Discover The Bartenders In NYC Redefining The City’s Cocktail Culture. Meet The Talent Behind The City’s Most Innovative Drinks And Must-Visit Bars

There are events you attend for the drinks, and then there are events where you realize you are standing in a room full of the people who decide what New York City drinks. VinePair After Hours was firmly the latter. During their After Hours sessions , some of the city’s most respected bartenders take turns behind the bar each bringing their mixology identity, point of view, and craft into a single charged space.

From intimate neighborhood bars to destination rooftops, from storied cocktail institutions to bold new voices, the lineup is a portrait of New York’s cocktail ecosystem in full. This single room is full of the people responsible for some of the most talked about drinking experiences in the city, so here is our guided tour of the bartenders in NYC , the cocktails they are pouring and the places you should visit them right now.

Bartenders In NYC: New York City’s Top Influencers

Steve Schneider from Sip & Guzzle

If you know, you know. Steve Schneider is one of New York’s most celebrated bartenders, and his menu for the evening reflected exactly why. Three cocktails, each pulling from a different corner of the global spirits world: the Yuzu Mugirita (SG Shochu Mugi, yuzu, shiso, agave, pink salt), a riff on the margarita that swaps tequila for Japanese barley shochu; the Miami Vice Negroni, a coconut-washed strawberry Negroni that somehow makes both halves of that sentence make sense; and the Saketini, built on banana vodka, Junmai Daiginjo sake, fino sherry, and Castelventrano, a combination that has no right being as elegant as it is.

Kayla Mata presented by Le Moné

Kayla Mata came with a menu that showcased Le Moné, a lemon-forward spirit in three completely distinct registers. The L-Train paired it with Diplomático Planas, white crème de cacao, celery bitters, and tonic for something unexpectedly savory and bright. Cheese & Wine went full provocation: Le Moné, blue cheese-washed Ford’s Gin, blanc vermouth, dandelion honey, olive bitters, and champagne vinegar, the kind of cocktail you have to taste to believe. And Show Me Le Moné brought it back to something effervescent and joyful: Ford’s Gin, tropical rooibos, lemon, honeydew, cava.

Harrison Ginsberg & Antonis Giannopoulos from Overstory

Overstory sits near the top of one of Manhattan’s tallest buildings, and its cocktail program operates at the same altitude. The menu Ginsberg and Giannopoulos brought to VinePair After Hours was quietly stunning. The Cold Snap, gin, dry vermouth, snap pea, peach, plum had the clean precision of a bar working at the highest level. The Maravilla leaned tropical and floral, with tequila, pineapple, apricot, marigold, and timut peppercorn. The last ingredient lending a citrusy, Sichuan-adjacent tingle that lingered. The Five Spice Milk Punch, made with rum, peanut, sesame, pu-erh tea, five spice, and clarified milk, was the kind of drink that makes you stop mid-sip and ask what you’re tasting.

The Team From Dear Irving & The Raines Law Room

Two of New York’s most beloved cocktail institutions sharing a menu felt like the evening’s statement moment. The Gibson involving Tanqueray 10, Carpano Bianco, onion brine, pickled onion was a masterclass in restraint. Whiskey Business brought Wild Turkey 101 Rye together with Ancho Reyes, lemon, cinnamon, and Angostura bitters for something warming and complex. Full of Gold went in a completely different direction: Macchu Pisco, Luoyang Pear Shochu, Giffard Pamplemousse, lime, and cinnamon, layered, aromatic, and impossible to categorize. The 41 Karat rounded out a menu that felt like a love letter to the classic New York cocktail bar.

Ryan Garrison & Lee Sims from Bitter Monk

The Bitter Monk team arrived with perhaps the most ambitious menu of the evening. Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, the name alone earns points, was an Athenian-spirits-forward build with enough complexity to justify its dramatic title. The Phylosikos Martini showcased Greek spirits alongside Athenian Bergamot Bitters for something genuinely distinctive. The N/A Sbagliato offered a non-alcoholic option that didn’t feel like an afterthought. And the Marie Laveau, served for seven, was the evening’s most theatrical pour: A large-format cocktail named for New Orleans’ legendary Voodoo Queen that drew a crowd every time it came out.

Liam Weitz From Deux Chats

Deux Chats is one of those bars that makes you feel like you’ve discovered something intimate, considered, deeply New York. Liam Weitz brought that same energy to his Stonestreet Bourbon-anchored menu. The Golden Silk Sour was the most technically ambitious pour of the set: Stonestreet Bourbon with a bell pepper and cornsilk cordial, reposado tequila, lemon juice, egg white, and aromatic bitters. It was vegetable-forward in a way that was genuinely surprising and completely worked. The Cherry Cola Highball (Stonestreet Bourbon, homemade cola, cherry liqueur, amaro, sparkling tea) hit that perfect note of familiar-but-elevated. And the PB&J, Stonestreet Bourbon, peanut butter rye, Concord grape vermouth was exactly as nostalgic and delicious as it sounds.

Liam Weitz — Deux Chats, Presented by Stonestreet Bourbon

Erick Castro Presented by Don Julio & DeLeón Tequila

If there is a bartender whose presence at an event signals that something serious is happening, it’s Erick Castro. The San Diego-based, nationally recognized bartender brought a three-cocktail agave showcase that covered the full spectrum. The Ninth Wonder: Don Julio Blanco, Ancho Reyes, crème de cacao, lime juice, balanced chocolate and heat against tequila’s brightness in a way that felt effortless. The Pale Rider used DeLeón Reposado alongside mezcal, Cointreau, dry vermouth, and a double bitters hit for something brooding and complex. And the Tiger’s Claw, built on Don Julio Añejo with coffee liqueur, cinnamon syrup, pineapple juice, lime, and orange bitters, was the kind of late-night drink that makes the whole evening feel like it was building to something.

Beyond the menus we photographed, VinePair After Hours brings together a remarkable cross-section of the bartenders in NYC cocktail community. The thing about an event like VinePair After Hours is that no single cocktail is the point. The point is the accumulation. The realization that in one room, on one evening, you could taste a range of what makes New York City’s cocktail culture worth paying attention to. The classics and the avant-garde. The institutions and the newcomers. The quiet precision of a perfect Gibson and the theatrical spectacle of a seven-person punch named after a Voodoo Queen. This city drinks well. And the people making that true were all in the same room.