Walking through Lower Manhattan on a Friday in spring, it’s easy to feel like a salmon swimming upstream; maneuvering through the overflow of patrons who spill out from various Lower Manhattan wine bars and crowd on sidewalks with half-full glasses in one hand and half-drunk bottles in the other. When pioneers of the early natural wine movement like Ruffian and The Ten Bells planted their roots in Lower Manhattan in the early 2000s, few could have predicted how profoundly the neighborhood—and its tastes—would change. 

Nearly twenty years later, the area has undergone a stark transformation. New wine-forward spots seem to crop up every month, each offering a slightly different take on the archetype that inspired them. The result is a dining scene that is as vibrant as the culture of Lower Manhattan itself: diasporic, diverse, and changing.  On any given block, it’s easy to find new-wave haunts nestled next to enduring culinary landmarks; bold red wines being poured beside zippy whites; sommeliers who are just as knowledgeable about Super Tuscans as they are about wines from Tbilisi. A landscape defined, in part, by its constant change, Lower Manhattan’s tradition as the city’s most influential hub for wine and the culture that surrounds it endures. 

Here are a few of our favorites.

The Best Lower Manhattan Wine Bars

Cellar 36

Located in the noisy neighborhood of Two Bridges—a few blocks wedged between the Manhattan and Brooklyn bridges–Cellar 36 is unassuming and a bit hard to get to. Yet it's entirely worth seeking out. Just look for the group of people gathered out front sipping from short glasses and smoking cigarettes on the wide sidewalk. Once you make your way inside, the space is small and dimly lit. Its exposed brick walls are lined with empty wine bottles, each marked with the label from one or another notable natural-winemaker. Cellar 36 offers what may be the most authentically European wine bar experience in the city—wonderful without trying too hard. It’s a place that simply serves excellent natural wines at fair prices, alongside a short, sharply curated menu of seasonal small plates that let their ingredients speak for themselves. The energy throughout hums with the spirit of the neighborhood: loud, a little chaotic, unapologetically casual, and effortlessly cool. 

Wildair

If you’re looking for proof of the staying power of natural wine in Lower Manhattan, Wildair offers a compelling case. When it opened in 2015, it was seen as the casual, younger sibling to Contra, the more formal tasting-menu restaurant next door. But while Contra has since closed, rebranded, and reopened under a new name, Wildair has remained remarkably consistent. After nearly a decade, it continues to serve new-wave wine and small plates in the same casual-but-refined way that first made it a downtown favorite. In that time, Wildair has truly carved out a category of its own—somewhere between wine bar and restaurant, upscale and laid back, smart but not self-serious. It’s the kind of place where you can just as easily go for a nice dinner as you can drop in for a spontaneous glass or linger over bread and cheese. And, with wines both by the glass and by the bottle rotate regularly–it’s easy to go multiple times in the same week and never have the same wine twice. A mainstay on their menu is Wildair’s own cuveé, made in partnership with Domaine Mosse, a bright, zippy red blend from Anjou. 

L’Accolade

An unfussy and profoundly French wine bar in the West Village, L’Accolade is the sibling to La Parenthèse, a much-beloved spot in Marseille.. This New York outpost carries a breezy, coastal spirit that feels completely disparate from the busy street on which it’s located. The space is run by a tight-knit crew of French expats who bring a unique approach to hospitality that borders on chaos.  They’ll move furniture to make space for you; they’ll let you try wines until you find one you like; they’ll yell at each other in French if it means getting you better service. It’s all in the spirit of making you feel especially welcome, as if the food and wine weren’t reason enough to stay. 

The menu leans seafood-forward and seasonal, while the wine list is one of the most thoughtfully curated in all of Lower Manhattan. Despite the French fondness for their own terroir, L’Accolade’s list spans continents, focusing on low intervention producers which are poured without pretense. A nod to their roots in Marseille, L’Accolade’s selection of wines from southeast France is particularly compelling with many noteworthy bottles like a 1998 Chateau St. Anne Bandol and 2018 Philippe Pacalet from Cornas. 

Sunn’s

If a prerequisite of the wine bar is offering a list of small bites, then Sunn’s is reshaping our understanding of what this looks like. Serving Korean banchan and natural wine, Sunn's swaps bread and butter for home-style cooking. The result is wonderful, soulful, intimate, and a complete departure from many of today’s wine bars. 

Located in a cozy, if not slightly cramped, space in Dimes Square, Sunn’s is the permanent outpost of the pop-up of the same name run by Chef Sunny Lee. Lee worked for years in restaurants all over the world before opening Sunn’s in early 2025. Fortuitously located next to Parcelle, Lee has teamed up with its former proprietor and wine star, Grant Reynolds, to curate a wine list that is as varied and personal as the food, without being overwhelming (the list’s brevity, in this case, is part of its charm). Wines by the glass are limited to one red, one white, one orange and a special pour which changes regularly, alongside a catalogue of about 30 options by the bottle if you’re coming with a small group. If this is the case, you’ll have to make a reservation far ahead of time or stand in line before the restaurant opens to get one of their few coveted tables set aside for walk-ins. 

Il Posto Accanto

Il Posto is a true New York institution–uncompromising, personal, unchanging. Marked beneath some of their menu items, you might find disclaimers such as “NO PARMIGIANO ALLOWED PLEASE DON’T ASK,” or serving suggestions coupled with anecdotes from the owner’s time in Italy. It’s equal parts friendly and rude—a sweet spot familiar to any New Yorker. 

Come for the food but stay for the amazing wine list, which leans classic and offers a ton of bold reds from across Italy, Bordeaux and Burgundy. Wines are fairly priced, but if you’re looking for something special, ask for Gabrio's Selection, curated from the personal cellar of one of the original owners. There you’ll find bottles like a 2004 Château Rayas Châteauneuf Du Pape Réserve, 2014 Les Tourelles de Longueville Château Pichon Pauillac, as well as Pinot Noirs from Argentina and blends from Lebanon that will truly blow your mind. 

Demo

Demo is named for Father Demo Square, the small triangular park at the intersection of Carmine and 6th Avenue that divides Greenwich Village from the West Village. But stepping into Demo feels less like stepping into a new neighborhood and distinctly like stepping into a new world. The space, long and lean, equipped with two bars and a neat row of mid-century modern tables, offers an upscale, bordering-on-flashy approach to classic fare. Crabs casino and lobster au poivre are just two of the entrees that hearken back to the lost opulence of 1920s New York. The wine list, which boasts over 400 labels and over a dozen offerings by the glass on a given night, is also a medley of old and new worlds. Their wines are exclusively natural and are sourced from cult-producers, like Le Coste, Le Briseau and Olivier Cousin, as well as new-on-the-scene domaines including La Rural and Lamoresca. 

Lai Rai

Prompted by the early success of places like Paris’s Folderol, wine-and-ice-cream-bars have started appearing in cities all over the world. Lai Rai, a narrow, unabashedly trendy spot on the edge of Chinatown, this style of dining to New York. Serving natural wine and homemade ice cream seven nights a week, their wine list focuses on small, low intervention producers while their ice cream (as well as savory options) are inspired by traditional Vietnamese flavors. 

Lai Rai boasts menu options like creamy avocado and Vietnamese coffee to pair with wine from Burgundy, Emilia-Romagna and regions from across eastern Europe. Or opt for a glass of soju from their highly curated list of new-wave producers such as Sông Cái from Vietnam or Hana Makgeolli, which is distilled in Brooklyn. A modern approach to classic fare, an evening at Lai Rai is at once nostalgic and completely one-of-a-kind. 

Chambers 

Chambers, the eponymous bar of the legendary Chambers Street Wine located on the street of the same name in Tribeca, is unsurprisingly excellent. But don’t let their reputation, nor their sleek interior and sophisticated, French-inspired plates fool you. There’s something for everyone here. How could there not be when the wine list clocks in at around 1,000 different bottles? 

Master Sommelier Pascaline Lepeltier has built a wine program with wonder and affordability in mind, curating a selection with remarkable range that leans into natural and organic wines, without excluding many other worthwhile options. Bottles start at just $39, but go for one of their higher-end, harder-to-come-by options, like a 1990 Pommard from Marquis d’Angerville or 1997 Edmunds St. John Syrah. Still, whether you’re new to wine or an industry veteran it’s always worth a visit to Chambers, which has cemented itself as a landmark institution.