If you’ve got an extra $15: Drink and Dessert
City Winery
Barrels in the basement at City Winery
City Winery is the only winery within Manhattan, and like beer comes straight from the keg, you can get wine here straight from a barrel in the basement. The house wine on tap costs around $10, depending on the vintage, and there’s both red and white. Ask the bartender for a recommendation if you’re not sure what to order.
Mariebelle Sweets
Mariebelle Sweets specializes in artisan chocolates, truffles, ganache: I delight in just saying the names, much less eating them.
I lived in England, so I know the value of a good cup of tea, but in the Tea Salon at Mariebelle I bypass it for the thick, slightly spicy Aztec hot chocolate. It’s made not from the powder — the residue of the bean — but from the actual cocoa bean.