Neighborhood
New York went all in on hi-fi bars, the Tokyo-style rooms where a vinyl selector and a wall of vintage speakers matter more than the cocktail list. Here are the ones worth your ears.
Twenty-five shops across four boroughs where the staff picks are sharp, the readings are free and nobody minds if you browse for an hour and buy one paperback.
The big summer stages, the no-cover bars that run every night of the year, and the in-stores and atriums where rising artists play for nothing. Your wallet can stay home.
A red room above an East Village bar, a poetry church turning sixty, a Crown Heights bar that books future prize winners. The best readings in the city, most of them free.
