queens
staten island
the bronx
Hannah Frishberg
Hannah Frishberg covers New York City arts and culture. Got a tip? Email Hannah at [email protected].
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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