🚕 $60 Cocktails

Good Morning NY!

In today’s issue, we’re going to show you why your next cocktail crawl might cost more than a three-course meal.

Pride Month just redrew the city’s queer bar map, and your weekend plans are about to change.

Bensonhurst is losing a pork-perfumed legend, and locals are lining up for one last slice of nostalgia.

A decade-old Chinese favorite is throwing itself a star-studded birthday party, and the guest list is packed with A-list chefs.

Williamsburg just scored a farm-to-table newcomer that feels more Catskills than Kent Avenue.

Stick around for the sticker shocks, rainbow routes, farewell bites, and milestone mash-ups shaping your Wednesday.

Cocktail Sticker Shock Hits New High

New York’s latest cocktail menus are daring wallets to keep up.

A growing list of bars now treats a $30 drink as the entry point rather than the splurge.

Luxury dens like the Baccarat Hotel and the Polo Bar go further, floating spectacle pours that climb to $50 or even $60.

Operators say the hike reflects four-to-five-times ingredient mark-ups, sky-high rents, and a clientele that equates price with exclusivity.

Regulars shrug that sub-$20 cocktails feel “cheap” in 2025, a seismic shift from the $10.78 city average logged in 2010.

Others vote with their feet, pre-gaming at home before nursing one premium sip for the Instagram.

Either way, sticker shock is officially part of the night-out tax in NYC.

Pride Month Rewrites the Queer Bar Map

Pride Month has redrawn the queer food-and-drink map, and the 2025 edition is stacked.

Eater’s freshly updated guide spotlights newcomers Animal, Three Dollar Bill, and Boyfriend Co-Op alongside beloved stalwarts.

Each venue is rolling out extended happy hours, themed drag brunches, and charity drink specials that funnel proceeds back to LGBTQ+ causes.

The list covers every vibe, from cozy dive bars to neon-soaked dance halls, ensuring options across Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Queens.

The editors emphasize that these spaces nurture community year-round, not just for June confetti.

Bookmark the roundup as your blueprint for celebrating loudly, tipping generously, and supporting queer-owned hospitality beyond the parade route.

Bari Pork Store Prepares Its Last Prosciutto Roll

South Brooklyn is bracing for the loss of a meaty institution.

Bari Pork Store, slicing prosciutto and stuffing provolone rolls on 64th Street since the mid-1980s, will close its doors June 30.

Owners blame rising costs and a shrinking Italian-American customer base for the bittersweet decision.

The counter will keep the slicers humming through the month, urging regulars to stock freezers while they can.

Social media is already filling with farewell sandwich pics and memories of Sunday-gravy runs.

After four decades, Bensonhurst is about to feel a little less pork-perfumed.

Longtime staffers say the move ends a generational chapter of neighborhood butchery.

No successor has been announced, leaving the future of the well-seasoned space uncertain.

Kings Co Imperial Turns Ten with “Dishes of a Decade”

Kings Co Imperial hits double digits this summer and is throwing a city-wide potluck to celebrate.

The Williamsburg and Lower East Side kitchens launch “Dishes of a Decade” on June 18, running through September 30.

Every two weeks a different NYC heavyweight takes over, starting with JJ Johnson’s jerk-duck fried rice and Rubirosa’s scallion-pancake pizzas.

Later slots include George Motz turning smashburgers into dumplings and Emily Yuen ladling bone-in tonkatsu over Hong Kong curry.

Co-owner Josh Grinker says the series honors mentors and neighbors who fueled the restaurant’s 2015-2025 journey.

Specials drop for only fourteen days before the next chef steps in, so mark calendars and pace your dumpling intake.

Field Guide Plants Roots in Williamsburg

Field Guide has quietly transformed a former Chinese storefront on Kent Avenue into a moody homage to the upstate landscapes that shaped chef Tim Meyers.

Mammoth design studio layered wood planks, Shaker chairs, and slate-gray walls—think Andrew Wyeth in Brooklyn.

The menu leans equally rustic, threading Mediterranean touches through New York produce in dishes that already caught Michelin’s eye this spring.

Meyers, whose résumé runs through Eleven Madison Park and Roberta’s, says the goal is “seasonality, craft, and a sense of time.”

Early diners rave about pork-and-pistachio terrine wrapped in fig leaves and a sunflower-crumble filet nestled against chanterelles.

With dinner Wednesday through Sunday and a laid-back Sunday brunch, Williamsburg just gained a new field trip for locavores.

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