HiLot is on Loisaida Avenue in the East Village, opened in December 2022 by the team behind Joyface. To get in you ring a doorbell. The room behind it has the feel of a 1970s living room: plaid carpets, mirrored ceiling, fringed lamps, sofas, low lighting. The Infatuation reviewed it as the kind of East Village bar you go to when you want to be out without being packed in next to everyone else.

The cocktails are well-made and the Old Fashioned is frequently cited as the standout. There's also a private room somewhere in the space that gets mentioned on TikTok in the way hidden rooms tend to. The bar runs Tuesday through Saturday starting at five.

It's a bar that took the speakeasy format, stripped away the historical dressing, and replaced it with a specific aesthetic comfort: the feeling of being in someone's apartment who has better taste than you do and keeps good booze.