New York City Guide - Nightlife

The cliche, 'the city that never sleeps', really rings true in New York and especially in Manhattan. This small island buzzes with nocturnal activity, from bustling neighbourhood bars to swank cocktail lounges and ultra hip nightclubs, where some of the world's best DJs entertain the city's 'beautiful people'.

Home to Broadway, the once louche Times Square is enjoying a renaissance, with American theme restaurants, bars and cinemas attracting a huge tourist crowd. The East Village, from 14th Street to Houston, east of Broadway, is famous for its local bars that stay open late and its small live music clubs, such as Dizzy's Coca Cola Club, which features killer jazz. The Lower East Side, an up-and-coming neighbourhood that borders the East Village at Houston and stretches south to Chinatown at Canal, offers a similar nightlife scene and vibe.

SoHo is the hip capital, with its chic nightclubs attracting artists, models and media types. The gay scene is centred around the bars of the West Village, which also offers a lively mix of jazz clubs. Gramercy, in the 20s on the east side, is the 'new SoHo' with velvet-rope cocktail lounges. Upmarket tastes are also catered for in the sophisticated lounges, clubs and cocktail bars in Midtown and the Upper East and Upper West Sides.

Entrance fees to some of the smarter nightclubs can be pricey and are cash only. The hippest clubs employ strict dress codes, only allowing the cool and the beautiful to break through the velvet ropes. The normal club closing time is 0400, although many venues are open all night. An ever-changing crop of 'after-hours' places offer entertainment until sunrise, however, alcohol cannot legally be served between 0400 and 0800 or after 2400 on Sunday. The minimum drinking age is 21 and checking of photo ID is mandatory.

Time Out New York (website: www.timeoutny.com), is a very good source of nightlife event information, published weekly and sold at newsagents and kiosks. You must be a subscriber to use the service online, though. A good online nightlife and restaurant guide is City Search (website: http://newyork.citysearch.com).

Bars: New York has a massive range of bars, with everything from neighbourhood dives and lively Irish pubs to slick jet-set haunts with DJs and dimly lit, cocktail lounges. Hip bars include Max Fish, 178 Ludlow Street, Lower East Side, which fills with a young, T-shirt-and-jeans crowd and the neo-Moroccan style Serena, 222 West 23rd Street, Chelsea, a subterranean lounge in the cool and legendary Chelsea Hotel, as well as favourite of the 'beautiful people.' Double Happiness, 173 Mott Street, Chinatown, draws a funky 20-something clientele. At Hogs & Heifers, 859 Washington Street, West Village, on which the mediocre film Coyote Ugly (2000) was based, patrons toss their bra on the wall with all the others.

A more sophisticated lounge, the Campbell Apartment, Grand Central Station, Midtown, is hidden away in this busy rail terminal, serving top-class cocktails, like Flapper's Delight, Prohibition Punch, first-rate Martinis and the perfect Manhattan. The refined, clubby bar in the Oak Room at the Algonquin Hotel, 59 West 44th Street, Midtown West, is known for its literary origins and its fine cabaret performers. For old-time New York, there is Chumley's, 86 Bedford Street, West Village, or The Monkey Bar in the Elycée Hotel, 60 East 54th Street. When it opened in 1936, its patrons included Tennessee Williams and Tallulah Bankhead.

Clubs: The New York clubbing scene is notoriously fickle. These days popular cabarets include Joe's Pub, 424 Lafayette Street (between Fourth and Astor in the East Village) (website: www.joespub.com), which gets raves. Don't Tell Mama, 343 West 46th Street (website: www.donttellmama.com), is open until 0400 and features up-and-coming-performers, and Upstairs at Rose's Turn, 55 Grove Street Greenwich Village (website: www.rosesturn.com), has a bi-level piano bar and even the bartenders and waitstaff perform.

Comedy: New York's leading comedy venues, featuring top-line comedians, include Caroline's on Broadway, 1626 Broadway (website: www.carolines.com), HA! Comedy Club NYC, 369 West 46th Street (website: www.hanyc.com), which is booked and managed by comics, and Gotham Comedy Club, 208 West 23rd Street (website: www.gothamcomedyclub.com) - named 'one of the 10 great places to watch stand up' by USA Today. Co-founded by the late Rodney Dangerfield, Dangerfield's, 1118 First Avenue, has received rave reviews for over 35 years.

Live Music: The famous Madison Square Garden, 1 Pennsylvania Plaza, Seventh Avenue between 31st and 33rd Streets (website: www.thegarden.com), plays host to a number of rock and pop heavies, from Britney Spears to U2. Cogs, 315 Bowery, between First and Second Streets (website: www.cbgb.com), the king of American underground rock venues, was there to provide the stage for new bands such as the Ramones and Blondie during the 1970s. It does the same for similar acts today.

New York is also home to numerous jazz clubs, including The Blue Note, 131 West Third Street (website: www.bluenote.net), and the Iridium Jazz Club, 1650 Broadway (website: www.iridiumjazzclub.com), which both reel in the best American and international jazz musicians. Dizzy's Club Coca Cola, Jazz at Lincoln Center Broadway at 10 Columbus Circle, fifth Floor in the Time Warner Building, not only has top-notch jazz performers, but also a drop dead view of Central Park and the East Side skyline.