The Portrait Bar

The Portrait Bar is the bar of The Fifth Avenue Hotel, on West 28th Street in NoMad, and it belongs to the current wave of New York hotel bars that are genuinely destinations rather than amenities. The room is maximalist — densely patterned, richly upholstered, hung with portraits — and it commits to that register rather than hedging toward neutral hotel taste.

It is in this guide because it won its category at the inaugural NYC's Best Bars for NA Awards, judged in 2025 and covered by Time Out, which described an intimate maximalist setting matched with a confident non-alcoholic list.

Hotel bars are exactly where that recognition is hardest to earn. They serve a captive, transient audience, which historically has meant zero-proof options existed as a box to tick: a virgin mojito, something with cranberry, and a shrug. A hotel bar that has been externally judged to have a confident NA list is one that decided its non-drinking guests were worth the same attention as everyone else — and for a traveller, who has far less ability to research alternatives than a local does, that is disproportionately valuable. If you are staying in Midtown or NoMad and not drinking, this is the room that will not make the evening awkward.

The usual clarity applies: The Portrait Bar is a full cocktail bar and serves alcohol. It is listed here for the quality of what it will pour you if you are not drinking, not as an alcohol-free space.

Hours are strong. It opens at 5pm every day and runs to 1am Sunday through Thursday, stretching to 2am on Friday and Saturday. NoMad puts it within walking distance of Clemente Bar in the Flatiron and the Hotel Chelsea's Lobby Bar a little to the west, which makes a genuinely good non-drinking evening possible across three rooms without needing a train.