Bo Peep is in the Garment District on West 36th Street, beneath The Ragtrader, and it runs with a specific kind of energy that sets it apart from most cocktail bars. The room has antique lamps, plush banquettes, and a piano that starts around five-thirty every evening. By eight-thirty the sets shift to something louder and more participatory. The servers perform. The crowd sings along. There is a ten dollar music charge.

The drinks are proper: handcrafted cocktails, highballs, stirred classics, a wine list, zero-proof options. The gluten-free pizza and mini ceviche tacos are the food items that keep getting mentioned. But the reason most people come is the live music and the particular atmosphere of a subterranean room that wants you to enjoy yourself loudly.

If you want a quiet cocktail, Bo Peep is not the right choice. If you want to be in a basement in Midtown at nine on a Friday night singing along to something you know, it's very much the right choice.