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Like some hallowed center of higher learning, Brandy Library is a labor of love. The room’s warm amber lighting and buttery tobacco leather chairs perfectly coordinate the cognac-colored dresses of the cocktail waitresses, who neatly climb ladders to fetch the namesake bottles that line the space’s vertical shelves. You can sink into a chair, Alistair Cooke–style, or cozy up with a date on a banquette in the bar, occupied by both fashionable locals and fellows with loosened ties. The book everyone is here to check out is the fat bound menu showcasing refined Cognacs (as well as a 1914 brandy that runs $230 for a snifter), rustic Calvados, and just about anything else you could think of, including more than 120 classic cocktails. Although they arrive in splendid Nick and Nora–worthy glassware (think small martini or wide-mouth champagne glasses), the cocktails still need tinkering. A Manhattan made with Van Winkle rye could have stood a dash of bitters. Still, like any great, but flawed novel, there is much to love here. — Carla Spartos

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Best of New York Awards

• Best Bar to Get Schooled in Scotch (2007)
• Best Place to Close a Deal (2005)