Martiny’s

A Union Square Bar That Keeps Climbing the Rankings

Martiny's is a bar at 121 East 17th Street in New York City, ranked #15 in North America's 50 Best Bars in 2025 and known for a smart-casual, reservation-recommended experience. Martiny's, at 121 East 17th Street in the Union Square corridor, has done exactly that: ranked #68 globally in 2023, it moved to #24 in 2024, then settled at #75 globally in 2025 while simultaneously reaching #15 in the North America-specific ranking, a regional position that places it inside the continent's top tier. That kind of trajectory is more telling than a single-year placement. It suggests a program with consistent operational depth rather than a one-season moment.

For context, North America's bar scene in 2025 is fiercely competitive. Bars like Kumiko in Chicago, Bar Leather Apron in Honolulu, Jewel of the South in New Orleans, Julep in Houston, and ABV in San Francisco anchor that list from their respective cities. A #15 North American ranking from a Manhattan address, where competition density is arguably highest, carries weight. The 2025 accolades underscore its standing.

The Wine Angle in a Cocktail Bar Context

The editorial angle worth pressing here is the wine program. In Manhattan, bars that build genuine credibility as wine destinations alongside a cocktail identity occupy a specific and not particularly crowded niche. The broader New York cocktail scene has, for the better part of two decades, organized itself around technique-forward programs: clarified drinks, house ferments, aged spirits, and rotating seasonal menus. What gets less attention is how a bar handles its still wine selection, and whether that selection is curated with the same rigor applied to the back bar.

Martiny's operates in Union Square, a part of Manhattan where the dining-and-drinking ecosystem skews toward a more wine-literate crowd. The neighborhood has historically attracted guests who move between serious restaurant tables and serious bar seats in the same evening. That context creates demand for a cellar program that can hold its own against nearby restaurant wine lists, not merely offer a functional afterthought of by-the-glass options.

Its position on East 17th Street places it within walking distance of nearby dining destinations. That positioning, bar-with-serious-wine rather than bar-that-also-has-wine, is precisely the niche that a venue aiming for sustained 50 Best relevance would need to occupy to differentiate from New York's purely cocktail-forward programs.

Where Martiny's Sits in the New York Bar Conversation

Manhattan's bar ecosystem, at the upper end, has fragmented into several distinct clusters. There are the technically-obsessed cocktail programs, represented locally by venues like Attaboy NYC and Amor y Amargo, the latter of which built its reputation on bitters-driven drink making and a deliberate narrowing of format. There are the atmosphere-first rooms like Angel's Share, which trades on discretion and a Japanese-influenced cocktail vocabulary. And there are newer operations like Superbueno, which approach the cocktail bar through a cuisine-linked lens.

Martiny's sits in a different register from all of these. Its address and award profile suggest a bar that functions as a destination for guests who treat drinking seriously. That is a harder position to build and hold than a high-concept program with obvious Instagram traction. The sustained 50 Best presence across 2023, 2024, and 2025 indicates the bar has held that position without needing to reinvent its identity each season.

Internationally, the comparison set is also instructive. Allegory in Washington, D.C. and The Parlour in Frankfurt on the Main represent the kind of bar programs that pursue similar credentialing paths, multiple award bodies, sustained critical attention, and a format that rewards repeat visits rather than one-time spectacle. Martiny's belongs to that international cohort, which is precisely why its 2025 global ranking of #75, read alongside its #15 North American position, reflects where in the world the bar's reputation carries most weight.

What the Rankings Imply About the Experience

The 50 Best system evaluates bars through an academy of drinks professionals, journalists, and bar industry figures. A bar does not accumulate three consecutive years of placement across three separate ranking bodies without a program that holds up under repeated professional scrutiny. The jump from #68 globally in 2023 to #24 in 2024 was striking.

The 2025 recalibration to #75 globally with a simultaneous #15 North American placement is consistent with how regional voting strength operates within the 50 Best system. A bar with concentrated North American support among the voting academy can place high regionally while the global number reflects a different distribution of votes. Neither figure is a decline in real terms; the regional number is arguably more useful for a guest planning a trip.