Sip in Style at NYC's Legendary Blue Bar in the Algonquin Hotel
New York City’s most fabled watering hole is the Blue Bar, the historic blue-lit lounge inside the 122 year old Algonquin Hotel.
The bar opened at the demise of Prohibition in 1933, and quickly became the favorite spot for a group of sharp-tongued literati that included the celebrated poet and writer Dorothy Parker, known for her sharp wit one- liners, that had a circle of friends whose barbed wit was fueled by alcohol.
The story goes that the great actor John Barrymore told the general manager that actors looked their best under blue lighting, so blue gels were added to the fixtures.
In the 1950s Mike Nichols and Elaine May would meet there and in the 70’s it became “the Bar” for the Saturday Night Live writers.
It was also a hideout for James Dean, Harpo Marx Tallulah Bankhead and Harold Ross, the founder of the New Yorker magazine.
Today this upscale, historically significant bar with the pervasive blue glow, is famous for its $10,000 martini that comes with a diamond ring.
So if you’re ever in Midtown Manhattan near Times Square and you have an extra ten grand…
David Garland Mar 21, 2026 Bars History
Mar 21, 2026
SHARE
