Sugar East

Formerly the Merchants NY Cigar Bar, Sugar East’s tobacco license was grandfathered in, making it one of only eight bars in the city where you can smoke indoors. Cigars aren’t on the menu (and they’d rather folks not bring them) but packs of cigarettes are, and if you’d like to light one up, you’re welcome to. If you can get past that, you’re in for a treat: A Havana-in-its-heyday bar with handsome Art Deco lines, big roomy booths, and rotating cocktails named for their primary taste profile. The mezcal-based Carrot is spicy with chipotle powder, the gin Cucumber is refreshing, and to flex your senses order the Coconut, with Havana Club rum, fernet, absinthe, and coconut juice. Served in, well, a fuzzy coconut, it’s presented with a lit cinnamon stick, meant to inhale as you drink, and truly transports. Bites like vegetable tempura and beef sliders with spicy mayo are small but potent, and DJs spin regularly later in the evening.