Apotheke NoMad is the second location from the team behind the original Chinatown Apotheke, and it expanded the concept across two levels on West 26th Street. The basement has a rose marble bar and a staircase lined with hundreds of dried herbs and wildflowers. The penthouse lounge upstairs has floor-to-ceiling stained-glass windows overlooking Madison Square Park, which is a view that changes what you think a cocktail bar can offer.

Mixologist Nicolas O'Connor runs the botanical cocktail program. The drinks are garden-to-glass and ingredient-forward, with names like Clouds of Gold, After Today, and North of Madison Punch. The apothecary theme that made the Chinatown location distinctive carries here but with more space and a different kind of light.

The two-level format means the experience differs depending on where you sit. The basement is a proper dark cocktail room. The penthouse is something else entirely, particularly at dusk.