Raines Law Room: This former speakeasy is deliberately hard to find

Just off a side street from the bustling Union Square in lower Manhattan, down a few basement steps and behind a nondescript door, is my favourite cocktail bar in New York City. This former speakeasy is deliberately hard to find, and you have to know where you’re going and what you’re seeking: if you press on the plastic doorbell and stand back, it might take 10 minutes before someone opens the door and presents you with a silent, unsmiling face. Proceed with confidence, however, and they’ll try and find a seat for you in the dark room behind the curtain they’re stationed in front of.

Inside is Raines Law Room, an extremely dimly lit New York institution comprising plush velvet sofas divided into booths by soft curtains. When you’re ready to order an eye-waveringly expensive cocktail off the extensive list (I recommend any of the kind with a tequila and jalapeno base, though my usual drinking companion swears by the Old Fashioned), you press a button by your assigned seat (anyone who’s tried out the “press for champagne” button at Bob Bob Ricard in London will be familiar with the concept.) An immaculately dressed waiter arrives seconds later and takes your order, returning with glasses of filtered water and, if you’re lucky, nibbles as accompaniments.

There’s something I love about a bar so badly lit that you have to be told to mind the step when you walk in. The scuzzy version of this can be found a 15-minute walk away in Greenwich Village at 124 Old Rabbit Club, a basically-pitch-black dive bar that specialises in beer and is best described as a cross between a working men’s club and an old-fashioned block of toilets. But if you’re in the market for something a little more special, Raines Law Room is your place.

And the beauty of it is that you can take anyone: mums over for a long weekend who are looking to see “a piece of glamorous New York” and who you have tempted away from the nightmare circus that is Times Square; best friends with whom you need a long catchup after a long week; your hipster sibling who wants to be assured that they’re going somewhere cool and underground; the boss who needs somewhere private and respectable but not too corporate to talk over a business deal.

You can have champagne on your birthday here, or a tall drink with smoky undertones and spiced salt to take the edge off a terrible breakup. You can take your pregnant friend who actually wants a nice mocktail for once, or your friend who can knock back eight shots and still be on her feet (so long as she’s got a fairly robust credit card.)

Needless to say, this is a bit more of a New Yorkers’ place than a tourist one, and it might be best to tone down the British accent when you get a table if you can. There’s a few regulars who might rather see you stuck in an Olive Garden in midtown or perusing the overhyped shelves of the M&M store, or perhaps going on a tour of Carrie Bradshaw’s favourite watering holes (hello, Soho Grand.) But the only place Carrie frequented that could hold a candle to Raines Law Room is 21 Club, another former speakeasy that was recently shuttered due to the financial hit it took from the Covid-19 pandemic.

Luckily, Raines continues on, due to a fiercely loyal fan base who continued visiting even when the only way to do so was ordering cocktails from a makeshift PVC booth on the road in the depths of winter 2020 (guilty). It’ll be there even after omicron blows its way across the globe, too – so put it on your list for a necessary post-apocalyptic tipple.

Raines Law Room: 48 West 17th Street, Chelsea