Death and Company opened on New Year's Eve 2006 in the East Village and spent the next decade being cited by every bartender worth listening to as one of the places that changed what American cocktail bars could be. It won Best American Cocktail Bar and World's Best Cocktail Menu at the Tales of the Cocktail Spirited Awards in 2010, and it has remained on the World's 50 Best Bars list consistently since.

The room is small and serious. Exposed brick, low-slung tables, a marble bar with bartenders in bow ties and suspenders. The cocktail menu changes twice a year and mixes originals with refined classics. They've published influential books, including "Cocktail Codex," that have become standard references in the industry.

The bar has since expanded to Denver, Los Angeles, and Washington D.C., but the East Village flagship on 6th Street remains the original and the one that still feels like the point of the whole operation. Hours run from six in the evening, Thursday through Saturday until two in the morning.