Best Bar If You’re Stuck on the Upper East Side

Going above 14th Street is an unpopular nightlife move in New Yorkworse, hanging out on the Upper East Side is essentially social suicide. That said, there’s a great bar on East 89th Street that houses nearly none of the frat boys that are drawn to places like Brother Jimmy’s, Tin Lizzie, and Dorrian’s. Auction House looks expensivefireplaces, red-velvet drapes, long mahogany bars, and suggestive oil paintingsbut in an authentically shabby Miss Havisham sort of way: The whole place feels inexplicably ruined somehow. It’s definitely not a pick-up place, but if you happen to be with someone whose conversation you enjoy, you could do a lot worse.