Zinc Bar is on West 3rd Street in Greenwich Village, underground, in a room that was the Cinderella Club from the 1930s through the 1950s. Thelonious Monk was the house pianist here. Billie Holiday performed here. The place has actual jazz history baked into the physical space.

The bar keeps a classic Parisian zinc counter and programs live music almost every night: jazz, Latin jazz, Argentine tango on Sundays, African and Brazilian sets, Japanese music. Comedy comes through sometimes. It's a working jazz club that also happens to serve good cocktails and beer, rather than a cocktail bar that plays music at a distance.

The combination of a historically significant room with a current nightly music program makes Zinc Bar something that most speakeasies that came after it are still trying to approximate.