This report covers median drink prices at 2,254 bars and restaurants, drawn from 109,975 listed prices across 108 New York City neighborhoods, with breakdowns by borough and neighborhood and an analysis of happy hour discounting.
New York City's bars and restaurants list a median cocktail price of $16.00, a median draft beer at $9.00 and a median glass of wine at $14.00, according to the Fall 2026 edition of The 5PM Barometer Report. The figures are drawn from 109,975 listed prices on 2,254 menus across 108 neighborhoods and all five boroughs, and are current through the end of September 2026.
Prices vary far more by neighborhood than by borough. The five boroughs span $3.00 on a cocktail, from $14.00 in Staten Island to $17.00 in Manhattan, while the 78 neighborhoods with three or more priced cocktail menus span $7.50, from $12.00 in Bayside to $19.50 in NoMad. Of those 78 neighborhoods, 34 have a median at or above the citywide figure and 11 fall below $14.00, the lower edge of the middle half.
The margarita remains the city's most widely listed cocktail, on 48% of cocktail menus, and Guinness is the most widely listed draft, on 30% of draft lists. About one in four bars and restaurants with a menu on file, 26%, have a happy hour verified in the 5PM NYC guide, and where one exists the discount is deep: 37% on draft beer, 38% on cocktails and 38% on wine by the glass.
Every figure uses listed prices for one standard serving, taken as one median per establishment.
Median cocktail price by borough, with one median per establishment.
Manhattan accounts for 1,260 of the 2,254 menus in the dataset and sets the ceiling in every major category: $17.00 for a cocktail, $9.00 for a draft beer and $15.00 for a glass of wine. Brooklyn follows at $15.00, $8.50 and $13.50. The Bronx, Queens and Staten Island sit close to one another, with cocktails between $14.00 and $14.45, draft beer between $7.50 and $8.00 and wine by the glass $12.00.
Happy hour is most common in Manhattan, where 29% of establishments publish one, against 25% in Brooklyn, 17% in Queens, 16% in the Bronx and 12% in Staten Island.
Only neighborhoods with three or more priced menus in a category are shown, as a median per establishment.
Every one of the ten most expensive cocktail neighborhoods is in Manhattan. NoMad at $19.50, then Tribeca at $19.00, then Kips Bay at $18.50, then SoHo, NoLIta, Midtown, Chelsea and West Village at $18.00 lead the list. The least expensive neighborhoods are spread across the outer boroughs: Bayside in Queens at $12.00, Carroll Gardens in Brooklyn and Throggs Neck in the Bronx at $12.50.
Draft beer moves within a narrower band. The 56 neighborhoods with three or more priced draft lists run from $6.50 in Hamilton Heights to $10.00 in Midtown, NoMad and Chelsea, a spread of $3.50 against a citywide median of $9.00.
The map below places every neighborhood with three or more priced cocktail menus. Circles are sized by the number of menus and colored by where the neighborhood's median falls against the rest of the city: the lower third is under $15.00, the upper third is $16.25 and above.
Each figure is the median price per establishment, and the middle half is the range in which 50% of menus fall.
The table below gives the citywide median and the middle half for nine drink categories, with each borough's median beside them. The middle half, the range between the 25th and 75th percentile of establishment medians, shows how much room a menu has before it stands out: $14.00 to $18.00 for a cocktail, $8.00 to $10.00 for a draft beer and $12.00 to $16.00 for a glass of wine.
Non-alcoholic has the widest spread relative to the median, with the middle half running from $7.00 to $12.00 around $9.00. A bottle of wine lists at a median $57.50, which works out to 4.0 times the median glass at the same establishment across the 1,057 establishments that list both.
| Drink | NYC median | Middle half | Manhattan | Brooklyn | Queens | The Bronx | Staten Island |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cocktails | $16.00 | $14.00 to $18.00 | $17.00 | $15.00 | $14.00 | $14.45 | $14.00 |
| Draft beer | $9.00 | $8.00 to $10.00 | $9.00 | $8.50 | $8.00 | $8.00 | $7.50 |
| Wine by the glass | $14.00 | $12.00 to $16.00 | $15.00 | $13.50 | $12.00 | $12.00 | $12.00 |
| Spirit pours | $15.00 | $12.00 to $18.00 | $16.00 | $14.00 | $12.00 | $14.00 | $13.00 |
| Bottles and cans | $8.00 | $7.00 to $10.00 | $9.00 | $8.00 | $7.00 | $7.75 | $6.50 |
| Wine bottles | $57.50 | $45.00 to $72.00 | $62.00 | $55.00 | $45.00 | $51.99 | $48.00 |
| Shots and combos | $10.00 | $8.00 to $12.00 | $10.00 | $10.00 | $9.00 | Limited data | Limited data |
| Seltzers | $9.00 | $7.50 to $10.00 | $9.50 | $8.00 | $8.00 | $7.50 | $7.25 |
| Non-alcoholic | $9.00 | $7.00 to $12.00 | $10.00 | $9.00 | $8.00 | $8.00 | $7.00 |
The most listed drinks in each category, and what they cost.
Among cocktails, the margarita (48% of cocktail menus, $15.00), the martini (41%, $17.00) and the spritz (39%, $16.00) are the three most widely listed. On draft, Guinness appears on 30% of lists, Stella Artois on 26% and Allagash on 16%, and by style IPAs are on 63% of draft lists and lagers on 60%.
Sauvignon blanc leads wine by the glass (63% of wine lists at $15.00), Corona leads bottles and cans (36% at $8.00) and Tito's is the most listed spirit (21% at $15.00 a pour), while Macallan at $24.00 is the most expensive of the eight most listed spirits.
Each bar is the share of menus in that category that list the drink. The price beside it is the citywide median.
These are three of the city's most widely listed classic cocktails, and what the city charges for them.
Three classics are listed widely enough to compare neighborhood by neighborhood. The margarita appears on 48% of cocktail menus at a median $15.00, with the middle half between $14.00 and $17.00; it is priced highest in Boerum Hill ($19.00) and lowest in Inwood ($9.00). The espresso martini appears on 30% of cocktail menus at a median $17.00, with the middle half between $15.00 and $19.00; it is priced highest in Tribeca ($20.00) and lowest in Long Island City ($14.00). The old fashioned appears on 28% of cocktail menus at a median $17.00, with the middle half between $15.00 and $19.00; it is priced highest in Tribeca ($21.00) and lowest in Sunnyside ($14.00).
Variations carry a premium. On the espresso martini, the frozen version lists at a median $17.00, the dirty version lists at a median $22.00 and the vanilla version lists at a median $22.00.
These figures are drawn from 1,560 beer lists, 868 of which include draft beer.
Across 868 draft lists the median pour is $9.00, and 18% of lists still include a pour at $6.00 or under. Craft and import drafts both list at a median $9.00, and macro brands list at $8.00. A bottle or can lists at a median $8.00, and a pitcher at $30.00 across 350 listings.
By style, light lager is the least expensive pour at $8.00, and lager at $8.24, IPA at $9.00 and pilsner at $9.00 follow. The longest draft list in the city runs to 73 pours, and the typical list has 5.
The typical beer list runs to 7 beers, with the middle half between 4 and 13, and the longest list in the city has 156. The cheapest draft on a typical list is $8.00: only 9.4% of draft lists have a pour at $5.00 or under, and 17.6% have a pour at $6.00 or under. Pitchers are sold on 13.7% of beer lists and buckets on 6%.
26% of bars and restaurants with a menu on file have a verified happy hour. The figures below compare the median happy hour price with the regular price at the same establishments.
583 of the 2,254 bars and restaurants with a menu on file, 26%, have a happy hour verified in the 5PM NYC guide. The guide verifies about 550 more happy hours at bars and restaurants whose full menus are not on file, which is why they are not part of this share. 43% of those schedules run Monday to Friday and 30% run daily. The discounts are steep: draft beer from $9.00 to $6.00 (37%), wine by the glass from $14.00 to $8.00 (38%), cocktails from $16.00 to $10.00 (38%) and spirit pours from $15.00 to $7.00 (50%). Each percentage is the median of every establishment's own discount, so it does not match the gap between the two median prices: for wine by the glass, the median price falls from $14.00 to $8.00, a 43% gap, while the typical establishment takes 38% off its own price.
Happy hour is most common in Washington Heights (64%), Cobble Hill (56%) and Harlem (56%), and least common in the outer boroughs, where between 12% and 25% of the bars and restaurants with a menu on file have a verified happy hour.
| Drink | Regular | Happy hour | Typical discount |
|---|---|---|---|
| Draft beer | $9.00 | $6.00 | 37% |
| Wine by the glass | $14.00 | $8.00 | 38% |
| Cocktails | $16.00 | $10.00 | 38% |
| Spirit pours | $15.00 | $7.00 | 50% |
Regular and happy hour are medians across every establishment that lists the drink. Typical discount is the median of each establishment's own discount, so it does not equal the gap between the two medians.
Yes. Across the 1,070 guide happy hours with posted times, 91.6% are running at 5:00 PM on a Wednesday, against 71.3% an hour earlier and 16.3% at 7:00 PM. Monday is the quietest weekday at 80%, and the weekend is a different city: only 39.3% of schedules include Saturday at all and 39.1% include Sunday, so 33.6% are running at 5:00 PM on Saturday and 33.3% on Sunday. The most common start is 4 PM (35.7% of published happy hours), followed by 5 PM (20.7%), and 53.2% end at 7 PM. The median published happy hour lasts 3 hours, and only 2.1% are still going at 10:00 PM on any night.
| 12PM | 1PM | 2PM | 3PM | 4PM | 5PM | 6PM | 7PM | 8PM | 9PM | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Monday | 12% | 13% | 17% | 31% | 64% | 80% | 63% | 14% | 2% | 1% |
| Tuesday | 16% | 17% | 20% | 36% | 70% | 90% | 71% | 16% | 3% | 2% |
| Wednesday | 16% | 17% | 20% | 36% | 71% | 92% | 73% | 16% | 3% | 1% |
| Thursday | 14% | 14% | 19% | 35% | 71% | 92% | 73% | 17% | 3% | 1% |
| Friday | 14% | 15% | 20% | 36% | 70% | 86% | 68% | 15% | 2% | 1% |
| Saturday | 8% | 9% | 11% | 16% | 28% | 34% | 27% | 8% | 2% | 1% |
| Sunday | 8% | 9% | 11% | 16% | 27% | 33% | 27% | 8% | 2% | 1% |
Each box shows how many of the city's published happy hours are running at that time. The stronger the green, the more are running.
The 5PM NYC guide has had 297,000 visits since February. Interest climbs through the afternoon and peaks at 5 PM on Friday, the same hour most happy hours are running. Saturday's busiest hour draws about 51% of Friday's, so the weekend crowd is looking too, even though few establishments offer a weekend happy hour.
| 11AM | 12PM | 1PM | 2PM | 3PM | 4PM | 5PM | 6PM | 7PM | 8PM | 9PM | 10PM | 11PM | 12AM | 1AM | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Monday | 32 | 35 | 41 | 44 | 55 | 61 | 64 | 59 | 47 | 41 | 38 | 38 | 27 | 17 | 9 |
| Tuesday | 35 | 46 | 49 | 47 | 54 | 70 | 79 | 66 | 53 | 38 | 38 | 35 | 26 | 17 | 8 |
| Wednesday | 37 | 44 | 51 | 52 | 63 | 69 | 76 | 69 | 50 | 44 | 39 | 34 | 24 | 14 | 9 |
| Thursday | 41 | 47 | 51 | 56 | 65 | 79 | 86 | 71 | 52 | 41 | 37 | 33 | 24 | 16 | 9 |
| Friday | 43 | 48 | 51 | 60 | 76 | 87 | 100 | 84 | 51 | 37 | 30 | 28 | 22 | 14 | 10 |
| Saturday | 28 | 33 | 37 | 42 | 49 | 50 | 51 | 48 | 39 | 27 | 28 | 23 | 19 | 14 | 9 |
| Sunday | 26 | 29 | 32 | 34 | 37 | 42 | 38 | 37 | 34 | 29 | 29 | 27 | 19 | 15 | 7 |
Each box compares visits to the 5PM NYC guide in that hour with its busiest hour (Friday at 5 PM = 100), New York time, with every week counted equally so one busy week does not tilt the picture.
Share of the 1,114 published deals that include each element. A deal can include more than one.
New York prices its happy hours in round numbers rather than discounts. 89% of published deals name a set price, 14.2% take dollars or a percentage off, and the two-for-one survives on only 2.3% of them.
Does a more expensive menu come with better reviews? We compared drink prices with Google star ratings at the 2,156 bars and restaurants with at least 50 reviews; 1,643 of those also list a cocktail.
Paying more for a drink does not get you a better-rated bar or restaurant. We compared what each establishment charges for a cocktail with its star rating on Google, using the 1,643 establishments that list a cocktail and have at least 50 reviews. Those rated 4.5 stars or higher typically charge $16.00 for a cocktail. Those rated below 4.5 typically charge $16.00. Even the 52 establishments rated under 4 stars charge $16.00. Beer tells the same story: a draft typically costs $9.00 whether the establishment is rated above or below 4.5 stars.
The best-rated establishments sit in the middle of the price range, not at the top. Of those that charge $18 to $19.99 for a cocktail, 59% are rated 4.5 stars or higher. That falls to 45% for those charging under $12, and to 47% for those charging $20 or more. The most expensive establishments are also the most likely to have a poor rating: 16% of them are rated under 4.2 stars, against 7% of those charging $18 to $19.99.
The typical (median) cocktail price at establishments in each rating range. Ranges with fewer than 15 establishments are left out.
The same thing happens inside a single neighborhood. Establishments that charge a little more than their neighbors, $1 to $3 more for a cocktail, are the best rated: 63% have 4.5 stars or higher. Those that charge $3 or more above their neighbors drop to 48%. A small premium goes with great ratings, and a big one does not.
Brooklyn is the best-rated borough: 60% of its establishments have 4.5 stars or higher, and its average rating is 4.49. The Bronx is the lowest, with an average of 4.41. Seven of the eight best-rated neighborhoods are outside Manhattan, and six of the eight have cocktails that cost less than the citywide $16.00.
Good and affordable is not rare. In all, 238 establishments have both cocktails at $15.00 or less and a rating of 4.6 stars or higher. They are easiest to find in Astoria, where 37% of establishments qualify, followed by Bedford-Stuyvesant (35%), Bushwick (27%) and East Village (20%).
| Neighborhood | Avg stars | Rated 4.5+ | Cocktail |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bedford-Stuyvesant Brooklyn | 4.62 | 71% | $15.00 |
| Bay Ridge Brooklyn | 4.55 | 89% | $14.75 |
| Cobble Hill Brooklyn | 4.55 | 72% | $16.00 |
| Astoria Queens | 4.54 | 73% | $14.49 |
| Sunnyside Queens | 4.53 | 75% | $14.00 |
| Park Slope Brooklyn | 4.53 | 68% | $14.00 |
| Lower East Side Manhattan | 4.53 | 63% | $16.00 |
| Prospect Lefferts Gardens Brooklyn | 4.53 | 60% | $15.00 |
Neighborhoods with ten or more rated establishments.
| Borough | Avg stars | Rated 4.5+ | Establishments |
|---|---|---|---|
| Manhattan | 4.45 | 51% | 1,208 |
| Brooklyn | 4.49 | 60% | 546 |
| Queens | 4.42 | 51% | 286 |
| The Bronx | 4.41 | 42% | 60 |
| Staten Island | 4.47 | 61% | 56 |
Star ratings are public Google ratings as of September 2026. Establishments with fewer than 50 reviews are left out.
The same cocktail is a different expense depending on local incomes. Each area's typical cocktail is set against the median household income of the census tracts its bars and restaurants sit in.
Dollar prices say where a drink is expensive for a visitor. Set against the incomes of the people who live around each establishment, the picture changes sharply. We placed each of the 1,680 establishments with a priced cocktail in its census tract and read the tract's median household income from the American Community Survey, then set each area's median cocktail against one day of the median tract income of its establishments. Citywide the figure is 4.3%: a $16.00 cocktail against a median tract income of $134,538 a year, or $369 a day.
Two Bridges is the least affordable neighborhood in the city on this measure: a typical cocktail there is $17.00, which is 17.3% of a day's household income where the median tract income is $35,875. Kingsbridge (11.7%) and Harlem (10.6%) follow. At the other end, DUMBO charges $16.00 where the median tract income is $250,000 or more, so a cocktail is 2.3% of a day's income. The most expensive neighborhoods in dollars sit near the affordable end once income is counted.
By borough, The Bronx is the least affordable at 6.8% of a day's income for a typical cocktail, and Brooklyn the most affordable at 3.8%. Read against each borough's own median household income rather than the tracts the establishments sit in, the gap widens: a typical cocktail is 10.5% of a day's income in The Bronx and 6.0% in Manhattan, because bars and restaurants cluster in the wealthier parts of every borough.
| Neighborhood | Cocktail | Median tract income | Share of a day |
|---|---|---|---|
| Two Bridges Manhattan | $17.00 | $35,875 | 17.3% |
| Kingsbridge The Bronx | $13.50 | $42,228 | 11.7% |
| Harlem Manhattan | $15.50 | $53,424 | 10.6% |
| Stapleton Staten Island | $17.50 | $62,324 | 10.2% |
| Mott Haven The Bronx | $15.00 | $58,083 | 9.4% |
| NoLIta Manhattan | $18.00 | $76,726 | 8.6% |
| Washington Heights Manhattan | $15.50 | $67,512 | 8.4% |
| Morningside Heights Manhattan | $15.75 | $70,461 | 8.2% |
| Flushing Queens | $17.50 | $78,856 | 8.1% |
| Coney Island Brooklyn | $15.50 | $70,950 | 8.0% |
| Neighborhood | Cocktail | Median tract income | Share of a day |
|---|---|---|---|
| DUMBO Brooklyn | $16.00 | $250,000+ | 2.3% |
| Carroll Gardens Brooklyn | $12.50 | $169,375 | 2.7% |
| Cobble Hill Brooklyn | $16.00 | $205,500 | 2.8% |
| Park Slope Brooklyn | $14.50 | $181,756 | 2.9% |
| Financial District Manhattan | $17.00 | $204,310 | 3.0% |
| Flatiron Manhattan | $16.00 | $194,948 | 3.0% |
| Meatpacking District Manhattan | $16.25 | $200,079 | 3.0% |
| Union Square Manhattan | $17.00 | $205,250 | 3.0% |
| Fort Greene Brooklyn | $15.50 | $175,294 | 3.2% |
| NoMad Manhattan | $19.50 | $215,511 | 3.3% |
| Borough | Cocktail, establishments in this analysis | Median income where the establishments are | Share of a day, where the establishments are | Borough household income | Share of a day, borough-wide |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Bronx | $14.00 | $75,679 | 6.8% | $48,676 | 10.5% |
| Queens | $14.00 | $96,806 | 5.3% | $86,136 | 5.9% |
| Staten Island | $13.00 | $99,902 | 4.7% | $98,333 | 4.8% |
| Manhattan | $17.00 | $150,417 | 4.1% | $103,931 | 6.0% |
| Brooklyn | $15.00 | $144,083 | 3.8% | $80,263 | 6.8% |
Income is the median household income of the census tract each establishment sits in, from the ACS 2020-2024 5-year, table B19013 (median household income in the past 12 months, inflation-adjusted dollars). A day's income is the annual figure divided by 365. Neighborhoods with five or more priced cocktail menus and a tract income are shown; each row is its median cocktail divided by one day of the median tract income of the same establishments. The cocktail prices in these tables cover only the establishments that could be placed in a census tract with an income estimate, so they can differ slightly from the borough medians elsewhere in this report. It measures the drink against the incomes around the establishment, not the incomes of its customers, and the figures for the smallest neighborhoods rest on a handful of tracts whose income estimates carry a margin of error. The full method is in the notes at the end.
Shorter findings from the same 109,975 prices: how menus are priced, what a word is worth, and what the same brand costs from borough to borough.
New York does not do $14.99. 93.9% of the 75,026 single-serving drink prices in the dataset end in a whole dollar, 2.1% end in fifty cents, and 1.6% end in .99 or .95. The single most common cocktail price is $16.00, on 14.1% of all listed cocktails, followed by $18.00 and $15.00.
The words on a cocktail list carry prices of their own. Against a median of $16.00 across 21,975 named cocktails, a drink with "Gold", "Smoked" or "Matcha" in its name lists $2.00 higher, and "Espresso", which now appears on 33% of cocktail menus, adds $1.00. Spicy costs nothing extra. Lighter drinks that share the cocktail list sit well under that $16.00: the mimosa ($12.48) and the bellini ($14.00), which are mostly sparkling wine, and the michelada, which is built on beer, at $11.00.
Distance does some of the work that neighborhood names usually get credit for. The median cocktail falls by about $0.38 for every mile from Union Square, from $17.00 within the first mile to $14.25 beyond eight miles. Plenty of establishments break the pattern in both directions, so it is a rule of thumb rather than a law. At the 297 establishments that list both, a non-alcoholic cocktail is priced at a median $10.49 against $16.00 for the cocktail beside it, or 67% of the price.
| On the menu | Cocktail menus | Median | Against all cocktails |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gold | 7.5% | $18.00 | +$2.00 |
| Smoked | 3.2% | $18.00 | +$2.00 |
| Matcha | 3% | $18.00 | +$2.00 |
| Espresso | 33% | $17.00 | +$1.00 |
| Oaxaca | 3.4% | $17.00 | +$1.00 |
| Spritz | 38% | $16.00 | Even |
| Spicy | 14.4% | $16.00 | Even |
| Margarita | 45.1% | $15.00 | −$1.00 |
| Sangria | 23.4% | $14.00 | −$2.00 |
| Bloody Mary | 16.5% | $14.00 | −$2.00 |
| Bellini | 9% | $14.00 | −$2.00 |
| Mimosa | 16.9% | $12.48 | −$3.52 |
| Michelada | 5.8% | $11.00 | −$5.00 |
Menus counts cocktail names that contain the word. The classics in section 5 count each drink by family, so the margarita there can include versions whose names do not use the word, and the two shares differ.
| Brand | NYC median | Manhattan | Brooklyn | Queens | The Bronx | Staten Island |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Guinness, draft | $9.00 | $10.00 | $9.00 | $9.00 | Limited data | Limited data |
| Stella Artois | $8.00 | $9.00 | $8.00 | $7.25 | $8.00 | $7.00 |
| Modelo | $8.00 | $8.00 | $7.00 | $7.00 | $7.00 | Limited data |
| Corona | $8.00 | $8.00 | $7.00 | $7.00 | $8.00 | $6.25 |
| Heineken | $8.00 | $8.00 | $7.00 | $7.00 | $8.00 | $6.75 |
| Montauk | $9.00 | $9.00 | $8.25 | $8.00 | Limited data | Limited data |
| High Noon | $10.00 | $10.00 | $9.00 | $8.98 | Limited data | Limited data |
| Aperol spritz | $15.00 | $16.00 | $14.00 | $14.00 | Limited data | $17.00 |
One median per establishment that lists the brand; a borough is shown with eight or more listings.
Sources. The dataset combines proprietary data held by 5PM NYC with publicly available data. Every price is drawn directly from a menu or an owner submission, tied to the establishment and the month in which it was recorded, and refreshed monthly. A second, automated pass checked each published line against the menu's own text wherever the menu is published as text, and confirmed over 93% of the lines it could check; prices from image and PDF menus were checked when they were collected. Duplicate records of one establishment under a license name and a trading name were merged.
Definitions. Comparisons use the listed price of a single standard serving. Every summary figure is a median rather than an average, so that a few outlier prices, a $200 bottle or a $3 special, cannot pull the summary away from what most menus charge. Happy hour, pitcher, flight, bucket and bottle-service prices are recorded but excluded from medians. Borough and neighborhood figures use one median per establishment so that a long menu does not outweigh a short one. A neighborhood appears in a category only when three or more establishments list a price in it. The middle half is the range between the 25th and 75th percentile of establishment medians.
Limitations. Listed prices are not paid prices; tax, service and specials vary by establishment. Menus change between collections, so a price is dated to the month it was recorded. Neighborhood boundaries follow the 5PM NYC guide.
Price and income. Each establishment with a priced cocktail was placed in its census tract from its coordinates using the Census Bureau geocoder, and the tract's median household income was read from the ACS 2020-2024 5-year, table B19013 (median household income in the past 12 months, inflation-adjusted dollars). A day's income is that annual figure divided by 365. An area's affordability figure is the median cocktail price of its establishments divided by one day of the median tract income of those same establishments, so every row in the tables can be checked from its own columns. Draft beer uses the same method among the 728 establishments with a priced draft beer and a tract income: a $9.00 median draft against a median tract income of $141,549 a year, or 2.3% of a day's income. That group differs from the cocktail group, so its median income does too. Neighborhoods appear with five or more establishments that have both a priced cocktail and a tract income; 1,680 establishments qualified. Two things this does not measure: the incomes of the people who actually drink there, which are unknown, and small-tract noise, since a tract holds about 4,000 people and the survey's income estimate for it carries a margin of error that is wider in tracts with few households or an unusual mix of residents (a tract of public housing beside a waterfront establishment, for example). The borough table also shows the figure against each borough's own median household income, which counts every resident rather than the tracts where bars and restaurants happen to cluster. The survey top-codes tract income at $250,000, shown as "$250,000 or more" ("$250,000+" in the tables).
Ratings and schedules. Star ratings are public Google ratings recorded in September 2026 for 2,239 of the 2,254 establishments. Of those, 2,156 have at least 50 reviews and make up the ratings analysis; the 1,643 of those that list a cocktail are the basis of the cocktail comparisons. Every ratings figure compares the rating with one median price per establishment. Happy hour timing and deal shapes are drawn from the 1,070 happy hours with posted times in the 5PM NYC guide.
How to cite. 5PM NYC, "The 5PM Barometer Report: NYC Drink Prices, Fall 2026", published October 19, 2026, 5pm.nyc/Fall-2026-Report. Questions and requests for neighborhood cuts: data@5pm.nyc.
| Borough | Menus | Share | Publish a happy hour |
|---|---|---|---|
| Manhattan | 1,260 | 56% | 29% |
| Brooklyn | 578 | 26% | 25% |
| Queens | 295 | 13% | 17% |
| The Bronx | 63 | 3% | 16% |
| Staten Island | 58 | 3% | 12% |
| New York City | 2,254 | 100% | 26% |
This report is the citywide summary. The 5PM Barometer puts the full dataset behind this report to work for you, with location-specific pricing insights and tools built on all 109,975 prices and updated monthly.
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