Madame George is a subterranean lounge at 45 West 45th Street in Midtown, from the team behind Valerie, the gin bar next door. The cocktail menu is organized around New York City history: categories named Subways and Coney Island, drinks that reference specific periods and neighborhoods in the city's past. The menu flips annually, so what's on it reflects a moving editorial point of view rather than a fixed list.

The room is 4,400 square feet of low-lit seating designed for settling into. Live jazz runs Tuesday through Saturday, and the combination of historically-rooted cocktails and genuine live music gives the space more substance than the average Midtown bar.

Named for Van Morrison's song of the same name, which is about leaving and remembering something you can't quite describe. The bar leans into the same quality of accumulated feeling.