The River is at 102 Bayard Street in Chinatown, a collaboration between fashion designer Emily Bode and Green River Projects that opened with enough curatorial intentionality that it functions as a bar and as an expression of a particular aesthetic sensibility at the same time. The room is moody and intimate, suited for chess or a long conversation or a date where neither person wants to shout.

Cocktails are priced around sixteen dollars and run classic and straightforward. Ranch Water is tequila, lime, and club soda. River Water goes vodka, absinthe, lemon, and club soda. The natural wine list gets more attention than the cocktails from some regulars. Open every day from six until two in the morning.

Bayard Street sits between a Chinatown that's been changing for decades and a neighborhood that hasn't quite found its identity on maps. The River doesn't try to resolve that ambiguity; it just exists in it.